Buhler Farm King Wheel Bolt Issue

[hthomure]

Hello everyone. I have an issue that is actually easily fixed, but I don't want to fix it until I know what caused it. I have a 6' rear discharge Farm King finish mower, and I took everything apart today to get everything greased up and ready for summer. When I got to the wheels and wheel bolts, I found two of my four had worn almost 1/4 of the way through. The bolts, that is. I wish I had taken pictures before I put it back together, but I didn't. As I said, replacing the bolts is easy and cheap, but I'd really like to figure out what caused it, or else it's probably just going to happen again (unless this is normal over time). I am pretty faithful about cleaning and greasing everything at least once a year, and usually more.

One thing I noticed was that the bolt doesn't seem to go tightly through the wheel. There is quite a bit of play. That doesn't really seem right to me, but I've never paid attention before. I could see that being a problem. I replaced the wheels a couple of years ago, so I guess it's possible I have the wrong wheels (I got them from the dealer and ordered the wheels for that mower). They're not all that expensive, either, so I might just need to replace everything. But I thought I'd throw it out there first to see if anyone had any thoughts.

thanks.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

The wheels should fit snugly onto the bolts, otherwise the "slop" will just allow the wheel to continue to wallow the bolts. Hopefully the wheel bearings are not too worn out at this point. It may be worth it to replace both the wheels and bolts together making sure they are matched in size.