1974 Bolens HT20 - Replacement stub axle bushings

[@HuntingFarmerOfficial]

Good job keeping the regularly used yard machine in good working order.

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. It is good that the bushings lasted 50 years but they we overdue being changed. Take care

[@RustyGlovebox]

Great job staying on top of the maintenance. That should really help with steering slack and tire wear.

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. Other than moving it back to it's home we have not used it yet but I think you are right, it should remove a lot of the slack. Take care

[@OpenAirAdventure]

Good evening Joseph. I like the sacrificial bushing idea.

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. It made a huge difference changing the bushings. Take care

[@daveshsb]

Nice work on the bushing replacement. It looked like the process went very smoothly. I like you new spreadsheet system. A great way to track your repairs and maintenance! Well done Joseph!

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. The bushing replacement went better than expected. The spreadsheet is great with all our garden tractors but would also work well with all the different equipment you have. I hope you are feeling better, take care

[@gravelyman]

Hello Joseph. It was a great idea to replace the bushings with out removing the axle. Job well done. It would have been ashame to wear out the new tires prematurely. Take care 🔧👍

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. We thought it would be difficult with the axle still in place but it went very well. Take care

[@santaclause2875]

Good stuff, Joseph !!! You and The Cameraman make some of the best machinery maintenance how-to video episodes on the Tube !!!! Love that equipment maintenance log spread sheet, too. Keep up the good work, have a great week !!!

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thank you for the kind words. The spreadsheet was designed by 29Chev from the Garden Tractor Talk forum and we have modified it slightly for our use. Take care and I hope you have a great week too

[@sandhollowhomestead6972]

By means of elimination you tend to find the root cause. I've put off pulling the stator off of my Craftsman 1000 riding mower. It seems to me I have to do 6 things just to do one job and I have a lot of jobs. Winter is coming and I've been outside building a new ramp for my handicap wife. I'm glad to see you're keeping up with the mower. Great team work!

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. We changed the stator on the HT23 we normally use for grass cutting and had to take the engine out to do it. It now has a leaking crank oil seal and the engine needs to come out again, not helpful. It sounds like life has changed for you, I hope everything is good. Take care

[@gatorsworld]

That’s another top notch repair that you guys put together for the viewers here and is much appreciated from my part. I really like your adapting a threading rod to working as a press……CHEERS

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thank you for the kind words. We have used threaded rod or bolts before to pull bushings in and it works well. Take care

[@MySliceOfHeavenoutdoors]

its a lot of work, working on the tractors. You make it look easy

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks 👍The job on this tractor went a lot better than we were expecting. Take care

[@tinkeringtaylor3053]

Thats a really good job with the bushes, save the new tyres, good to hear you have it running better 👌👍

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks 👍 The bushing replacement went a lot easier than expected and it is great to have the engine running well. Take care

[@maintenancewithmike]

Too many high speed corners Joseph 😂. Excellent repair!

[@GardenTractorBoy]

LOL. The bushings lasted well, I wonder if the replacments will last 50 yeas too. Take care

[@GrampiesWorkshop]

How's she goin'? This was a nice repair of the very well worn steering spindle bushings. I liked your bushing press. That made quick work of getting the bushings in place with minimum risk of them going in crooked and maybe damaging them. Thanks for sharing this repair Joseph. Take 'er easy!!

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. The replacement went better than we expected. We have used a bolt before to pull in bushings and it works well. Take care

[@retiredforlife63]

Nice job! Good to get a straight forward repair every once and a while. I like your spread sheet👍👍

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. You are right, it makes a nice change for things to be straight forward. We did think we would need to achine the new bushings but they fit better than the originals. Take care

[@philhermetic]

Excellent job on the king pin bushes, it looks like the wrong parts had been fitted! There was certainly no apparent wear on the king pins! If compression is good and an engine still burns oil, check the crankcase breather system, if this is blocked or restricted the crankcase pressure builds up and forces oil from the crankcase past the piston rings int the combustion chamber, and also down the valve guides! Good work Joseph! Phil Phil Whitley, My week this week.

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks, it went better than we expected. We were confused by the original parts as they did seem to be wrong but from what we can understand they are correct and the originals appear to be a very rare design issue from Bolens. The replacements fit much better and it almost seemed too easy. We should have done a full video on just the engine issues but we just glossed over them. We did check the breather and that was fine. It might be too early to tell but as the smoke has gone now we can only assume it was unburned fuel from the electrical problem although it did look like oil. It very much looked like the rings needed replacing which is common on this model of engine. Thanks for your suggestions. Take care

[@loggerjohn01]

Hello guys. Great job getting those bushings in. I'm sure the new tires will appreciate it! I enjoyed the video. Take care

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. The job went a lot easier than we expected. Take care

[@ab-shop]

Amazing Joseph! You know i had Always dream a work like your hobby, where check the problems and find out a solution to solve it! For this reason you are very lucky! Great job!! Ciao!! Alberto 🇮🇹

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks Alberto. It is fun working on these garden tractors especially if some machining is required. Take care

[@botabob]

Good work gentlemen. It's got to be hard to put off repairing the hubs. It's also nice to have a barn of tractors capable of getting the job done. Having enough horsepower to mow a lawn as big as yours is important. I would imagine you all could wear out a wimp lawn mower in two seasons. Well, have a good day. Enjoy the Journey - Cheers

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks 👍 I think the wheel bearings will be next on this tractor. At one time we did cut our grass with a lawn tractor but it was too much for it. Take care

[@jankotze1959]

Brilliant video Joseph, well done with the bushings and that spreadsheet per tractor is awesome

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. The bushings was almost too easy. Take care

[@whenworkisplay]

Hello Joseph. Really enjoyed the video. Thanks, Ben

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks Ben, I am pleased you enjoyed it. Take care

[@DIYVariety]

Nice press, and great job. You did lot of work

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks 👍 It worked out very well in the end. Take care

[@EverydayProjects]

I thought what you'd do was machine the top flange down to the original thickness but since you had enough stub axle length, they fit as is. It would have been good to see the cameraman with a small lathe project to build his skills, but maybe another time. Nice job pressing the bushings in with the bolt and washers! That de-greaser works wonders--the knuckle looks like new after cleaning!

