[AT] Old John and his stubborn right rear rim

[STEVE ALLEN]

Good evening, gents.


Perhaps some of you will remember that, oh, about a year ago, we were working on getting the rear rims off my son's '47 JD B.  You might remember that the left rim slid off as easy as a warm sled on an icy hill  You might also remember that the right rim resisted all efforts to get it off:  pulling with a com-along, hammer, spraying with lube, cleaning out the crud around the pads on the wheel center, even foolish attempts to heat the rim (for which foolishment [a beautiful Ozark term, foolishment] several of you rightly took me to task).  We left the pulling pressure on that rim for months, hammering on it occasionally and cussing it every time we walked by.


So I got a bright idea just before I had my hip replaced last month [apparent birth defect destroyed the joint], and, today. a month after that little operation, we tried out my idea.  WARNING:  some of you might take me to task for more foolishment, but we worked very carefully all the way, and no tractors or FATGs were injured in the process even a little bit.


I had a long piece of pipe that we use as a breaker bar.  We took it in the shop and ground a groove in it wide enough to accommodate the raised edge of the left wheel center.  We laid the pipe across the PTO shield, and we grabbed a 6 ton bottle jack to try to push against the rim on the right side.  We had to grab the handy DeWalt recip saw to shorten the pipe about 3 1/2 inches so the jack would fit.  Then, we started pushing against the rim.  When we had good pressure against it, I had the boy hit the boss on the wheel center right opposite the jack with a 4 lb hammer.  


And, little by little, the rim moved!  Just a tiny bit at first, but we saw a gap opening up.  So we backed off and turn the wheel two bosses, and jacked again and hammered again.  More movement!  To shorten the story, we went round the wheel, jacking against every other boss and hammering.  When we got all the way around, the wheel just slipped off, no muss, no fuss, no pop even.  


Boy, oh boy! were we happy!  I had been moping around for a good tractor day, and today was it!


Now, we need to find a set of the deep drop rims that put 38" tires on these centers and a pair of tires that don't cost more than all three JDs together.


Just thought I'd share the success.  Be gentle with me:  it worked, nothing went wrong, and I'm still a little weak after my surgery ;-)


The "original" Steve Allen
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