OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield Drive Problem

Thanks again all,
Grumpy yes it rolls very easy when motor is off forward and back. The belt I got from a Greenfield dealer and gave him the code of the mower and looking at the thickness is the same as the other 2 old ones I have and is very tight with still some room on the sliding pulley adjustment for more tightening.

Also you thought I mentioned this problem happens cold or hot but It doesn't seem to happen at first. The first 2 or 3 climbs it can climb well then it gets up about half way and stops dead with no wheels turning and motor still running perfect. If I leave it and mow the flat for a minute and go back to it, it climbs up well again another once or twice and then happens again and sticks in forward gear and wont roll back down until I tap the pedal in reverse and it clunks off and releases.

Another thing I notice is if I lower the power down and drop the revs it seems to help to climb a bit better when it starts happening.

There is no oil around the clutch and the pedal system to the clutch all seems tight and operating very well and responsive. When motor is off it rolls very easy forward and back and when I hit the pedal forward or back its like hitting the brake and stops dead but from only free rolling that probably doesn't mean much.

aussie, I'll explain my current theory of what may be wrong. The clutch facings wear, and the pedal has to move further to engage the drive. The forward clutch usually wears much more than the reverse clutch, because it is used more. The new (E2000) linkage type may have less effective movement than the older type, and unlike the older type, it no longer has a linkage adjustment. I'm guessing that your forward clutch has worn enough so that it requires adjustment. It would be possible to dismantle the whole clutch axle and change the shims, but I'm guessing that you may be able to just use a simple adjustment and avoid doing the whole rebuild job until the clutch facing is worn considerably more than it is so far.

On the clutch shaft that runs laterally across the chassis, at each side of the stack of clutches, there is a hexagonal nut which sets the positions of the fixed (outer) clutch plates. If the forward clutch facing is worn too far for the linkage to cope, the position of the fixed plate can be reset by tightening the nut on that side slightly. I suspect this is what a dealer would do to fix your problem. It is important to adjust the nut on the same side as the forward clutch: do not allow the nut on the reverse clutch side to turn. This means you have to hold the clutch plate, to keep the shaft from turning when you tighten the nut. I suggest you only adjust it about 30 degrees, then retry the mower. If it helps, but the pedal still moves further than it does in the reverse direction, adjust the nut a bit further.



The picture shows Deadly Dave adjusting his clutch pack. He did it on the bench - you would do it with the clutch shaft still installed in the chassis.

If my theory is correct, the reason you get more drive from a cold start, and the reason you get more drive when you slow down the engine, is explained in one of my previous posts: when a clutch plate gets hot, it slips. Your forward clutch gets very hot when it slips, and that makes it slip a lot more.

Thanks Grumpy and might I say from knowing very little about how this mower functions, since being on this forum and the help I have had I now have so much better understanding so thanks to you and all for giving me your time and patience on here.

Now the mower. I tried to tighten the nut you are talking about but it seems to not want to go. Looking at the whole assembly to enable it to adjust further something would have to make room on the other side ie the same nut on the other end for the reverse. For that cluth plate to be secure something must be also keeping it secure on the other side somewhere to keep it fixed not allowing me to tight and move the plate in if you know what I mean.

Could It be that you cannot adjust anything, the linkages, cluth or any of it? Is it just all fixed so that when the cork wears so far down that's it and you have to put new cork on so it cannot be adjusted to allow wear right down to metal and cause damage maybe?

aussie, the width between the two clutch plates and the nuts that locate them, is set by a series of parts across the center, including some shims. I suggest you take another look at this thread:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=21336&page=1
In that thread aldot and Murray both talk about adjusting the clutch plate clearance by using the nuts at the sides of the clutch pack. aldot says the washers in that area are crushable, so you need to tighten the nuts just the right amount to get the proper clutch plate clearance. Murray seems to be saying that his washers are crushed further than he wants them to be, so he is now using loctite on the thread of the adjusting nut to hold it in the position he requires.
I haven't seen one of these clutch packs, and the Greenfield parts list doesn't show how it works. I think we need aldot, Murray or Deadly Dave to clarify the position for us both. If my reading of that other thread is correct, you just need to apply more torque to that nut to crush your washer stack and get the correct clutch adjustment. You would need to end up only moving the nut on the forward clutch side, not the other (reverse clutch) nut. Let's see if one of the experienced guys can clear this up for us.

