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

Here is all the components that have to be put on each end of the axle before fitting the axle back into the mower.

I also added a grease nipple to the rear of the sprocket



found some broken spot welds underneath on a support bracket

I take it the grease nipple is to lubricate the differential regularly instead of just grease-packing it on initial assembly? So the surplus oozes out between the sprocket mounting collar and the axle shaft? And is that lithium general purpose chassis grease you've used? (It's white, which is the reason I made that guess.) Is that the recommended lubricant?

Are you going to make a similar rebuild/redesign of some other parts of the machine, notably the steering system, which seems to need it far more than the rear axle?

Yes the grease nipple is to regularly grease the diff. my hope is the excess will also work its way out between the two shafts on the left hand side lubricating the bronze bush out there. To assist that I replaced the o-ring that seals the sprocket to the drive shaft but not the internal one that's suppose to seal the outer shaft on the left to the axle shaft.

Yeah the grease is lithium, its a better quality one fuchs epx2 and I have no idea what is recommended for the diff. When I pulled it apart I expected to find a molybdenum grease but the grease just looked generic so I lithium top up more regularly should be fine.

I'd do something similar to the steering for sure if it gives me trouble. This ol mower has saved me some coin over the years, even these repairs ... in parts have cost me relatively little verses having a hydrostatic bail out.

I rather like the Greenfield design concept, provided the mower is intended for someone who won't be doing a whole lot of tight manoeuvring, will spend a lot of time at full mowing speed, and needs to run the machine for years on a tight maintenance budget (probably doing the work himself/herself). On the other hand if you are going to spend your time backing and filling in a tight work area around obstacles, or constantly stopping and starting on steep hills, or towing something substantial up steep hills, I think it would be way better to use a hydrostatic machine (specifically, one with a hydro unit that is field-serviceable).

Having said that, I've never tried to earn a living that way, so my opinion is even more worthless than usual.

What you say is definitely correct. There are lots of other options that will cover more ground when mowing normal lawn and zero turns now have the manoeuvrability sewn up. But yes on a budget and if you have serious grass to tackle they are very capable and mostly bullet proof. If you can turn a spanner most likely the cheapest to continue to maintain over a long period there is just nothing expensive that can possibly fall off. Drive system fails the clutch linnings are $15 everything else is just idler pulleys, belts and the like.

Have to say the vanguard engine mine came with has been most impressive. I've only ever done normal maintenance and it still doesn't burn oil an runs like a top.

The Vanguard twins, which have always been made only by the Vanguard series' designer, Daihatsu, seem to have have sold well and enjoy a good reputation in the field. The Vanguard singles were designed by Daihatsu, but were never made by them. Instead they were made first by Briggs, then by Mitsubishi, then by Briggs again. They have not sold very well. Nevertheless they do not have the characteristic design flaws of the large Inteks (which are a Briggs redesign of the Vanguard, to achieve lower pricing).

Your comments on the Greenfield line up exactly with my impressions, which is reassuring. There is no substitute for actual experience, particularly professional experience, with a product. You have that experience, and I don't.

Had a issue over the weekend the drive locked up. I initially thought I'd run the clearance to close on the clutch so I pulled it apart far enough to add 2 more thin shims then reassembled. Ran it for probably half an hour and it did it again. Then once more I stripped it and added 2 more shims started it and as soon as I went forward to reverse a couple of times it locked up again.

So then I completely stripped it looking for the issue what I found was the bearing between the clutches that works the forward to reverse was working its way off the back of the plate continuing to take up the clearance and locking it up. This was already damaged because the previous bearing had locked up and chewed up the mounting area. I had centre popped the area and araldited the bearing in position. It still managed to come loose so this time I had the mounting spigot machined off and used an older anniversary model bearing setup where they have just a alloy insert with the square hole making t a separate piece completely now from the 2 clutch plates. After reshimming all seems well now.

Thanks for that report, greenfield. It sounds as if the clutch thrust bearing was hanging up on the burrs in a damaged bore in its housing, though the explanation is not really clear to me - I think we'd need pictures of the damaged thrust bearing mounting.

That bearing has to be very rigidly located. Center punch impressions are not load-carrying locating features. How do I know? When I was a school kid a colleague brought around his car, which he had just finished improving by removing the whole exhaust system and pounding a piece of straight copper pipe over a short piece of the original exhaust pipe bolted to the end of the exhaust manifold. The copper pipe fell off after a few minutes and he asked me to fix it. I refitted the copper pipe, but applied a center punch vigorously, punching many little cones of copper into the steel exhaust pipe. Marvellous improvement: it lasted one day, IIRC. Sounds as if that technique worked about as well for you as it did for me.

On the crude clutches used on Greenfields, the clutch thrust bearing carries the entire clamping force of the clutch. That force is quite substantial, and requires a proper, bolted-together bearing housing that locates the thrust bearing positively.

unfortunately I cannot take pictures because I have completely machined that section off and reassembled it. you are totally correct as to how the clutch release bearing works and is loaded. It is the outer locator that is most important. On my model though the inner race mounting is really only a locator. the face it pushes against on the opposing clutch plate is larger in diameter than the inner race so therefore the mounting has no real pulling or pushing force exerted on it. But for some reason it decided to work it way off. The centre punches were really only there to give the epoxy something to grip.