Thanks Mark, it took me a while to get back to this. I did this and one wheel popped off after a couple of minutes of effort (less the bearing). The other wheel eventually popped off but the bearing remained frozen to the axle shaft. I eventually ordered a new transmission, rear wheels, bearings, drive gears, pinion gears, and all of the retaining and e clips, rear axle (threads were compromised), and a new belt (basically the entire rear drive system). This is a mower my 82 year old mother in law uses and she loves to wash the mower down after use. I told her to stop doing that because all of the components rusted out or seized up.