OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield Tractor 11 steering

Anyone played with the steering on these models? Specifically the set up which appears to run two cast alloy gears, one horizontally, one vertically.

I have had to pull my ride on to bits once again and it is about the only part I haven't changed or had apart. I thought while I was in there I would change them.

Are the gears sold with the shaft or do the gears come apart from the shaft?

aldot, the parts list shows the shafts with the gears in place, and the only part numbers are for the whole thing. For model 11 the horizontal steering shaft shows as part number GT962 and the vertical steering shaft shows as part number GT963. However you should check with Greenfield. Are you sure you need to replace them? If there are backlash issues, you should be sure you have replaced the nylon bushes before you condemn the gears as worn out. If the bushes are loose, the gears will not mesh properly.

Hi Grumpy. It was more wondering if the gears separate off the shafts. There is a small amount of play in the bushes, I would say half a mm front to back in the horizontal shaft bushes. The gears are quite worn but still work. The main problem is that the horizontal gear touches the back of the engine block on full lock. I had a look at the old motor and it has the same rub marks. The previous owner didn't bother to rectify it. Funnily enough a deep gouge developing in an alloy engine case concerns me.

It would appear the deck has to be dropped to remove the vertical shaft.

For all the effort of removing the engine and deck I'm thinking if the parts are not expensive, you would replace the gears when doing the bushes.

I took the mower for a run on Saturday and it cut through 40cm grass nicely and the new engine ran a treat so I guess a few more dollars is with it.

aldot, I can't tell for sure from the parts list whether the gears can be removed from the shafts, but they would normally be shown separately, and have part numbers, if they are sold separately. That makes me think it is similar to the rear axle: you have to buy the whole thing. However contacting Greenfield or one of their dealers is probably the only way to tell. I understand the rear axle is quite expensive, so the steering shafts may be also.

It should be possible to make a stop to prevent the gear gouging the crankcase, but of course it is nice to have things work like new if you can.

I think in this case, your best bet would be to contact your Greenfield agent and have a talk to them.
The gears may be available separately now and could save you some dollars in the process if this is the case.
We have to remember that a lot of these parts lists are old now and things do tend to change.
Some part numbers change, some new improved parts or repair kits become available and are not listed on the old lists.
I have found this out personally and tend to use these old parts lists as a guide only.

Hi Murray. I ended up getting a new horizontal shaft for the steering. I used the original vertical shaft as I simply turned the shaft 180 degrees and the teeth on that side of the gear were fine. They mesh nicely with the new gears. Hopefully anothe 30 odd years left in her.

Here are some pics hopefully they help someone.

Here is a shot of the flogged horizontal shaft gears. The fellow I bought it off said he awlays kept the grease up to this area as it helps it steer?? When I got it home I noticed the steering was a bit heavy so I Inoxed some of the linkages and greased the steering shaft through the nipple and it worked fine. Seems the fella could be bothered accessing the nipple behind the engine.



Picture of the new shaft and the flogged one



Unfortunately the new shaft had a larger hole for the tie rod end. I thought for a nanosecond about bushing it but bought a new tie rod end to suit.



The old one proved a bit tricky to get off as it simply rotated in its housing so I cut a groove in the screw and used a flat blad to hold it while I removed the nut.



The comparo of the old and new tie rod ends, the new one being the bigger diameter



The new shaft went in nicely







As Grumpy said the bushes could be worn which one was so I went to get some newies. They were $20 EACH!!!!

Flogged one and one I reused







The new gear set still touched the back of the engine so instead of fiddling I cut about 3mm off with the grinder. It doesn't cause any structural issues but I just didnt want things going astray if I had left it and adjusted it to miss then hit something with the front wheel and have it puch a hole through the back of the engine casing. Now it can't hit at all and isn't a section used for steering.



The new tie rod is much larger than the old and it came into contact with the chassis so I had to space it out a touch with a few washers, easier than cutting it down I thought.



Just a few randoms

Using a holder of some sort in the shaft helps to reduce carnage when you release the tension pulley. I'm sure there is an easy way to do this but I have yet to figure it out.



A few extra washers to move a shaft out of its wear area to reduce any pedal slop

Used an R clip on the drive pedal to help with oil changes and reusing split pins



Freshened up the electrics while I was there



Cheers

That is coming along nicely aldot - you'll soon have it at least as good as new if you keep finding the worn areas like that.

I'm glad you put that washer under the Jesus clip (R clip). I made the mistake of not doing so with some much bigger clips on the spring bars of a load-equalising trailer hitch once: with the rotation of the bars when turning corners, the clip was soon sprung and ejected, leaving the spring bar disconnected and flopping around in the breeze. A nasty surprise the first time I stopped for petrol.

Excellent pictures by the way. There is one small refinement that would make them even better: if you attach them using the fifth icon in the "Quick Reply" bar (the thing like a spray can with a blue up-arrow) you'll save messing about with Photobucket, and you'll save me coming along afterward and localising them all. However I'm so glad to have the pics, the effort to localise them is trivial by comparison. Well done.

it looks very similar to my tractor 8 steering.
Great photos. Thanks it is going to be very handy.