OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames New Greenfield owner. Lots of questions!

G'day guys.

Purchased my first ride on the other day, it appears to be of mid 80s vintage and it's a bit rough but the price was right. (no build plate or stamped numbers that i can find).

Anyhow, i have never driven a ride on let alone owned one so i'm sure the learning curve will be steep.

Motor has been replaced with a new 12.5hp b&s (model 286707-4028-02) which has an electric start though i dont have a battery for it as yet.

I'm keen to do the servicing repairs myself as i cant afford to take it to the shop (assuming they charge $80-$100 per hour.

All belts appear to be there but look to be in poor condition with 1 having looked like it has been rolled. Mower goes well in reverse but wont climb much of an incline going forward so some work to do there somewhere.

I was going to start by servicing the engine, replacing all belts and blades (only has 2 blades on it at the moment).

Thanks to Ken at Greenfield for sending me a manual for the mower, though what i'm chasing now is a repair manual.

cheers

Hi Millsi,

Here is the illustrated parts list for your engine:
http://bsintek.basco.com/BriggsDocumentDisplay/Z6hmvHVJ1DajI.pdf

Here is the operator's manual:
http://bsintek.basco.com/BriggsDocumentDisplay/mssAIQ-K_ny7tH217FzoPu.pdf

I've never seen a repair manual for any Greenfield product, but I've seen excellent owner manuals for a couple of Evolution models, running to 20-odd pages and showing how to do most things that might be necessary, including a number of complete pages on replacing and adjusting belts. However those are later machines than your Tractor 10. Although Greenfield's basic design has stayed much the same, a lot of specifics have changed along the way.

I suggest you begin by looking in detail at what Greenfield has supplied to you. If it is a short owner manual rather than a long one, the first step would be to go back to Greenfield and see what they can do to help you with more information.

Failure to climb when moving forward with a Greenfield often means the automatic tensioner on the wheel-drive belt has failed to click into the next latching point. It happens fairly frequently, and is overcome by pulling or levering the tensioner pulley under the seat into the next click position:

The automatic tensioner pulley is the one at the top of the picture, and moves further toward the top of the picture to increase belt tension.

Of course it is also possible that the forward clutch is worn or requires adjustment. Also, we have had a case where the automatic tensioner's ratchet was worn, causing it to fail to engage. You might care to read this thread:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...rds=greenfield&Search=true#Post39914

Note that both belts on a Greenfield pass over idler pulleys that twist the belts 90 degrees, because of the tortuous path the belts follow. It does not seem to be harmful to the belts.

Grumpy, thanks heaps for the info! I'm hoping to pick up some new belts and blades from Greenfield tomorrow.
The manual they gave me has a parts list and pictures + some general specs. I did notice that something under the seat has been dodgied with tie wire, i cant see much but i cant only assume it may be something to do with the belt tensioner.
Will pull it down on the weekend for a further looksee.

Ok, now i'm stuck.

Pulled the cowl off to have a look.
Managed to pull the clutch/drive plate and associated assembly out of the machine as they appear to be warped. The drive hubs also seem to be lose on the axle.
How much can these be warped and still functional? I figure i should replace the clutch fibre plates while i have it out.

The main problem is though, that i dont know how to take the drive/clutch plates off the axle. I can see that they are held in place by collars that have screws through them to stop them moving. Even with the screws out they dont move due to age and a small amount of rust i guess. Also do the bearings at the end require to be pressed off etc to remove everything else?

I dont suppose there is anyone in Brisbane who could lend a hand?

We need some pictures Millsi. Some of the things you have just said sound impossible or very unlikely. Please start by reading this thread:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...amp;Main=6920&Number=34937#Post34937

The clutch countershaft has threads at the ends of the center square section the clutch hubs slide on. The nuts screwed onto these threads set the position of the clutches on the shaft, to keep them from sliding off sideways down the shaft rather than clamping.

Once you have the countershaft out of the mower, you can remove the sprocket, then the nuts, and slide the clutches and the two-way thrust bearing (with its springs and shims) off the shaft.

I'm having trouble imagining the clutches running out of true unless someone has intervened in an unlikely way with a very heavy implement. However when we see your pictures we may get further ahead with trying to help you.

Ok here are the pics, as you can see mine doesnt have a nut holding the clutches on, which according to the manual makes it a pre 1977 Oct 1977 Model, after Oct 77 they went to the nut arrangment on the shaft.

That is useful information, Millsi, we haven't seen pictures of one like that on Outdoorking before, as far as I know. Your clutch countershaft is also much longer than the later ones such as myevolution's one in the other thread I referred to. I think for a time, though, the long shaft was continued with the threaded shaft - some of our Greenfield threads on Outdoorking feature long shafts. Those long shafts seem to have fractured not-infrequently, which may be one of the reasons for the change to the short shaft. At the moment my guess at what might make your clutches run out of true, is a bend or fracture in that shaft.

Are you going to strip that shaft now? I think at a minimum you'll need a gear puller to get the ballraces off, and perhaps some of the collars as well, but you may have to heat the collars with a torch. I think I'd use the puller first, removing the bearings, the sprocket, and the other collars near the ends of the shaft. For the collars that are up against the clutches, a puller won't work and it will require either careful torch work or perhaps a press and a split ring.

I dont have gear puller or a torch unfortunately. I might see if a mate can help me out to get it off.
If the shaft is bent i might replace with the newer shaft and associated parts if it will work.
My tensioner is also different to those that have been posted. It doesnt have a ratchet system of any sort just a spring. Will get some pics up of that when i'm putting it back together.

