My mower is about 16 years old now and the tires have leaks due to sidewall cracks that Slime won't fix. Instead of traditional bearing caps the wheels have what appear to be heat shrink plastic covers.
View attachment 38435
I know I can peel it off somehow, but it doesn't look like it would be possible to get it back on. Is there some trick to removing and replacing these wheels, because I need to get new tires?
The axel covers are made from PVC and both go hard & shrink over time .
Don't waste time buggerising around with them chop them off & replace them with nice new ones.
In fact why not treat the mower to 4 nice new ones they are about $ 2-50 a piece.
I used John Deer ones , which are yellow because down here JD parts,( $ 2-50 ) are a lot cheaper than Husqvarna parts ( $ 9.10 ).
All lawn tractors that come out of the AYP factory have them fitted so shop around, Craftsman, McCulloch, Roper , Rally, Poulan , JD 100 series and probably 50 other brands , same wheel, same grease cover.
The only thing that changes brand to brand is the colour.
JD are yellow , Husqvarna are orange, Rally are red ( goes faster ) all the others are black.
The wheel will most likely be rusted solid onto the axel.
DO NOT BASH IT WITH BIG HAMMERS, PULL IT OFF WITH YOUR CAR or any other butchery.
Warm it up then spray with Kroll or similar & let it cool.
Repeat a few times, keep the key up.
Now get a pair of scissor jacks put them between the wheel & the rear body panel then tighten them up to put a reasonable load on the wheel .
IF you have an air hammer, apply it to the axel while pressing hard on the axel.
When the wheel shifts 1/8" put another turn on the jacks and repeat.
You can use a FBH and punch, but an air hammer works much better.
Repeat till the wheel is off then polish the axel and grease liberally before replacing the wheel.
The axel is only held in with either a round wire clip or an E clip, both pressing against the alloy case so extreme violence will rip the axel right out and can write off the tranny.
A proper 2 year service removes the wheels & greases the axel so they slip off easy.
The only other method that works without destroying anything is to split the box, pull the clip off the axels and press the axels out of the wheels.
And yes I have had to resort to this a couple of times.
And after the first one, every mower that comes in get the axels greased.