OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield Anniversary - Steering Disassembly

As an owner of a B&S powered Anniversary on the scrounge for parts at the right price (free) to keep it going I found myself needing a better engine than the 12hp smoker that I have.

Lo and behold I chat with one of my customers and find out he has a greenfield something or other in his backyard. He said I could have it for parts.
After hooking up the trailer and spending an hour removing it from it's hiding place of two years I have it home.


Get the sad looking GXV390 going with some clean fuel and oil, it purrs.


It seems too good to wreck so I'm going to get it going and maybe offload the B&S machine.

I have a problem with the steering bushes and can't dismantle the right side assembly, scared I'm going to break something.

How does the "tag" with the small bolt separate from the vertical shaft? Large hammer?

Problem has been resolved.
This is a press on fit and requires a bit of rotating with the help of a hammer.
Then tapped upwards to remove.

Will add photos later.

Picture shows steering disassembled
Steering linkage is a slide on fit over top of shaft.
Small bracket as shown with bolt tightened has D shaped hole to match top of shaft and applies tension on shaft to hold together.



Badly elongated hole was easily fixed with a bit of weld

A very nice engine, and potentially a very nice Greenfield. That kingpin hasn't been lubricated in a while, by the look of it.

Dismantling neglected kingpins can be a challenge, but becomes a lot easier if you attend to three issues:
1. Figure out how it goes together. My usual approach to this is to look at a manual if I want to cheat, or if I can't access one or don't want to cheat, an illustrated parts list makes a good compromise.
2. Support the surrounding (suspension) parts very rigidly.
3. Then put the whole, well-supported mechanism under a hydraulic press and proceed carefully.

I once needed to get the kingpins out of an ancient beam-axle car. I didn't find a way to support the axle rigidly right up close to the kingpin, though (at least partly because I was working on a wooden floor at the time). Then I hammered on a big pin-punch long and hard, trying to move the pin, with no success. I finally gave up, stripped the axle off the suspension, and gave it to my father to take to work and put under a press. He brought it home neatly dismantled and said that he couldn't understand my difficulty, it had come out very easily. I asked him how much force it had taken. He said, "Not much - just 16 tons." Now, I'd have been lucky to achieve that with my three pound hammer and long punch even if the suspension had been well supported, but it wasn't well supported. I learned something from that experience.

I'm guessing in this case you could have removed the beam axle, improvised a split-ring to support the upper bracket from underneath, and pressed down on the D-shaped part of the kingpin. Alternatively, you might have been able to get ground-down gear puller arms underneath that top arm and pull it off that way. I don't understand why you rotated the top arm on the kingpin before removing it - seems like that would abrade the mating surfaces of the top arm and the kingpin, which will degrade the fit when reassembled.

Hi Grumpy.

My dilemma was that:
1) I did not have access to a repair manual or diagram of the offending part.
3) No access to a hydraulic press so a hammer was my only option.

In case the assembly was threaded I felt the "rotating approach" was the safest.
After building up the worn parts it all went together snugly.

Next project will be to remove and rebuild the pedal linkages for the drive, so much wear that its difficult to bend my ankle enough. Then fix the muffler, it blows heat onto the R/H foot and the previous owner had welded a steel guard onto the pedal to try and deflect the heat.
I might try the local tip shop for an old motorcycle exhaust pipe and mount the muffler up high above the cowling.

The other B&S based mower is now dead. Lent it to the neighbors and when bringing it back it went bang and stopped rotating as he got it into my driveway.

Thanks for clarifying that chasnee. If you are prepared to continue this thread until you get that Greenfield into good condition, it will be useful in our archives and will help some other people with slightly tired ride-on mowers or tractors.

I'm glad the source of your clutch engagement problem was just wear in the linkage. That is easier to fix than a worn clutch (and we've already got some good threads on Greenfield clutches, so a pedal and linkage reconditioning thread would fill more of a gap). Please post pictures of the linkage and its bits, so we can track your progress in sorting it out.

There are some issues in designing exhaust pipes that will stand up in the long haul, without heating up some nearby part that will be adversely affected. I suspect that the tin shield you have may be a more practical solution than what you have in mind. However, please show us what you decide to do.