[knockknock332]

Can anyone explain the order of operations for disassembling the MCS blower shaft? I've got the housing off of the frame, and the housing half taken off. But I cannot for the life of me figure out how to press off the impeller/pulley. I'm trying to get it apart to replace the bearings, and whatever else is worn...as it currently makes an awful dry-bearings-noise something fierce, and has really bad wobble to it.

Thanks!

-Aaron-

 

[neil]

Your timing is impeccable. I just did this on mine. First remove the retaining bolt. Then drop the whole thing in a plastic bag and put it in your chest freezer overnight. Then the next day, get your gas torch and a pair of leather welding gloves, and your buddy. Also get a brass drift sized to be able to drive the shaft down through the impeller without binding or hanging up on the key. Then get the torch going hot and direct the heat on the impeller hub, heating it as quickly as you can. Avoid heating the shaft. After about a minute to two minutes, get your buddy to hold the impeller while you pound the shaft down with the brass drift. Use a big hammer. If it doesn't move, give it a bit more heat. If it still doesn't move, spray a bit of pb blaster or such on the shaft then let it cool down outside. Put it back in the freezer overnight and try again tomorrow (probably needs more heat). I didn't have a buddy to help but basically managed this on my own. Once I had it off, I used sandpaper to clean up the shaft and the hub ID, and on assembly used anti-seize. I still wanted it firm but wanted it to be conducive to removal next time.

I'm doing the input pulley shaft at the moment. The bearings are crunchy and are loose in those compression shells. Once that's done, it's ready to install. I want to be ready for fall leaves! : )

What I'm looking for now is a source for the foam circle that seals between the inlet tube and the collection box body. Any ideas?

 

[neil]

I found my pictures and I think I might have done it differently. Driving the impeller and shaft out from the bearing and housing, and then driving the shaft from the impeller. That approach would be easier because you can sit the impeller on your vice and drive the shaft down from the hub.

 

[knockknock332]

Neil,

Just this past Saturday, I ended up starting at the other end, more or less flattening out the pulley in the process. I think I'll go buy another...

The parts diagram is deceving, it took a while to figure out the impeller side bearing comes off with the impeller (big torch, air hammer, 3 foot pipe wrench). Ended up cutting the last bearing off down to the inner race, before realizing it comes off the other way. Even that was no easy task at that point. The harbor freight press helped things along though. Would have made life considerably easier getting the impeller off first! Though I did try with the press, there was no good place to support it of course. But now I know for next time

As far as the foam, I just ordered a chunk from Grainger last night, 2x12x12, for $14. The picture looked wired, bit I figured for the price it's worth a shot. If that doesn't work out, I might try some peel-n-stick weather stripping from AutoZone or similar.

Mice got in the box over last winter, and got stuck, so they were kind enough to chew a hole near the bottom too...I need to stuff that with foam as well. It rains debris something fierce when in use

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[knockknock332]

Oh! What can you say about the bearings having eccentric holes? And that locking collar? The locking collar and the mating bearing flange were busted up and not performing their functions prior to me taking it all apart. It sort of looks like the collar goes on just to give the pulley side bearing something to bump up against, which I'd have thought could have been done via a feature in the shaft similar to the impeller side bearing. I'll take some more pics as I assemble later this week. Going to shoot some paint on the brackets and blower housing first.

-Aaron-

 

[neil]

Yes, it would be good if the parts diagrams were a little clearer. They're pretty crap really. If you want to see how parts diagrams done right are, check out Caterpillar parts books between the '30s and the '80s. They are to scale, in order, and are quite clear about assembly order.
I bought a new pulley for mine too - I got a cast steel one from McMaster or Grainger, rather than the cheap pressed tin one that Deere put on it. It's solid! Everything has been shinied up and anti-seized so the next guy should have an easy time of it. Mine did not have the locking collar on it, but it was snug on the shaft anyway so didn't need it. I have new bearings coming for the input drive shaft and also those shells that hold the bearing in place, as the front bearing was wobbling around in the retainer. I had to get a set of bolts to fit up the mounts on the tractor. I removed the 3pt linkage and reinstalled the original rockshaft, and the lower mounts. Those lower mounts look like they'd work fine with my 3pt linkage arms so when leaf season is done, I'll reinstall the 3pt using the MCS lower mounts. Will have to swap out the rockshaft of course but it's pretty easy. Had to adjust the tubing to the rear hydraulic remotes as that wasn't sitting right and was starting to wear a hole in the fuel tank. How is your boot attached to the deck? Like held on with bungee cords or something? My boot is aftermarket so doesn't have any brackets or such to hold it on with

