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Save a 184

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 8:42 am
by outdoors4evr
Ok, somebody stop me from posting my 184 and attachments in the for sale section.
Obviously I cannot solve my clutch issues. It needs help from a professional. :sick:

I either need to take it to a pro for service who can fix it or sell it.

It worked the longest (and best) with a worn out driveshaft. I am about to file down the splines of the new driveshaft until they have enough slop in there that a clutch can survive for more than a month and then sell it.

Somebody stop me from doing something I will regret. (going green)

Re: Save a 184

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 5:15 pm
by Smith
outdoors4evr wrote: I am about to file down the splines of the new driveshaft until they have enough slop in there that a clutch can survive for more than a month and then sell it.


Wow thats pretty shady right there.........

Re: Save a 184

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 8:12 pm
by mjr46
outdoors4evr wrote:Ok, somebody stop me from posting my 184 and attachments in the for sale section.
Obviously I cannot solve my clutch issues. It needs help from a professional. :sick:

I either need to take it to a pro for service who can fix it or sell it.

It worked the longest (and best) with a worn out driveshaft. I am about to file down the splines of the new driveshaft until they have enough slop in there that a clutch can survive for more than a month and then sell it.

Somebody stop me from doing something I will regret. (going green)
sell it, so I can buy the tiller and snow thrower from you :D

Re: Save a 184

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 9:57 pm
by outdoors4evr
So this time I tore it down before a complete catastrophic failure of the clutch.
I have always had difficulty getting everything to fit well between the engine and transmission. The new driveshaft always seemed too long and I could never get the snap ring in its groove. The snap ring groove was always about 0.15" under the U-Joint carrier no matter what.

During my last clutch swap I noticed how the pilot bearing rode way out on the end of the driveshaft far from the splines. Today when I disassembled, the driveshaft was not seated in the pilot bearing but had worked its way back until it was flopping around along with the clutch within the confines of the pressure plate. The snap ring is supposed to prevent this from occurring, but since I had not gotten the groove to line up then it wasn't there to do the job. This must have been traumatizing to the rivets that held the clutch plate together.

I will now shorten the end of the driveshaft that fits into the pilot bearing (approximately .2") so that the snap ring groove will be useful.
Hopefully this will end the clutch saga for 2011 & 2012. I don't know why I can't just give up on this thing. It's starting to feel like owning a boat. 3 hours of maintenance to 1 hour of seat time.

Re: Save a 184

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 11:08 pm
by mjr46
outdoors4evr wrote:So this time I tore it down before a complete catastrophic failure of the clutch.
I have always had difficulty getting everything to fit well between the engine and transmission. The new driveshaft always seemed too long and I could never get the snap ring in its groove. The snap ring groove was always about 0.15" under the U-Joint carrier no matter what.

During my last clutch swap I noticed how the pilot bearing rode way out on the end of the driveshaft far from the splines. Today when I disassembled, the driveshaft was not seated in the pilot bearing but had worked its way back until it was flopping around along with the clutch within the confines of the pressure plate. The snap ring is supposed to prevent this from occurring, but since I had not gotten the groove to line up then it wasn't there to do the job. This must have been traumatizing to the rivets that held the clutch plate together.

I will now shorten the end of the driveshaft that fits into the pilot bearing (approximately .2") so that the snap ring groove will be useful.
Hopefully this will end the clutch saga for 2011 & 2012. I don't know why I can't just give up on this thing. It's starting to feel like owning a boat. 3 hours of maintenance to 1 hour of seat time.
I to had to buy a new driveshaft with my recent clutch install as when the old pilot locked up it tore the tip of the shaft up, and when I got the new shaft I put it side by side the old oem to make sure all was machined in the proper location so upon install if there was such an issue I could rule out the prob of the shaft....do you have the old one to compare?? also I had to play with the driveshaft a little to get it to seat in the pilot properly but once it dropped in I was able to get the u-joint on and slide snap ring into place :)

Re: Save a 184

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:10 am
by outdoors4evr
The new driveshaft was identical length as the old one, but I also had multiple repairs going on at the same time. (bad idea)
While replacing the driveshaft, Clutch, Throwout, and U-Joint I also replaced the leaky rear seal.
Upon disassembly, found the engine was not tightened down to the vertical mounts in the back. Tightening it down pulled the engine rearward nearly 1/4". (front mounts are L brackets and allowed for this) Now that the engine is all secured, I removed the creeper and transmission to replace a shift fork and removed the finals for a brake job, cleaning, and new fresh HyTran.

Issues began - Replaced the clutch again after 8 months.

A year later I pulled the engine to replaced the crank. Clutches started lasting less time after this.
And the saga continued.

Hopefuly it will be solved now by some good old engineering. I still cannot account for that 1/4" somewhere. Seems like a spacer is missing, but I just can't find where it belongs. (no, it doesn't go between the engine and the motor mount)

Re: Save a 184

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:22 am
by outdoors4evr
Got the 184 back together again. After shortening the end of the driveshaft 1/4" I also decided to replace the pressure plate. After assembly it didn't want to release the clutch. Had to adjust it all the way in to get it to release. (makes me nervous) Took a bit of use to "break in" the clutch and new pressure plate.

Drive, Adjust, Drive, Adjust, .......

Finally was able to adjust it so the clutch would engage 1" from full travel and still have the TOB clear the fingers when fully engaged.
Before the clutch would engage as soon as I wiggled my foot and the TOB would barely clear the fingers.
This is actually feeling "right". Put the covers back on and installed the mower deck.

Back to mowing with the 184. Finished mowing the yard last night. No funny noises, no weird clutch engagement issues like shuttering or grabbing.

Maybe this thing will be a keeper after all. :{_}: :D :||):