OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield 11Hp 21 Anniversary Model

I think he feels he has his shim stacks right at this point Gadge, he just had the inner faces of both clutches hitting the clutch thrust bearing bracket on both sides. He ground away the bracket, which should be fine (it looks as if it had been modified, which seems to have caused the problem) but I'd suggested as an alternative, he could have left the shim stacks as they were, put spacers between the clutch thrust bearing and the clutch hubs on both sides, and just clamped up the nuts on that entire stack. The clutches would have been further away from each other, due to the spacers, but there should have been no change in the clutch clearances I think, because the shim stacks would not have been changed.

Yep, another 'previous tenant improvement' there. And the grinder was the appropriate solution.

Okay gents. Final assembly went ahead, had some dramas. Mainly the paint not sticking to the guards so had to strip the paint back and respray but it still hasn't fully adhered at this point. I'm not overly concerned. The paint will harden over time and it just makes it look like the age it is! Ha!

So now it's all back together, new second hand seat with a higher back so it's a lot more comfortable on those long rides! And it drives well, cuts great and works a treat. All in all it runs pretty good for an old duck whose sat in the paddock for the last ten years or so!

It looks a nice job now, and should be a very good mower, if other similar Greenfields are anything to go by. You seem to have been rather lucky that it had so few mechanical faults.

Believe me Grumpy, she had her mechanical faults. Not long after I posted my previous post the cutting deck jammed up. Turns out there wasn't enough clearance in the cutting deck pulley to clear the belt keeper on the deck and she stoved the pulley fair into the deck. So off the deck came and shim it up further so all cleared.

I will say one thing though. I'm used to driving hydrostatic type mower and this heel toe setup is very different. Good that I don't need to change any gears, just vary the pressure on the footplate but very different when I have to change my driving style!!

I've already had requests from the neighbours family to look at their ride ons now!!

If all goes well Sparky, at about this stage you understand that machine fairly well, and have tidied it up so the really annoying faults are gone. You can still get it working even better as you gain some actual experience with it and find the smaller faults that weren't even noticeable at first, but you've broken the back of the job.

Of course your neighbours would like you to make their old ride-ons look and work as well as yours, preferably for free. Is that a surprise?

Haha no not a surprise. It'll be a surprise to them when I breakdown the costs associated with rebuilding this one. Admittedly I didn't need to spend the amount I did on paint, but I always figured if you were going to rebuild something, make it look like it's been rebuilt!! And I never do things by halves or quarters!!

It also really wouldn't surprise me if the jnlaws put the hard word on me to swap it back and have their jonsered 16HP and give them back the greenfield. They loved that mower and have been keen as mustard to have a ride on it again!! Haha!

I'm not familiar with the Jonsered range, which I think may be sold under other brands as well? We have quite a few threads on Greenfields though, and it seems to me to be an excellent mower for simple straight-line mowing. If you are going to back and fill and manoeuvre around the rose gardens all day, you need something different of course, but more complicated machines with higher wear rates and more expensive parts are not the answer for simple jobs. On the other hand, in-laws are family, and they do seem to have given you the thing.

Good luck with finding a happy answer for everyone concerned.

Your right, they are sold under many names. Closest I can find to this is a Husqvana LT2216 I think. Twin deck, solid cutters not swing backs, steers good, hydrostatic 6 speed. Not a bad machine. But I know what she's been through. I have fond memories of a 4" galvanised pipe socket flying out the discharge chute one day and the ensueing speed wobbles from the blades once they were mangled to near irreparable!!

I wouldn't say no to the machine, but I'd definitely make them pay for all the parts spent on the greenfield if they did want to trade!

You could probably fix it fairly easily if you decided you would like to go hydrostatic. To me the main question is whether the transmission has been cooked, impacted, or worn out, because it isn't usually worthwhile fixing them if so: it is cheaper to scrap the machine and buy a used Greenfield for less than the cost of parts.

Yeah she's seen a hard life on the farm. Mother in law isn't called rip tear and bust for no reason! Hah!

Had to replace one of the spindle/shafts and pulley on one of the cutters this morning. Pulley had sheared the splines and worn the shaft down. Told them they need to replace the belt on it because it's stretched. Father in law still wants the greenfield back but I don't think I could bear seeing it go back just to be destroyed!!