 

[knockknock332]

Do you have a 50" mower? As it turns out, I have a spare boot if you're interested. It just needs a new bungie and hook. I bought a new one thinking the one I had was broken. Only to find out that I was installing it wrong. The "new" one I bought was in a haggard old decomposing looking box when it showed up on my front porch. Turned out that it was new old stock. Had 30 years worth of dust on it INSIDE the box. Even had the original stickers and invoice.

I'm stopping at Grainger tomorrow morning to get my foam. I'll see about matching up a sweet pulley while I'm there. Did you think on my eccentric hole question regarding the bearings? I'd hate to get it all pressed together and have it be all warbly because they had to be pressed on a certain way...

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[neil]

The eccentric will need to be on the side not against the shoulder of the shaft if I recall correctly, because the bearing should be free to butt up against that shoulder although it might not based on the width of the bracket to housing. If the bearing goes on tight, the use of the locking collar is kind of moot but good to have it there to be complete.
Thanks for that picture of how the boot is retained. I have a 60 deck and have the right boot for it so it looks like I need to drill a couple of holes to fit the bungees to it. I might need to set up some brackets on the deck as I can't recall if there is anything there already. Let me know what that foam looks like. I have the original one but it looks set to fall apart - it's pretty soft foam so it can take up the uneven gap. Could you also take some close-up photos of how the spout is arranged that goes into the collection box. Mine looks set up kind of janky so I'm not exactly sure what it's supposed to be. There's a couple of long 1/4 bolts holding it on with springs at the bottom, but the previous owner had a drywall screw holding a block of wood between the top of the spout and the box and that's obviously not original. I'll get a photo so you can see what I mean. Got the bearings off the input shaft last night. Had to heat the innermost bearing that is up against the universal joint as the 12t press wasn't going to shift it. New bearings coming from Deere but my bigger concern is that the bearings are held firmly in those retaining shells.

 

[neil]

The pulley I picked up was from Surplus Center - a 1-BK47-D - fit perfectly:

Qty:​

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Item #:​

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Description:

Ext Price:​

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1

1-BK47-D

4.45 O.D. 7/8 BORE 1 GROOVE PULLEY

$ 12.95

Item Total:
$ 12.95
Shipping:
$ 13.60
Tax:
$ 0.00
Grand Total:
$ 26.55

 

[knockknock332]

Pulley shipped from Surplus Center yesterday
I keep forgetting to take pics of the discharge chute. Mine is kinda janky too, where the long bolts have heavily worn into the box. The foam is all there, but it doesn't seal very will until it's packed full of grass. I just picked up the sheet of foam from Granger today. It's quite a bit stiffer than I anticipated, not sure if it'll work. Don't know why I didn't think of it, but it would have cost pretty much the same to find an OE piece of foam than make one from sheet. I just called my local dealer; they told me there are 5 available in the US, and one in Canada. All dealer inventory, but otherwise NLA.
Also, it just occurred to me, you have your MCS setup on a 3pt, so you have a slightly different setup than mine. Does yours use the gearbox? I just use the pulley bracket, and the input shaft on the MCS is just a straight shaft with no universal. Interesting that there were multiple variants.

