"after about 200 hours of use"

Are you actually complaining about having to tighten a couple of bolts every 200 hours?

Most small walk behinds never make it this far to begin with.

You have quality machinery, do what it takes to keep it going.

 

it is almost impossible to keep the socket wrench on the bolt, as you have to put LOTS of pressure on them to get them to tighten.

Are you referring to applying pressure to keep the socket on the thin headed bolt ?

 

Lucforce - not very helpful....I am not complaining, these are great machines...I just need advice on tightening these bolts, or ways to make them not need tightening.

Restorb - Yeah, the dang wrench pops off these shallow bolts...is there a fix? Am I doing something wrong??? LOTS of force is needed to turn these bolts, not to mention the pain of getting a hold of the nut on the other side at the same time.

Help! Thanks! :waving:

PS: These are comercial toro prolines. Built well, with exeption of these front wheels, and the handel attachement. We get 1000 hours+ on these easy.

 

Are you referring to the wheel bolts or the pivot arm bolts? From my experience it is normally the pivot arm bolts which loosen first. First, examine the spring arms for wear, particularly where the spring arm engages the notches in the height adjuster. Replace the spring arms if necessary. If the pivot arm is loose on the bolt, replace both. When installing the bolt and pivot arms use some blue locktite on the threads and tighten with an impact not a ratchet. It seems reasonable that with a fleet of Toro commercials you would have a stock pile of parts on hand along with a rechargable electric impact.

Dutch

 

Thanks Dutch!

Yeah, I didn't even think of an impact wrench....duuuh....I have a compressor, but no impact wrench....I know that sounds stupid. I need to invest in one.

I do have quite a few extra parts, but mainly just throttle cables / belts / transmissions. Thanks again.

Any other advice?

 

Yeah, the dang wrench pops off these shallow bolts...is there a fix? .

Take a six point socket and grind the tapper area out of the bottom, This will get the socket over the bolt fully.

 

If you get to the point where the rear spring arms do not want to stay engaged and you replace spring arms, save the old spring arms and cut them off at the first bend and install them between the wear cup and the new spring arm to take up excessive end play in the transmission drive shaft.

Dutch

 

"not very helpful....I am not complaining, these are great machines...I just need advice on tightening these bolts, or ways to make them not need tightening."

I did not intend to sound nasty, but we are only talking about tightening a couple of bolts.

When these things get tipped back to turn and then dropped on their front wheel for, say 200 hours, something is boing to give. Nearly every one of these that I ever saw brought in to a shop had loose front wheels and/or height adjusters. It takes three minutes to tighten them. It is just part of the deal.

 

After using my Toro Proline for awhile and trying to keep the nut tight, but not too tight so as to make an adjustment difficult (I make height adjustments often), I used a double nut. This way, I can tighten the bolt so that it is tight enough to eliminate slop, but not too tight so that I can still make height adjustments. The lock nut I got was a thin one, but it works fine and eliminated any further problem with those bolts. In my opinion, it is a poor design -- trying to keep a bolt tight enough to eliminate slop, but not too tight so the part can rotate over the bolt -- bad design.

 

this is a pitifull desighn for a "commercial mower" and one of ther reasons i dont use these anymore the wheel mounting desighn sucks!

 

Thanks all for the advice. I think, as suggested, an impact wrench with lock tight will do the trick.

Lawnboy dan: what 21" did you switch to? I know there are other options, but we just LOVE our toro proline 21"s (Honda engine of course).

 

z clark, be careful on using an impact on these bolts. If the holes are elongated in the front quadrants and/or the spring arms are worn then replace as needed. I also use anti-sieze on the pivot arm bolt if these are replaced. Using Loctite on the nut for the pivot arm bolt is also a good idea.

 

i switched to john deere. they do every thing well. and i have had far fewer problems. one i bought used (very used!) and its still going 10 yrs later with no other repairs than drive wheele gears. these are the commercial series but they stoped making them last year. the jx75 i have has bested the comm toro,s too. jd also gives 5 speeds vs toro,s 3. the only thing the toro had going for it was the bullitproof suzuki engine but thats gone now too. every toro i had (at least 20!) died because the wheels or trans gave out.