OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield Cutter Pulley/blade Plate Removal

(Greenfield Tractor 11)I have collected a length of barbed wire and a length of plain wire wrapped tightly around the shaft above the blade plate.
Seems only way to remove is to drop the blade plate. Have removed the nut above the cutter pulley(yes alittle while before realised left hand thread) but wondering if any secret to removing pulley and plate as still seems tighly held or should it fall apart.

Thanks for any help

Im missing a bit of the picture i think.


Best i can work out (yeah thats right i have not pulled one apart) the Greenfield blade disc is welded to the shaft, spindle shaft and disc are one part.

So i would suggest attempting to drive the shaft down out of the bearing carrier. Could be fraught with danger as theres alloy bits and age and moisture, it could get nasty.

Id soak it in CRC or WD40 for a few days while i thought about how i was going to do it.

Yes, all of the Greenfield models I've checked in the manuals have a disk-and-spindle that is a single part:


Presumably the spindle is tight on the ball bearings it runs in, so it will need something like a light press load on the top of the spindle to push it out. Depending on how rusted on it is, you may need a pair of support plates and a split ring in between the bottom of the bearing housing and the top of the disk, to get it out safely. In the parts list I can't see any secret circlips that complicate the process. However it might be safest to ask a Greenfield dealer, or phone Greenfield's customer department, because it would be embarrassing and expensive to break the housing through missing a trick.

Hello Grumpy,

Had a similar problem with a trampoline spring, very difficult to untangle because it is spring steel. What I used was a good pair of multigrips to pull on the wire and cut it off with bolt cutters.

Cheers Keith

Hi Keith, if there turns out to be a circlip or something similar at the top of the spindle to keep it from moving downward, it can be a tricky process to get them out in confined spaces. Screwdrivers usually are fairly central to my efforts in those situations, but once in a while you have to grind a piece of scrap into a strange shape to make a special tool. I agree boltcutters are sometimes the tool of choice for cutting things like springs, but I have a large pair of boltcutters that now have silver-soldered high speed steel cutting edges, following an incident with a large padlock. There are limits, even with boltcutters. (I cut the padlock easily enough, but the repair time on the boltcutters made me wish I'd had a portable generator so I could have used an angle grinder instead, to do the cutting.)

If it's the same as the 12/32 I have, after removing the nut on top of the pulley you need to unscrew the pulley off the shaft (same thread as the nut). It took me ages to work out the pulley was screwed on as I assumed it would be some sort of keyed fit like most other pulleys.

Once the pulley is off, the shaft/bottom plate assy should fall out (unless it's really tight in the bearings in which case it might need a tap out).

update.....

thanks guys

"grumpy" took your advice and spoke to a greenfield dealer back in December and he mentioned the pulley is screwed on as "scouse" mentioned but cautioned me to be very careful as they can be damaged with brute force due to age in situ.

So sent my wife and son to work(smaller hands) and went the pliers and bolt cutters and screwdriver way that was mentioned and over a few attempts and sleeps it finally was clear of all wire scrap.

cheers

watureckon, after removing all of the garbage wound around the spindle, you need to take a very close look at the bottom bearing, or the separate oil seal if it has one. The wire-winding process creates large side-forces on the reel of wire it creates, and these routinely destroy any oil seal involved. They can also crush the sideplate and seal of a ballrace.

If you soak the belt pulley thread in Penetrene for a day, and remember which way the thread runs, you should get the pulley off without much trouble. Of course if the blade plate spins freely after you've removed the wire wound around the spindle you may not really have to drop the blade plate out of the bearings, but you need to be confident that the bottom bearing's lubrication is not compromised. If you are in doubt, best to replace it now while you are working on the machine.