Inherited a 10 year old MTD riding mower with no schematics. Runs fine, but I need to remove rear wheels to replace tires. Only a screw with washer seems to be holding wheel to axle. Removed this, but cannot get wheels to come off axle. Tapped inside around axle, but wheel comes only 1/2 inch or so. Is there something I missed, or another way to do this?
Most likely rust has taken over
find some liquid wrench or pb blaster and spray the axles liberally and let it penetrate the axles and wheel hubs where the axle goes through.
use a 2x4 and a hammer to tap against the wheel hub to try to move it down the axle then tap in back on to try to free it up as the penetrating oil works in, spin the wheel and tap in different areas of it
the worst case cenario would be to use a torch and heat the axle and hub up and drive it off, but it sounds as though you are moving it some and with some patience they eventually should come off
when you put them back be sure to coat the axle with some grease and do not forget to reinstall the key stock in each wheel, if they have it
the bolt in the center of the axle is all you need to remove and note where the washers came from and where they go back.
hope this helps you some
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2x4 worked great as a battering ram. Sprayed the axles several times with liquid wrench that I had, letting it soak for a few hours, then knocked both wheels off in about 20 minutes as suggested. Thank you very much! Now all I need is to find new tires and get them mounted.
This happened after I removed/replaced the deck and rear wheels. The transmission bypass lever is pushed in. Rear wheel axle pins are in place and the drive belt is attached but it is very loose. The drive belt is not moving. What am I missing?
remove rear tire
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