 

[rwmeyer]

Bearings with eccentric holes and locking collars. These are by design. The bearing should be a slip/slide fit on the shaft. Once in place, the locking collar is slipped over the eccentric ring on the bearing and turned. The eccentric in the bearing and the eccentric in the collar lock the bearing to the shaft. Some have a setscrew in the collar to lock the collar to the bearing also. Hope this clears up some confusion. Bob

 

[knockknock332]

Thank you Bob. I imagine it will make considerably more sense once I start to put it all back together.

Neil,

Here are a bunch of pics of my setup.

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[bloodrunsgreen]

I found different types and sizes of foam at the fabric store (JoAnn's). Who knew?! or you could try Amazon or Ebay. The foam degrades/decomposes with time, heat, sun light, ozone, etc. You will most likely need to measure and draw up a template for make a suitable replacement or get covered in dust/dirt/clippings/etc.

 

[neil]

Thanks for those pictures, that's very helpful. I'll tweak mine up a bit so it works better. I was contemplating installing it on the 3pt and I might do that next year, but for this year, I'm just installing it with the proper brackets to check that it all works and is in order. I plug the shaft into the 2000rpm pto and it drives a belt to the variator pulley, and then another belt from the variator to the blower. I'm waiting on the bearings for the input shaft from the dealer and then I'll fit it up. The way the weather seems to be turning, I might be picking up leaves sooner rather than later...
The other thing I'll make is a suitable dolly that makes hookup and storage easy. I don't want to be fighting this thing - I'd rather back in, juggle the dolly round a bit, put in the pins, and drive away

 

[knockknock332]

Ok, so I managed to miss one detail when disassembling everything. The direction the flange on the bearing faces that is on the impeller side. Does the flange face the impeller, or away from it? The drawing shows it towards the impeller, which I am inclined to think is correct. However, the drawing is otherwise quite wrong for the rest of the assembly, so I don't necessarily trust it...

 

[neil]

Both bearings on mine have the collars next to each other in the center, so, away from the impeller and the pulley. Theres clearance between them of maybe 0.020. I preferred it this way so that I could verify them without having to disassemble. I could have moved the retaining shell for the pulley bearing to the outside to gain more clearance if I needed it. Pictures below. Also the previous owner had fitted an incorrect bearing to the input shaft which wasn't tight in those retaining shells, and the shaft must have been undersized, so I have another bearing coming that has an ID of 25mm, rather than the 1 inch that the correct bearing (JD8665) has:

 

[knockknock332]

Beautiful. Thank you! And that cast pulley feels very satisfying compared to the standard one, so thanks again for the tip!

 

[neil]

Yes, those pulleys are night and day. JD really went cheap with those pressed steel pulleys, although ironically, this cast pulley is probably cheaper than the pressed steel (because it's from China no doubt)

 

[neil]

25mm bearing fit perfectly after a very light filing to the shaft. Input shaft is back together and installed. But now I have some questions regarding adjustments. The bar at the back that holds the door closed may have the arms bent wrong. It looks like the bends in the two arms need to be such that when the "latch" is pulled in tight, the bends kind of jam the latch in so that a) it's held tight vertically and b) is well-placed on the back door to hold it closed. Pictures below show that mine is possibly not set up correctly. Could you post a picture of what yours looks like when the door is closed and the latch is firmly holding it shut.
Could you also show where the handle should be adjusted to when the door is latched shut. I think mine is also out of adjustment. I had to cut off the old yoke and clean up the threads and install a new yoke as it wasn't adjustable. I also had to place a bend in the control rod because the thread was "bottoming" out on the front latch spring. Are there adjustment instructions in the manual?
In this first picture, you can see that the rear latch arms are not jammed up against the stop underneath which I think is what stops it from flopping around:

This picture shows that it's only just holding on to the bottom of the door:

Not very clear but this picture shows where the handle sits when the door is closed and latched. I think it needs adjusting:

This picture shows the front latch trip lever position in the slot, and the new yoke position. I think it needs to be adjusted:

I fitted new springs on the spout but I see that yours are much tighter than mine:

 

[neil]

You can probably just turn those bolts around that are on the spout and then epoxy up the holes in the box