You are seeing it much the same way as I am, Sparky. An abused hydrostatic drive becomes an expensive hobby, and any ride-on that can only be fixed with new parts from a dealer, is expensive too. Put them together, and your newly-refurbished Greenfield looks better and better.

Yeah, I'd be very reluctant to hand it back to be abused again, too.
You might want to do a rough estimate of the hours that were put into the job, as well.

I reckon that jobs that chew up my leisure time are worth a lot higher hourly rate than my normal working hourly. There's the time involved in chasing up parts, too.

So I only do repair jobs for others [except for family, sometimes] on an 'exchange of favours' barter basis, these days. I don't have a pro-standard OPE workshop available to me, just enough to maintain my own gear. For example, a push mower workbench top, that clamps atop my welding table...

Anyone that offers to pay me to do such work, assuming I'll do it for peanuts, gets told 'you can't afford me'.

Haha Gadge, my inlaws couldn't afford my daytime hourly rate let alone what your saying to up the rate a bit!

Well, there's a lot of truth in the old saw; you can always make more money, but you can't make more time.

Anyhow, slightly off topic lol! I've still got a few things that need fixing/replacing/tweaking.

Need to source some new pinchweld for the front bonnet edge, need to get the handbrake working which means either replacing the whole assembly or making some new liners as the old ones aren't clamping too well on the drum anymore. Still need to fit the chain tensioner but the tensioner sprocket requires boring and sleeving as the bronze bush is flogged big time. And then there's stickers/decals.

I'd like to get at the very least some safety ones for the deck etc but I'd also like to get all original greenfield ones so that most likely will be custom made. Was also thinking of getting a smaller repro sticker of the firebird from the old Pontiac trans am on the bonnet. I think that's rather fitting for this machine, to have risen from the ashes!!

Ok Gadge or Grumpy, or anyone even that's got one of these older greenfields. When selecting forwards or reverse, mainly reverse on mine, it's very clunky. So basically it'll sit there for a bit with full pressure on the pedal and do nothing, all of a sudden wham it hits reverse and off you go.

I'm assuming without looking it's just a sticky selector on the clutch shaft. Best remedy? Graphite grease?! The square shaft was very clean, no burrs or anything when it was reassembled.

It could be that, or some stickiness in the pedal or linkage somewhere.
On that shaft, you need to use a smear of dry 'assembly lube' type product, that will not run off or be a dirt magnet.

The best of these are Molybdenum Disulphide based, and contain a very high percentage of it [~50% for the pastes]. There are spray can and paste forms available, from industrial [e.g. bearing service] suppliers. Rocol, Molykote and Dow Corning Molybond are three good brands of these.

But be warned, they aren't cheap. If you have tradie mates who work in heavy industrial maintenance, they can often get hold of some.

A good cheaper alternative is to get a can of 'PTFE Dry Lubricant Spray' from Jaycar Electronics, if there's a branch/agent handy to you. That stuff is under $20, and works very well. Do shake the crap out of the can before spraying, though.

It has a lot of other uses too; e.g. it makes zippers really slick! Much better than CRC Dry-Glide etc.

Thanks Gadge. I'll raid the consumables cupboard at work today and see if I can find any. I do have a can of dry ptfe spray at home already though as well as some others like white lithium based spray on grease etc. I'll give that stuff a go bed time I've got a few spare minutes to get under it!

Sparky, the spray-on grease is not a good choice for this job: it traps dirt, which mixes with the grease to form a slurry almost identical to valve lapping paste. You need something that dries quickly but tends to stay on the shaft. Basicly that is a near-impossible mission, but you can achieve something very close to it with a molybdenum disulphide powder in a volatile hydrocarbon vehicle, as Gadge recommended. A much cheaper alternative that works pretty well for a couple of months at a time, is a simple puffer pack of dry graphite: the same stuff you put in door locks. Unlike the volatile hydrocarbon, it won't wick-in to get in between shafts and journals though, so you have to be able to slide the shaft back and forth to work it in. Above all, just stay away from the grease-based stuff.

I don't know what the load-bearing properties of PTFE are, so I can't comment on its suitability.