Stuck disk bearing

I bought this JD disk a few years ago, it needed blades, so I bought a new set and when I went to replace the blades, I found out that P/O had run it with the blades loose. The spools between the blades and the bearings are stuck tight on the shaft, full of dirt and rust. I have soaked this one with PB Blaster for months, even took it to work and put it in a press. No movement what so ever. Looks like I'll have to heat it up to get it off. Hate to ruin a good bearing. They are NOT sealed bearings, they are rebuildable. Parts are available from Mother Deere, but a couple years ago they were about $70/bearing. Hate to think about having to buy a bunch of them.Any thoughts about how to get it apart without ruining the bearings? Chris

Try some heat. Hal

Put in a vice ,get a pipe wrench.w-d 40 or other rust penetrator if that does`nt work use some heat on the casting.If you can get #s off of it first someone else may handle the bearings at a fraction of the cost.

Throw the bearing end in a good wood fire, get it as hot as you can get it with wood, then let it cool down and then tap it off with a bfh.

By "soaked with PB Blaster" do you mean like sprayed on or soaked in a pailful. My German mechanic swears by diesel fuel but then he has diesel fuel running in his veins. Some like ATF. I'd try more "soaking" but by that I mean submersion. You won't need the disc until April.

Hammers, penetrating oil of your choice,drifts,and elbow grease to get that bearing to slide off the square shaft, try to go a little each way with the movement, when it starts to move, clean up the shaft with sandpaper, a file or a grinder, take breaks for coffee and pie

It won't work the way it is so if you ruin it trying to get it off it still won't work. I would buy new. Sounds like to me that your just want the cheap way out. If you bought the disk and put new blades on it why not spend the money and have something nice when you're done.

Try rifle bore cleaner from an army surplus store. Immerse it in that over night and see what happens. I've seen it work.

A lot of guys who mess with the old Hit'n Miss engines use rifle bore cleaner and swear by it.

I've seen shafts and collars with a one thousands tolerance take 10 tons of force to push them together. Try the press again.

Any amount of heat sufficient to help the cause will take out the seals on this bearing. Cut it off with a torch, press the outer race from the cast housing, and replace the bearing with a new one. Shouldn't be hard to buy a square bore regreasable bearing for under $70.

I think the first thing I'd do is try and get a number off that insert, or at least get the race OD, width and gang bolt OD from another bearing, then call a local bearing supplier and get a price on those inserts.
I'd seriously consider changing ALL of them, and probably the gang bolts while you're at it if you really want to rebuild the disc into a relatively troublefree unit. You're changing the blades... so if you're in for a penny, may as well go for a pound.... now.

When you have a firm price on the insert I think is when I'd decide how bad I wanted to push on that cast housing... you might also price that out and see if it's worth your while to risk breaking it.
I guess what I'm saying is if the housing is cheap and the insert expensive, you'd put it in the press again and push hard. If it pops, it pops. IF it breaks, it breaks.
If you don't want to break the housing, you nip the inner race out of the bearing now with the torch, remove the balls and then pull the gang bolt... cut the race off and you're free. Then drive/twist the outer race from the housing.

The only other thing I would try is pushing the bearing in the other direction on the gang bolt if there's even a little bit of room there. It's more likely there's a burr on the bolt that's holding the bearing up rather than rust. If you can push it back and then file/grind the burr off you might get it apart easy.

I'd also run a wire wheel or sanding wheel down all 4 sides of the length of that gang bolt to clean it up, then grind off any other burrs where the blades were turning on the bolt.

Rod

It may be easier to do it as RickB suggested. Here's a web site for square bore bearings. Hal

http://www.peerbearing.com/P_ACB.asp

1-800-433-7337

You can take those bearings to a good bearing store and I would bet they can cross reference the numbers to come up with something cheaper then JD wants. You would be surprised.

Replace all the bearings, take the ones that come off easy and use them for spares. Anytime you re-use a bearing that old, you can be sure the one you put at the head end of the axle will wear out the 2nd day you run the disk.

What he said.... Chances are you"re in for a real job. Might as well do it right and do it ONCE.

Also, I"ve used BRAKE FLUID as a penetrating oil for years. Not the cheapest way out, but it sure does work.

Might try leaning hard into a good air hammer on the small race. I've seen some pretty amazing results.

For the money you are going to put in it, I/d just run it folded. What are you gaining , 7 feet on 15?

Gordo

You may want to just cut the shaft and buy a new square shaft. You can probably get that for less than the bearing. We changed one on a JD cultimulcher. Was about 15 ft long and cost about $125 dollars.

I had the same problem. Ended up cutting the bearing(sealed type) off. My shafts were wore bad, too. Cost about $90 each for machine shop to make new ones. The sealed bearings at JD were not very expensive. I rebuilt whole front half for $300 two years ago, sold the disc at local auction for $300 this fall.

i had the same problem with my kewaunee disc. they use a casting to hold the bearings in, and the races are pressed in to keep the bearings. i was afraid i'd break the casting trying to get the bearings loose from the shaft. you need to try and remove the packed in dirt and grit. i used dental picks and cutting torch tip cleaners to dig down and get the stuff loose. compressed air helps to clear it out too. once you get a few holes opened thru, they keep spraying with pb blaster and picking the dirt out. took me a couple days of monkeying to get the dang thing off.