Wheel damage

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Klapatta
Posts: 1352
Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 2:25 pm
First and Last Name: Kenneth LaPatta
Location: Rockingham VT.

Wheel damage

Post by Klapatta »

It all started one year ago at right around this time. With the seasons changing it was time to change out the tires and wheels on the pusher tractor from the Summer 10.5 ags over to the Winter 10.5 turf tires with 2 link cross bar chains.
The first snow plowing went without any trouble but into the start of the second snow removal I began to notice a clunking noise. With every intent of getting the job done I kept going. By the time the third snow fall came around that noise was getting a lot louder. It was only when I was backing up that I realized the left rear wheel was on the verge of falling off. The wheel bolts were badly mutilated after having backed off from 4 to 6 turns. Quite a shame, they were in nice condition with IH stamp marks on the heads. Also, the holes in the wheel were badly wallowed out. With new wheel bolts cinched down in place I managed to make it through the Winter that way but those mounting bolts were barely hanging on.
In my haste to slap on the wheel weights I had lost track of the fact that the bolts on that side were only finger tight.
I could have dismounted the chains and tires to the good wheel. I wanted another solution. Around here 8.5 Cub Cadet wheels don't grow on trees.
I started looking at washers as a solution. But I needed something with a conical shape that closely matched the taper on the wheel bolts.
I turned to 3/8" grade eight washers. Now they had to be formed. I took a short length of 3/4" tool steel and turned a blunt nose 45 degree taper on one end. That went into the Dake arbor press. This would be my punch. For a die i selected a short length of tubing that had a 1/16" smaller inside diameter than the OD of the washer. I gave a squeeze on the arbor press handle until it bottomed out. The result was a conical washer that very closely matched the form on the wheel bolt. From there, each washer was single point bored in the small lathe to .435. Just to pretty them up I mounted each washer on a expansion arbor to true up the OD. This was my result-
DSCN9068.JPG
DSCN9068.JPG (691.16 KiB) Viewed 1441 times
I mocked the whole thing up on a spare axle shaft for a better look.
DSCN9069.JPG
DSCN9069.JPG (676.77 KiB) Viewed 1441 times
Hey, this might just work. We will see soon enough :mrgreen:

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dag1450
Posts: 2356
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 3:16 pm
First and Last Name: Dave Gibson
Location: Chalfont, Pa

Re: Wheel damage

Post by dag1450 »

Looks amazing! I'm trying to think how I would have done this repair..lol. Well for me Ray W. is only an hour + away so I may have tried that first. But I probably would have made my die from a nice piece of oak then used a sledgehammer to massage the washers into submission. Lol. Again looks amazing.
Oh yeah....we never did get your first mowing picture..and here we are back to winter. I knew it :roll:
127, 1650, 1572, 1872, 2072 . A mower, blower and blade for each.

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