I bought 2 new rear tires for my old John Deere ( I think it is an LA 110) and the first wheel came off easily after removing dust boot, C-clip and washer. Unfortunately, the other will not budge. Have tried 2 different penetrating oils and have tried hammering with a large dowel to the back of the wheel, and even a small screw jack between frame and back of wheel. Trying to be careful not to mangle the wheel! Any advice? Haven't tried heat yet. The gas tank is not far from the working area!
Advice on getting wheel off lawn tractor axle
- Thread starter drfeelgood
- Start date
I assume you can’t get a puller on the wheel? Can you wrap a strap around the back side and attach a puller to it?
Try a little heat on the shaft with more penetrating oil.
Just my $0.02
Just my $0.02
Heat it, then drive it in circles with the c clip off, maybe a few hard turns.
Thanks for the input! Yes, I won't hammer on it anymore. Good point! Looks like I may try heating it or seeing if I can get some type of puller to work.
Try to heat the wheel hub, not the axle shaft.
Heat only one spot of the wheel hub, do not chase the torch around. It seems to work better if you can heat the hub where the keyway is. Then quench with penetrant.
You can cut the tire off the rim, or maybe drill a couple holes in the wheel, and put some bolts through the wheel and a bar and pop it that way?
this is a chronic problem with john deere lawn tractors. i have one that refuses to come off after trying everything. even took it to the deere dealer. they refused to touch it say the only way is to cut the wheel off at the transaxel!
Update on getting the wheel off. Tried a puller with holed drilled through wheel. No go. Tried heat at the hub. No go. Bought angle grinder with cutoff disc and piecemealed the darn wheel after cutting old tire off wheel. The axle was completely, circumferentially rusted where the hub was. Will clean up axle and try to find a replacement wheel!
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Glad you got it off. I’d definitely put some anti seize on there when you install it on there again that way it avoids problems like that in the future.
Glad to hear you solved your problem. If this occurs again, note that there is a slot in each the wheel and the axle. A key inserts between the axle and wheel. You can tap the exposed end of the key with a small punch to get it to move. This will give you a place to introduce some penetrating oil the length between the wheel hub and the axle. After a couple of days you may be able to remove the wheel. If not, remove the transaxle with the wheel attached, suspend the transaxle verticaly between a couple of saw horses with the wheel at the top, supported by a couple of 2x4's. Then continue to drip penetrating oil onto the area of the hub and axle end. You will eventually see where the penetrating oil is being absorbed (it may take a day or two). At that point you can take a spike, put it on the end of the axle and drive it out with a hammer. Be sure to put something on the floor to catch the transaxle.
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Thanks for that thought. I actually did take the key from the other side and put it in the keyway and tapped it, then sprayed in a bunch of penetrating oil. That didn't work, either. Didn't try hanging the transaxle though!
Dang that’s crazy, I thought my LX188 was bad but I was able to get it off way easier than that a couple years ago when I switched to ag. tires.
Mine had a good amount of rust, once I was able to get it off I used scotch brite pad to the clean/polish the shaft then coated it with synthetic grease. Rigged up a 12 gauge bore brush on my drill to clean the inside of the wheel, wasn’t pretty but it did get the rust cleaned out.
Mine had a good amount of rust, once I was able to get it off I used scotch brite pad to the clean/polish the shaft then coated it with synthetic grease. Rigged up a 12 gauge bore brush on my drill to clean the inside of the wheel, wasn’t pretty but it did get the rust cleaned out.
Unfortunately we don't find out how important a little never seize is until we try to remove parts,sounds like you had an ordeal
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