"Art" wrote in message
...
Thomas G. Marshall wrote:
"dpb" wrote in message ...
Thomas G. Marshall wrote:
I'm not sure I get what the heck is going on here.

The rear wheels of my walk-behind MTD mower turn on bolts with a 3/4"
cap. The (plastic rim) wheels have become loose, but I cannot tighten
nor losen that bolt. I can see it spinning in the plate as if the
threads were stripped. Neither clockwise nor counter-clockwise do
anything.

Both rear wheel bolts behave this way. But the end of the bolt looks
like it was flared out a tiny amount so that it is perhaps some kind
of press-fit ??? My local repair place says that this is very
unlikely, but the mower is not worth bringing it to a repair shop.
What is "it" and what is "the plate"? Normally those wheels would be
mounted on a shoulder bolt. I suppose w/ something cheap they may have
made simply a peened end to hold them, don't know, don't have one to
look at...

The "it" is the bolt. The "plate" is the plate of metal that the bolt is
(what I thought) screwed into. It may be peened over at the end to hold
it in place, but the repair guy swears no. I cannot get a better look at
it, and there are no service manuals that explain how to pull that thing
(bolt) out.




I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it. It is likely that the deck is near
rusted through where the wheels attach anyway. It may be time to consider
your replacement options.

It is a shoulder bolt. The threaded ends get caked with grass and
fertilizer and rust or corrode such that the nut will strip the threads
before passing over that part of the threads.

Except that it looks like the end of the bolt just barely passes through the
"plate" I'm talking about. Perhaps peened over like someone elsewhere in
this thread suggested?

At this point I am more irked by it than in need of a repair. As an
engineer I do not like mysteries that should be very simple problems. And I
*loathe* lack of documentation.

....[rip]...