OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield 11 28 - Idler Pulley Adjustment

Hi everyone,
Very new and inexperienced with mowers and forums!
But none the less here I am. I have just purchased what I believe to be a greenfield tractor 11 with a 28" cutting deck, it has a Briggs and strattton 12.5 hp engine. It is in pretty average condition but it was a real bargain.
Anyway as you would guess, it needs some work. I've read a lot in the last week but I still have a couple of problems
1. The notch bar adjustment will move forward to increase tension on drive belt when I lever it, but does not lock into any notches and just goes back to the same notch. Tried hammer with a block of wood, also using a steel pipe to lever the actual idler pulley forward with no succes. The reason I'm trying to increase the belt tension is that the mower struggles up small inclines on my block. I'm pretty sure I will have to replace the forward clutch lining but I just wanted to rule out the supposedly simple tasks first
2. The front left hand wheel scrubs out on the deck when on hard lock left hand down??
I am a pretty logical sort of guy and have grown up on a farm so have a broad mechanical knowledge of nothing specific, if you know what I mean. So if you have any suggestions or have encountered the same problems then I'd love to hear from you
Cheers

Hi nooni, and welcome to Outdoorking.

It appears either your belt or your forward clutch is slipping, and you need to find out which. Unless your ratchet mechanism on the spring-loaded idler pulley has a fairly odd kind of fault, it seems belt slip is the less likely explanation. The usual process is to lever the idler pulley forward firmly, in the hope of reaching the next ratchet position. If you measure the distance between grooves on your notch bar, and measure how far the pulley moves when you lever it forward, you can see whether it is moving about as far as the distance between notches, or some lesser distance. If it is moving the full pitch between notches but is not latching into place, you have a ratchet fault. If it is moving substantially less than that, it is more likely your clutch is slipping. You can probably verify that though, by pointing it up a steepish slope that it won't climb, pushing the clutch pedal firmly for five seconds, then stopping the engine quickly and touching the forward clutch plate. If it is hot, you know where the slipping was occurring - check that the clutch pedal adjustment is correct before blaming worn friction material though. If the clutch plate does not get hot, you may have a worn or incorrect belt that is bottoming in the pulley groove. On the face of it though, the most likely problem is a worn forward clutch. Relining the clutch is not a big job if you follow the method described in several threads here on Outdoorking.

So far as your steering is concerned, it sounds as if you may have a problem with the left wheel turning too far due to alignment issues. I'm unclear on whether your tractor has lock-stops to limit wheel movement, or just relies on the limit on how far the steering sector will turn. Most likely either the left lock-stop is damaged, or the set-up of the steering sector or toe in is incorrect. The only specific information we have is the parts list, and that does not help answer the questions.

If you can't trace the faults from these suggestions, please post some pictures to clarify the issues so we can discuss them further.

Thanks for your suggestions grumpy. I have made a little progress, a bit unorthodox but you get that. Played around trying to lever the notch bar forward for ages, was moving it past 3 or 4 notches minimum and it would still just slide back to the original notch. So I took it apart and took to the notches with the angle grinder to increase the depth of each notch. This worked a treat. The belts tighter, the mower goes up the inclines it used to stop on, the clutch plate wasn't hot at all. It does still seem to have more go in reverse than forward so maybe the pedal might need adjustment or the lining still needs to be replaced?
As for the steering problem it looks as though a previous owner might have done a bit of work on it judging by some welding. I would like to upload some pics grumpy, is there any way that I can upload from my iPad, my computer is a little temperamental at the moment.
I think this forum is great guys, have spent hours reading up on all sorts of greenfield problems and have a greater understanding thanks to everyone's posts and photos. If I can sort the steering and electric start I'll be very happy! $50 bucks is what I paid for it, it cost me $90 to get my block mowed by the lawn mower man last time, so far I'm in front $130 in my logic as I've gone over the block twice!
So like I said before grumpy if there's a way to upload straight from my iPad I'd love to put some pictures up! Cheers

Also grumpy I believe it does have lock stops, but it scrubs out on deck before hitting the left lock stop. Pretty sure it's a home repair as hard right lock doesn't hit the lock stop and the turning circle is shocking!!!