The layout of the mower seems to be different for the short-shaft ones Millsi: I think with the short shaft the clutches are offset toward the side of the mower, which leaves room for the battery in the space that used to be occupied by the unnecessary bit of the long shaft.

It will be interesting to see how the automatic tensioner works without a ratchet. The ratchet is needed because when the mower is moving in one direction, the belt tension to drive the mower is being applied to the idler pulley, while in the other direction the pulley is on the return side of the belt so there is almost no belt tension applied to it.

Ok, i went into Greenfield HQ here in Brisbane again (Thank god they are only 35 mins away).
I took the whole assembly in so they could have a bit of a nostalgic day .
They were only to happy to help and did an outstanding deal on heaps of new bits!
Got a new shaft and all associated parts that go with it as well as some new clutch faces.
After getting home it was timne to remove the rusted on old parts. Seeing as though i wasnt going to be re-using the shaft i gopt the grinder and cold chisel onto the stubborn collars and retainers. Only took about 5 mins and everything was apart. i even managed to not mark up the old shaft too badly.
After pulling the clutch assembly off i saw what i think would be a major contributing factor. The large drive wheel on the rh side has been severly gouged, I would say this may have happened in the past when the clutch ran out material at some stage in it's life and has rubbed metal on metal.
The left side, whilst not as bad, shows some similar wear.
So it looks like im up for 2 new drive wheels, not sure if i can get back in to Greenfield this week but would like to get it back together asap before i forget what goes where lol.
I'm also going to remove the old cork from the clutches and give them a light sand before sitting them on some glass and using a feeler gauge to see if they are warped.
Here are some pics.

I think I'd be machining that disk flat and seeing how it goes, but that's just me, I'm a notable cheapskate. I hope when you got the new axle, you got a long axle with threads so you can use nuts instead of collars this time?

If you dont have the gear to machine it yourself (I would try and have it done as I am also a cheapskate) I would imagine somone who machines automotive flywheels may be able to do it, there is a fair bit of metal in there and its not like they are pushing a lot of force through them as they only move the mower around, dont get me wrong if it was part of the cutting system scratched up I would probably try my hardest to find a new one.

Yep, got the axle with the threads. They hadn't seen one without the thread in a long time.
The grooves are very deep, if new wheels are going to be big $$ then i will look at the machining route. Maching might not enable enough clamping pressure even with a minimal shim stack(s).

Someone else bought a replacement clutch disk from Greenfield - a price of $120 for one disk was quoted in an earlier thread on Outdoorking:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...amp;Main=6920&Number=34937#Post34937

I agree that a new disk will result in a better job than re-machining the one you have. My inclination toward remachining stems from having a 14" lathe I rarely use, so machining would take far less time and effort than chasing down a replacement part, plus it would cost me nothing. If it didn't work out, I'd shrug and buy a new part. You may have a point regarding the minimum shim stack issue. Using an ultra-thick clutch lining should overcome it though.

Post-edit: I believe the shim stack gets thicker as the clutch and lining get thinner, so there should not be a shimming problem when a clutch disk is re-machined. The main issues would be the strength of the thinner disk, and its resistance to heat distortion in use.

Remember, if that is what the pulley side of that clutch looks like, the opposite side is probably just as bad under the glued-on lining material, if it has previously been run without lining.

Your other disk looks OK to me, just from the photograph.

Ok so i deceided to go down the machining route to try and save some $$, dont want to over capitalise lol.
Took the drive plates over to a mates place and let him work his magic.

Making sure the plate is a central as possible in the lathe using a dial gauge (precision instuments these mowers :))


Maching


All done, took 0.5mm of the forward plate and 0.3 off the reverse plate.
Could have gone more but didnt want to remove too much material.

You should check that the clutch plate side of each clutch runs true as well, while it is in pieces. The friction material may be glued to a damaged plate.

So i finally got around to getting this back together yesterday. I had taken the old clutch material off the old plates and checked them for straightness. After deciding they looked ok i glued the new clutch discs on.
I had managed to lose my copy of the repair diagram for the drive mech so took all the gear into the helpful guys at Greenfield. Ken had it dummied together in about 10 seconds.
On returning home i pieced it back together loc-titing and greasing as i went along.


Next job was to tackle the tensioner, the teeth were looking pretty sad


After using a file for a bit i decided the grinder with a 1mm cut off wheel would be quicker.
Much Better



When i was pulling the mower apart i had no idea how the ratchet system worked.
Spot the problem in this pic! This is how it was when i purchased it.


After installing the correct way


Anyway assembled everything back together, getting the spring in was probably the hardest part, though figuring out how to change both belts was also tricky.

Took it out for a test drive and it worked great.

Then gave it an oil change and some fresh fuel before cutting a small amount of grass to see how it went. Worked great, however, when i engaged the deck the first time i got some smoke from what i guessed to be belt guides around the rear pulleys. I had noticed they were a little tight after installing the new belt (genuine part from Greenfield).
After a couple of minutes of mower it went away and upon disengaging the deck the blades continued to spin for a little while so seems ok.

Thanks to Grumpy and Ken and the crew at Greenfield for their help in getting this sorted.

Thanks for reporting back, Millsi. Sounds as if you now have quite a good ride-on (I rather like Greenfield's design, so I guess I'm biased) and you are also familiar with its innards so you won't be intimidated by it when it comes to maintaining it.

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