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

Hello to all,
I have a Greenfield Ride-On Mower with an annoying cutting system vibration problem. Machine is a Fastcut 34 inch, with B&S 26 HP Vee-Twin Power Plant. When the cutters are first engaged, (cold system so to speak), there is no undue vibration/noise from the cutting system. After only about 5 - 10 minutes of cutting duty, a quite loud vibration starts up and continues so long as the cutters are engaged. When cutters are disengaged, the cutter brake can be heard making intermittent contact with the cutter pulley for a few revolutions, and then all vibration stops.

I have checked for loose, cracked, or bent blades (x4) and found none. I can see no distortion in the cutting disk. There does not seem to be undue play or wear in the cutting system pulley bearings. The Cutter belt appears to be in good condition and properly tensioned.

Has anyone any experience of this type of behaviour, and, if so, what was the cause/cure?

Thanks in advance for any help.

mustang

Have you checked the idler pulleys?? Might be when one gets hot it starts playing up.

The intermittent application of the deck brake might hold the key to the answer. It should be constant, what does it work on???

Thsnks for the suggestion. I checked again. With the cutting system disengaged, both the Fixed and Sliding Clutch (Idler) Pulleys seem quite sloppy fits on their shafts. The engine and main cutter pulleys appear OK. Noting that the Idler pulleys seem to feature separate pulley units and bearing adapters, all seem worn, the pulley wheels are worn on their bearing adapters and the bearing adapters are worn on their shaft.

It seems as if both bearing adapters and pulley wheels may need to be replaced. Yes?

The cutter brake acts on the cutter pulley, which could have a slightly out-of-round mating surface with the brake. This pulley does not show worn bearing behaviour.

Regards.

mustang

Not sure, cant see it, havent checked it.
I would assume that if there is sloppy, there is wear and no lubricant left.
Replacing them now is probably a better idea than waiting for one of the pulleys to part company with the mower.

Dont mean to come across as a smart arse, but theres only so much you can diagnose over the internet.



Take some care as the blades could still hurt you, but you should be able to spin the deck up by hand and watch the pulley.
Perhaps the pulley is a little warped and either the deck brake has lost its tension (not sure exactly what your deck has) or the deck engagement mechanisim is worn and not lifiting the deck as high as it used too. Or a combo of both. You might be able to adjust the brake for more tension.

mustang, are you are sure that the cutter disk rotates smoothly on its bearings even when the vibration is happening? The nearest you can come to checking this is to run the mower until it starts vibrating, stop the engine (including pulling off the spark plug leads) and declutch the cutter, then rotate the cutter disk by hand, looking for signs of roughness. This is not an infallible test - for one thing, if the belt tension is still on the cutter pulleys, the cutter shaft bearings will be pulled to one side and that could keep you from noticing any slack there may be.

If the idlers are slack, either between pulleys and bearing adapters or between bearing adapters and shafts, they have to be repaired - whether or not they are causing the current problem, they will cause one before long. Posting some pictures would help - at present I don't have a clear picture of the design of those idlers.

My suggested course of action is to repair the idlers, then see if the vibration is fixed. If it is not, it will be necessary to take a close look at both the drive (i.e. engine) pulley, and the driven (i.e. cutter ) pulley.

Thanks for your inputs - much appreciated. A thought occurs. The machine is still under manufacturer's warranty. It was purchased in May 2010, has currently only 111 hours up, and has a 36 month/300 hr warranty. So both on time and running hours it currently remains under warranty. I have religiously had it serviced since new by an authorised repairer, rather than servicing it myself, solely to retain the manufacturer's warranty.

I wonder if the manufacturer might be able to assert that what has occurred comes under the heading of "fair wear and tear" if I try a warranty claim. The reason this thought occurs is that the old Greenfield Rideon that I traded in to buy the current machine never had this type of problem and it was a lot older than 2 1/2 years with about 400 hours on the clock at the time.

Any thoughts?

I always recommend taking up warranty for necessary repairs, but I don't recommend just taking it to the dealer, asking him to fix it, and then arguing warranty. I suggest you describe the problem to the dealer, and tell him that you regard it as a warranty issue. Ask him to just look at the machine in the first instance then phone you with his report. If he disputes that it is warrantable but you believe it is, you can take the dispute to Greenfield if necessary while the evidence still exists.

I do not believe any reasonable dealer or manufacturer can claim that if the idlers wore out and became unusable, in 111 hours with proper servicing along the way, that constitutes fair wear and tear.

I would agree with what Grumpy says.

36 months and 300 hours.
Anything that wears rather than breaks or fails could be classed as fair wear and tear.


I am not sure how long you would expect an idler pulley to last. Best to ring the dealer and ask. It could even be a common thing.

Obviously blades and belts would not be covered nor engine servicing costs but you would expect most else to be covered.

Thanks for your input. I put the mower in for service with the local authorised Greenfield service agent and claimed for replacement of the cutter system pulleys under warranty. Service agent agreed and 4 pulleys were replaced free under warranty. According to the service agent, Greenfield manufacture these pulleys themselves. What had happened was that the pressed-in bearing centre assemblies had separated from the pulley wheels leading to all kinds of wobbles and noise. Maybe they should buy these pulleys from a specialist manufacturer instead of making them themselves. Anyway, we will see how we go.
Cheers
mustang

Thanks for that report, mustang. It seems your machine is now back to running properly, and my confidence in Greenfield standing behind what they make is restored. Of course if they don't have any better pulleys to offer by the time you get to the end of your warranty period, it will become more than slightly annoying, to you and presumably to a lot of other Greenfield owners.

I'll close this thread. If anyone needs to post to it, just PM a moderator.