Uploading pictures normally just involves using the fifth icon from the left immediately above the text window, in the quick reply window. Browse to the file, select it, and upload it with the button. Then press the all done button.

You might adjust your clutch pedal so that the clearance between the central thrust bearing and the forward and reverse clutches is equal. If you do that and still have gradability problems, the temperature of the forward clutch after a climb will tell you whether you have clutch slip or belt slip. Has your automatic belt tensioner run out of movement? If so, the belt will be slipping. The belt you have may be the wrong section width or the wrong length, or the belt or pulleys may be worn. The first question is whether something is slipping, the second question is whether it is the belt or the clutch. If the clutch does not warm up, it is not slipping.

If the tyre hits the deck before the stub axle hits the lock stop, the lock stop or stub axle has been altered or damaged. Also, if the right and left lock turning radii are different, either one of the lock stops has been altered or damaged, or the steering gear is running out of movement in the bigger turn radius direction before the lock stop is making contact. If you report what is happening, preferably with pictures, we can talk about how to fix it.

Without seeing pics of the actual machine i cant say if im on the right track.

The old Greenfields i have here (HD8's with the horizontal shaft motors) have two alloy gears that mesh to do the steering. They are awful worn in the 1/2 of the gear that actually does the work. Looking at mine i could rotate each of the two gears 180deg and set it all up with clearance etc and basically be like new.

So i would reccomend, stripping the whole show back to nothing and rebuild the steering. Even if it means removing the engine. Give everything a clean up at the same time. You said that you are sensible, wont take more than that. Greenfields are built around the more farmer end of sensible. Perhaps a little to the right of fencing wire and baling twine, but way left of hydraulics.

The steering column appears to have a bevel gear on the end of it, and it mates with a small sector, not a full gear. The sector seems to be welded to the shaft that carries the drag lever:


So, you could rotate the steering column gear to a different position, but there isn't much you can do about the sector except make sure both steering column and sector pivot shaft have good tight bushes.

Also, what seem to be the lock stops that control how far the stub axles turn, are welded to the tie rod:


If the tie rod is straight and its pivots are not worn, adjustment of lock stops seems to involve welding up or grinding away the projections from the tie rod.

The problem may be wear, or bent and mangled steering linkage. Unless the bevel gears are damaged though, anything else should be very easy to fix.

Hi Nooni. I have a Tractor 11 that I have rebuilt over the last 18 months plus.

With the steering issue, mine hits the chassis rails on full lock. I am guessing that the previous owner either replaced the hubs with wider ones or fitted wider front tires or both. The turning circle is very average but the steering setup on these is, in my eyes, far more robust that that of say the early Evolution series. They don't seem to put up with the years of use the Tractors do.

I can take some pics of mine if you like.

I replaced the tie rod end with a later version unit which has a better dust boot. I also replaced the "crown" gear shaft bush and the whole "crown" gear shaft with a new item from Greenfield. Most of it was purely neglect from the previous owner who I know skimped on maintenance.

I turned the steering column pinion 180 degrees and the steering is now excellent with very minimal play.

I am going to use an old tire tube and zip tie it to both shafts as best as possible to try and reduce the amount of grit that enters the two meshing aluminium gears.

I just spent 12 hours on mine slaying 6 foot lantana, ferns and all sorts of weeds. I really should have photgraphed the property I cleared. Amazing from just an 11.5HP Briggs.

I should mention that I replaced the cork clutches and the drive difference is brillant and well worth the effort in changing them.

Gotta love greenfield.

With technology thats about these days, they have to have masters of their parts lists floating about somewhere, it would not be overly hard to get some parts lists done up in a decent enough resolution to bring it all along into the computer age.