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. We did think that we would have to machine the new bushings but they fitted better than the original ones. It would be good to clean all the tractor at some point. Take care

[@MissouriOldTimer]

that cured that problem That method is much better than just pounding the bushings in,, however,, I have used a hammer.. lol

[@GardenTractorBoy]

It was a lot easier than we expected and worked out well. It is a shame they did not put bushings in tube frames from the factory. Take care

[@tractortalkwithgary1271]

Good afternoon Joseph

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Hello Gary, I hope everything is good with you. Take care

[@henrymurawskibigdogrepair]

Nice work and great video thanks

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thank you. Take care

[@larrybl]

I like the bushing press. Im going to go look for that spread sheet on GTT. Thanks.

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. I have put a link to the spreadsheet in the video description now. We modified it from the one posted on GTT. Lots of people have commented about it so we may do a detailed video in the spreadsheet. Take care

[@29chevbolenschannel40]

Great video - thanks for sharing - glad the bushings worked out and you found the rough running problems. One thing I would like to know is did replacing the high tension result in less smoke when the engine is running - don't think you mentioned about the smoke in the video after you stated the high tension wires were stopping the engine from starting but might have missed it? If you could post a link to the thread on GTTalk that contains the excel worksheet file in your video description it might help others who wish to keep track of their machines and attachments service information but are not good at creating a database from scratch as I think the file can still be downloaded and saved from the site- just a suggestion. The biggest thing I find that is the hardest is to get in the habit of writing the information down on a piece of paper and then transferring it to a data base as not everyone has a PC or laptop in their workshop - I ended up putting up a big sign on the inside of the entrance / exit door to the shop with the words "WRITE IT DOWN" on it to remind me when I am done working on a piece of equipment.

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. It was very odd that the replacement bushings with the higher shoulder worked better than the originals which appeared to be too small. We did gloss over the engine issues and missed a few things. It is all very odd, it started smoking a tiny bit a couple of years ago and has been slowly getting worse. When it died it was really bad and we thought that at the least it needed rings. After replacing the coil and HT leads not only did it start working again but it now no longer smokes at all. We have only used it for a few hours since but so far everything is good. We are not sure if the smoke was unburnt fuel from the electrical issues or the electrical issues causing it to work very hard and oil was getting past the rings. It has a bad crank case oil seal leak which we need to sort at some point so it is not possible to know if oil is getting past the rings or leaking or both. If it is getting past the rings, it is not showing on the plugs. We should have videoed the engine work but at the time it was frustrating and we needed to get it running as soon as possible. I have added a link to the spreadsheet in the description, thanks. A lot of people have mentioned the spreadsheet to us so we may do a video dedicated to it once we have more data. We bought a secondhand corporate laptop for the workshop to see if it would be useful and I don't think we could do without it now. Take care

[@richardross7219]

Good video. I think it was 29Chev that made that sheet. He has done many upgrade projects for GTT. Good Luck, Rick

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. Yes, it was 29Chev and I agree he has done a lot of good work on the forum. Take care

[@kimber1958]

Great video Joe

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks 👍 I am pleased you liked it. Take care

[@WaynJul]

Changing the axle bushings will save a lot of wearing on the tires.

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. It is a job we should have done a long time ago but we are very pleased it is done now. Take care

[@noelstractors-firewood57]

Expert work as normal fellas. 👍🏻. Funny how a bad running engine can throw you for a loop sometimes. And take some time to figure out. Great idea with the spread sheet for any of us with many tractors. Nice fix on the king pin bushings. So the wheel bearings need greasing by taking the dust cap off and removing the bearings and repack them ?? Great video fellas. 👍🏻👍🏻👋👋

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. The engine problems were frustrating which is why we did not record it but we are very pleased with how it runs now. You are right, wheel bearings is next on the list although we try not to do too many jobs at once on a machine we frequently use. Take care

[@noelstractors-firewood57]

👍🏻👋👍🏻👋

[@KentuckyFriedFixes]

Those Bolens were built to last. Our 1046 Cub Cadet had steering issues last year. After a closer look I found the wheel bushings were plastic!

[@GardenTractorBoy]

I think you are right, this one is only 50 years old and still going strong. Plastic bushings does not sound good but you may be able to swap them for bronze ones. Take care

[@Lelln]

Nice job on the bushings. Do you have the measure of the bushing you fitted? Or maby even a link to where to buy them? Keep up the good work

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks. We used Oilite bushings for this. They were not a perfect match as the flange was thicker but they did seem to fit better than the originals. The Oilite part number we used was AJ1620-12 which is 1" ID, 1-1/4 OD, 3/4" L. Please check you existing bushings first as they may be different. I hope this helps. Drop me an email if you need any further information. Take care