OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield Drive Problem

Hi Bussy, and welcome to Outdoorking.

Please take pictures as you assemble the center of your Greenfield clutch and adjust the clearances, as well as writing an explanation of how you do it. Note aldot reported that it took him three tries to get the right shim thickness to achieve a clutch clearance that worked well. If you measure the clearances (both disks to both friction liners) at each attempt, you can tell us what clearances are needed, so in future people will read this thread and won't need three tries.

With out wanting to sound like a farmers son, fencing wire and pliers in hand;


Could the friction plates be adjusted across on the axle so that you got more fwd drive and less reverse??? Not as a fix but for the purpose of diagnosis.

Could you get more movement to the clutch by allowing more movement at the pedal via the linkage??? I realise this will give a bigger gap between fwd and reverse.
Reading through the thread (quickly) i was wondering if the linkage was binding or hitting some sort of stop in the fwd driection and that was effecting clutch engagement.
But i assume that deviates from how its meant to work, Correctly.


Pictures and explanations please, Very intersted to know more about how these drive systems work.

My old greenfield has no drive, either way. I think its something to do with the fact that the pedal is rusted to its piviot and the linkage will only move as much as the pedal post will flex.

Bob, you can get some background on the Greenfield clutch from this thread:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=21336&page=2

It is mounted on a square shaft: the center sliding part of the clutch (which drives the axle) can be pushed either right or left (forward or reverse) by the pedal mechanism to engage either the forward-spinning or rearward-spinning V belt pulley, but is fully floating unless pushed one way by a spring or the pedal mechanism. The pedal linkage differed greatly between models, but if the total clearance across the center of the clutch, inside the two large V pulleys on the outside, is not very close to the correct value, the clutch will not work properly. On some models it even seems to go overcenter and lock into forward or reverse drive. The only cure is to have the correct plate clearance, which is determined by the shim stack which sets the separation between the two large V belt pulleys, in conjunction with the thickness of the linings on the two sides of the center part of the clutch. As the linings wear down, the linkage runs out of efficient movement, and you have to either replace the linings, or reduce the shim stack, to bring the clearance back to what it has to be. That requires pulling out the complete main shaft (the one that carries both clutches and is square in its center section), dismantling it on the bench, then reassembling it with a reduced shim stack, which allows the large nuts on the two sides of the shaft to push the large V belt pulleys in closer to each other.

So far no one here has come up with a way to adjust the clearance except by changing the shim stack (which is what you are supposed to do) or using an undersized shim stack and then trying to freeze the clamping nuts by using Loctite. I'm not fond of the latter approach, but a member did suggest some success with that technique in another thread.

Thanks for the welcome. I'll certainly help where I can. Turned out that I Pushed the Foot pedal forward While holding the clutch plate over and sprayed some 3 in 1 silicon spray on the shaft. I then push the pedal back and did the same for the other one. I let it sit then to dry and tried it a few hours later and all is well. It feels better than it has done for some quite considerable time. Hoping now that it was a quick and final fix. Any other repairs I do I will do my best to show pics and explain what I've done. Just a backyard mechanic :-)

It's important that the square part of the shaft, where the center part of the clutch slides sideways, does not corrode (from being dry) or gum up (from being oiled). My preference would be to keep it clean, and lubricate it from time to time by spraying it with Drislide or something similar: a hydrocarbon carrier that takes some graphite or molybdenum disulphide to where it is needed, then dries up in a few seconds, so only that powder is left. When the clutch plates wear to the point where the shim stack needs to be adjusted, you have to pull the shaft out anyway, so you then rub the square part of the shaft clean, and re-coat it with graphite.

I think what you have done will leave the shaft wet with oil, which will protect it from rust but will trap dirt, and turn into a sort of valve grinding paste. In other words it isn't a disaster, but in my opinion it isn't the best solution.