Hi Grumpy I assume when you say "crushing washers" you mean compressing a type of spring that applies pressure but will allow to compress in to adjust against it?

Hopefully one of the guys you mentioned will help us on this but if not It seems quite simple to remove the clutch assembly and take a look in there and thanks the progress from you and this forum I've made, I feel I can put new corks on the clutch when needed.

Hi fellas. I initially thought they may have be en crush washers but they are not. I disassembled my clutch pack and re-shimmed it through three goes to get something I was happy with. Unfortunately I didn't photograph it.

I purchased six shims which I will measure up and photograph this evening. At a guess, two were 1mm and four were 0.5mm. The previous service person over tightened these as they had heavy indentations of the square drive centre pressed into them.

I set the shims up to the desired thickness then once the drive assembly was done I rolled it on the floor while holding the main shaft. If I could not overcome the force of drag it was too tight. I finished off the two hex nuts with a dab of medium strength locktite.

As you roll the shaft on the floor, preferably carpet or rubber mat so the large outer wheels get some purchase, you should be able to hold the centre shaft from spinning. If the inner clutch plates are to tight the shaft in your hands will spin as there is too much drag to overcome. I found that I did want some amount of drag but not simply free wheeling as then you would have too much pedal free play.

I'll try and get some pics.

Thanks aldot. Any details you can provide would be very useful to other Greenfield owners: so far we don't have anything on clutch adjustment posted, so a set of instructions would be a valuable complement to the existing threads on removing and replacing the clutch axle. aussie, it looks as if you will have to take out the clutch axle and follow aldot's about-to-become-a-procedure to adjust your clutch. Depending on whether you hate doing that and don't want to do it again for a decade, or you don't really mind doing it, you might or might not replace the clutch facing material on the forward clutch while you have it apart. Sorry about that, I was relying on there being crushable washers to avoid you having to take it apart. Looking on the bright side though, you might be able to supply pictures as you go along, and test aldot's procedure as well. Every post a winner, the true spirit of Outdoorking!

No problem Grumpy now that I understand what I'm dealing with and have the confidence not only with myself but the support on this forum I'm actually quite excited about going in and operating.

I will let you know how I go and give some information and pics if you like for other Greenfield owners on the forum.

If I do decide to put new cork on would you say to remove the old ones to use something like a wire brush after the bulk of it is off? I don't want to gouge or damage the disc it attaches to with heavy scraping or anything like that.

Maybe if Aldot or anyone else who has changed and removed the old corks and replaced with new ones could advise me on it,it would be much appreciated.

Please go ahead with pictures and explanation of what you do Geoff, especially when it comes to setting up the shim stack so that you get the right amount of clutch clearance. That should complement aldot's explanation that he is going to supply. He didn't need to replace his clutch facings, but Murray did, and has posted something about how he did it in this thread:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=20076&page=2

He explained how he removed the old facing with a knife, then softened the glue with petrol and wiped it off, so there wasn't much risk of damaging the disk.

Hi Aussie. Same problem here. I'm pretty certain that one of the clutch springs have gone. Mine gets stuck in forward and reverse. I can actually see the clutch plates staying to one side. One is trying to drive one way and one the other as they are both trying to drive at once. Gunna pull mine apart and replace the springs etc and coat the axle with graphite. not oil as it'll attract the dust. I replaced the clutches about a year ago and am now kicking myself for being so stingy as not to replace the springs as well. My Evolution 2000 is now 18 years old and still goes perfectly otherwise with 800 hours on the clock. Had to "find" a starter for it though. They are no longer available. Hope this helps.
Bussy

Hi Bussy, and welcome to Outdoorking.

