[AT] Old John and his stubborn right rear rim

Sat Aug 10 20:49:13 PDT 2024

 Steve,
I didn't get your message but did get Dean's response so will respond this way.  Congratulations on getting the rim off. The splined axles on RC JD tractors up until 1952 were a problem in the 40's and 50's. One of the reasons my Dad dedicated a tractor to the two row mounted Corn Picker was so he didn't have to move the wheels in and out each year. For some reason, that I don't remember noe,  he picked a 44 JD Hand Start A.  Starting a Hand Start Tractor with a mounted picker on it is another story but...I digress. 
 Up until a few short years ago I thought I had learned enough about moving rear wheels on JD tractors that I didn't need to procrastinate about tackling that specific job any more. Well, a 1957 JD 720 LP Standard rear wheel decided to be difficult and that is a tractor that doesn't have splined rear axles just a drive groove and a rack and Pinion setup to move the wheel in and out, with of course tapered 1/2 sleeves to keep things in place and tight. All one is supposed to have to do is uses Jack Screws inbedded in the wheel casting to push the 1/2 tapered sleeve loose and turn it to the bottom and use the rack and pinion to slide the wheel in and out. I needed to get the wheel completely off to remove a 500 lb rear wheel weight from the inside on both sides so I could get 2000,lbs of total weigh off so My trailer could handle the load. The first order of business was to remove the welding that had been done to keep the wheel positioned on the axle. Why that was needed is unknown. Spent a few days removing weld bead. 
The first wheel went according to plan. The second wheels tapered 1/2 sleeve was broken apparently from a previous PO trying to do exactly what I was now attempting. After much work I finally got the broken tapered 1/2  sleeve to move a little. But there was no way in God's Green Acre that that wheel would move on the axle. All kinds of ways were attempted to get that wheel to move including penetrating oil and bigger and bigger hammers and sledges to no avail.
So then someone made a suggestion: Try moving the axle instead of the wheel!!!  What???  The axle is fixed in the rear end. Now keep in mind that standard rear wheels with cast centers are huge with 18" tires on 30" centers. Heavy, Heavy.  The suggestion was jack the tractor up, turn the wheel to where the loose tapered sleeve is at the bottom and take a 20 lb sledge to the end of the axle.  I didn't like hitting the end of the axle with a sledge but I was desperate. All I had was two 12 lb sledges so I tried using one of them. No dice. Nothing moved.  So now comes the Rube Goldberg part of this. I Duct Taped two 12 lb sledges together and hit the end of the axle with the part of the side of the sledges that still had exposed metal.  Second hit  WALA it came loose. It took that much shock to break the rust bond. Now what is the physics of this.  The cast wheel center/18" tire has much more mass than the axle. It took less shock force to move the axle only a tiny bit rather than the cast center and tire and it broke the rust bond.  Trying to do this with static force requires significantly more force as you discovered. 
Now there are those who do not recommend this due to potential damage to the axle bearing. Intuitively, I understand that but when one gets desperate ....  So if you ever get caught in this dilemma again. Try moving the axle rather than the rim/wheel. YMMV.
BTW, It took 2 1/2 weeks to get four 500 lbs ea. wheel weights removed. but now my trailer can just handle the tractor. It still weighs 8000 lbs. If you cannot solve the problem with finesse, bludgeon it. 
    On Saturday, August 10, 2024 at 07:38:24 PM PDT, Dean Vinson <dean at vinsonfarm.net> wrote:  

Steve, sounds like a victory to me!   I can imagine the satisfaction when you first could tell the rim was moving.   Must have been many many moons since that rim was last off of there.

Foolishment is a great term, by the way. 

Dean Vinson

Saint Paris, Ohio

From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of STEVE ALLEN
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2024 6:03 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: [AT] Old John and his stubborn right rear rim

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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