Please take pictures as you assemble the center of your Greenfield clutch and adjust the clearances, as well as writing an explanation of how you do it. Note aldot reported that it took him three tries to get the right shim thickness to achieve a clutch clearance that worked well. If you measure the clearances (both disks to both friction liners) at each attempt, you can tell us what clearances are needed, so in future people will read this thread and won't need three tries.

With out wanting to sound like a farmers son, fencing wire and pliers in hand;


Could the friction plates be adjusted across on the axle so that you got more fwd drive and less reverse??? Not as a fix but for the purpose of diagnosis.

Could you get more movement to the clutch by allowing more movement at the pedal via the linkage??? I realise this will give a bigger gap between fwd and reverse.
Reading through the thread (quickly) i was wondering if the linkage was binding or hitting some sort of stop in the fwd driection and that was effecting clutch engagement.
But i assume that deviates from how its meant to work, Correctly.


Pictures and explanations please, Very intersted to know more about how these drive systems work.

My old greenfield has no drive, either way. I think its something to do with the fact that the pedal is rusted to its piviot and the linkage will only move as much as the pedal post will flex.

Bob, you can get some background on the Greenfield clutch from this thread:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=21336&page=2

It is mounted on a square shaft: the center sliding part of the clutch (which drives the axle) can be pushed either right or left (forward or reverse) by the pedal mechanism to engage either the forward-spinning or rearward-spinning V belt pulley, but is fully floating unless pushed one way by a spring or the pedal mechanism. The pedal linkage differed greatly between models, but if the total clearance across the center of the clutch, inside the two large V pulleys on the outside, is not very close to the correct value, the clutch will not work properly. On some models it even seems to go overcenter and lock into forward or reverse drive. The only cure is to have the correct plate clearance, which is determined by the shim stack which sets the separation between the two large V belt pulleys, in conjunction with the thickness of the linings on the two sides of the center part of the clutch. As the linings wear down, the linkage runs out of efficient movement, and you have to either replace the linings, or reduce the shim stack, to bring the clearance back to what it has to be. That requires pulling out the complete main shaft (the one that carries both clutches and is square in its center section), dismantling it on the bench, then reassembling it with a reduced shim stack, which allows the large nuts on the two sides of the shaft to push the large V belt pulleys in closer to each other.

So far no one here has come up with a way to adjust the clearance except by changing the shim stack (which is what you are supposed to do) or using an undersized shim stack and then trying to freeze the clamping nuts by using Loctite. I'm not fond of the latter approach, but a member did suggest some success with that technique in another thread.

Thanks for the welcome. I'll certainly help where I can. Turned out that I Pushed the Foot pedal forward While holding the clutch plate over and sprayed some 3 in 1 silicon spray on the shaft. I then push the pedal back and did the same for the other one. I let it sit then to dry and tried it a few hours later and all is well. It feels better than it has done for some quite considerable time. Hoping now that it was a quick and final fix. Any other repairs I do I will do my best to show pics and explain what I've done. Just a backyard mechanic :-)

It's important that the square part of the shaft, where the center part of the clutch slides sideways, does not corrode (from being dry) or gum up (from being oiled). My preference would be to keep it clean, and lubricate it from time to time by spraying it with Drislide or something similar: a hydrocarbon carrier that takes some graphite or molybdenum disulphide to where it is needed, then dries up in a few seconds, so only that powder is left. When the clutch plates wear to the point where the shim stack needs to be adjusted, you have to pull the shaft out anyway, so you then rub the square part of the shaft clean, and re-coat it with graphite.

I think what you have done will leave the shaft wet with oil, which will protect it from rust but will trap dirt, and turn into a sort of valve grinding paste. In other words it isn't a disaster, but in my opinion it isn't the best solution.