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Did not do this until I removed the wheel to fix a flat tire. What could be the problem?

Sounds like your drive belt either jumped off or broke. You have to look up above your deck into the frame. That is what drives your transmission and if it jumps off or breaks, it won't move. Bob

The wheels arent keyed onto the axel are they?
But its more than likely what bob said.

Using a magnet you can find the square drive key in the grass often right there in close proximity where you pulled the wheel off. You'll hear it make a clank/click sound when the magnet locates it. Pull the wheel back off and install it then go mow grass.

Scrubcadet10 said:

The wheels arent keyed onto the axel are they?
But its more than likely what bob said.

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The wheels are not locked on, just two washers and a grommet to hold them on. There is a two inch 1\4 centimeter strip engraved on the axl where the attatches.

Alweeja said:

The wheels are not locked on, just two washers and a grommet to hold them on. There is a two inch 1\4 centimeter strip engraved on the axl where the attatches.

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In that groove in the axle should be a steel key way. The wheel needs to be locked to the axle shaft or it will just spin and not go anywhere.

MowLife said:

In that groove in the axle should be a steel key way. The wheel needs to be locked to the axle shaft or it will just spin and not go anywhere.

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What makes the wheel lock into the steel key way. Do you rotate the tire until it is locked in? Someone earlier said something fits inside the channel engraved into the axle. Is that the “key”? What does it look like and how is it installed so the wheel stays still?

The axle has a groove called a Key Seat. The hub of the wheel has a Key Way. Look in the wheel hub and you'll see that groove. Find the key that fell out when you pulled the wheel and install it in the key seat. If you are unable to find it buy a new piece of key stock and cut it to length, about 1-1/2" long or about 38 mm.

Thanks for all the help. I never found the key so I just made one. I took a tire pressure gauge and remove the square center piece that measures the tire pressure and installed it on the slot. It is a perfect fit and is working great so far.

Maybe the manufacturers can learn from this. Now, if they would press a plastic bushing in the wheel hub we would never have difficulty removing a wheel because of rust.

Learning is a good point. I would think that the German engineer's could/should have considered this.

SeniorCitizen said:

Maybe the manufacturers can learn from this. Now, if they would press a plastic bushing in the wheel hub we would never have difficulty removing a wheel because of rust.

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They could do a lot of things to make the rear axel better but don't because the buying public will not pay 1 red cent more for it, in fact they want it to be cheaper.
There is noting wrong with the system.
What is missing is proper maintenance.
Every two years ( or second service ) on my customers mowers, the wheels come off and some copper anti sieze gets put on the shaft.
The left wheels usually come off every service because it makes it easier to lube the deck lift mechanism.

And a plastic bush would not work in that position.
It would extrude out of each end which would put enough slack in the drive for the hub to fret on the key destroying the wheel .
For a drive key to be effective the two parts must be a close fit and a tight fit.
One of the local brands down here uses a taper ( same as the flywheel ) which is a much better system

bertsmobile1 said:

There is noting wrong with the system.
What is missing is proper maintenance.

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Have you ever pulled a wheel off that appeared to have been greased during assembly at the factory?

SeniorCitizen said:

Have you ever pulled a wheel off that appeared to have been greased during assembly at the factory?

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No
The surface of the axels is passivated so it should do a few years without rusting by which time the wheel should have come off and been greased.
Same story for steering gears, tie rods, deck height adjusting pivots etc etc etc.
Owners guide says to oil them or grease them but no one ever does except old farmers who are used to walking round their tractor with a grease gun every time they start it and some mowing crews that have a maintenance regeime that some one is paid to do.

You can not blame the factory for the customers laziness or cheapness.
The factory has to make x% profit on the mower that costs $ y to make but the customer is only willing to pay $ Z so the mower is made cheap enough to get the required profits.

Cub used to fit spiders and a real wheel that bolted to the spider to their GT's
No one bought them because it was more expensive that the simple key & slot used on the AYP GT's
This now all wheels have eother the rectangular slot used by MTD or the keyway used by everyone else in the USA.
Even a lot of the commercials have gone to a simple key.

It all comes down to the conversations that we were having on the obsolescence thread.
It is very hard too convince pig headed technically illiterate buying public that the mower has to be more expensive this year because you are using better engineering & higher quality materials when they KNOW that mass manufacturing and competition MUST make the mower cheaper.

And to bore you sensless & have a little brag about superiour Aussie engineering,,,
In 1982 Victa released the Power Torque engine , designed to be the longest life simpleist to maintain most reliable mower evr built,,,, and it was and still is.
In 1952 Merv realized that having the air intake down in the dust was a bad idea so he had already moved it to the top of the handlebars & fitted a snorkel
He had also abandoned bar blades in favour of a disc with swig back blades so you don't destroy the mower if you hit a rock or root while mowing.

The new engines address all of the problems being encountered by the then current crop of engines
1) the throttle cable went inside the snorkel so it did not get snagged on shrubs or fill with water & rust
2) the throttle mechanism was inside the carb so if you bashed into something you did not wreck the mechanism as you dit with all of the Briggs spring series of engines
3) the carb was plastic so it did not corrode
4) the main jet draws fuel from 2/3 up the float bowl so it does not clog or draw accumulated water
5) the main jet also has an inbuilt filter so it can never clog
5) being drawn from 2/3 the way up a vertical float chamber it is unaffected by tilting the mower up down left or right
6) governor is by air pressure on a rubber diaphragm so no rusty or lost springs
7) vacuum operated decompressor so it was easy to start & could run a high compression ratio
8) overhung crank with the flywheel under the engine so lower centre of gravity and overall lower mower so cut under very low shrubs
9) Under deck exhaust outlet so it was relatively quiet.
10) Muffler held on with 2 spring clips so no exhaust bolts rusted in & broken off inside the engine
11) full cast iron barrel making it cheap to make, thermally stable & allowing 4 rebores The racers tool them out to +100
12) hall effect ignition, the first mower to use it because they paid Atom the 20¢ royality per unit
13) engine fitted east west so the mower base is shorter & carb is protected from impact by the barrel
14) unaffected by water it will run under 2' of water
15) trip handles
16) single lever height adjustment on all 4 wheels
17) ball bearing wheels
There was actually around 50 publicised imppovements, ( some were a bit of a stretch ) including a "quiet" model that is actually quieter than the 4 stroke engines.

IT was an instant hit, took 82% of the local market & was exported to 82 countries around the world, except the USA where it was deemed to be too dangerous for Americans to use, unless it was made in the USA when magically it would become safe, but that is a different story.
This remained till the 90's by which time the fact that the general public could not under stand the difference between low maintenance & no maintenance so in place of replacing a 1/2 dozen O rings they sold their "shitebox" two stroke mowers that never start and bought a "more reliable" 4 stroke, swearing off 2 strokes forever. The owners manual contained all of the information needed to do regular maintenance and noted that it should go back to their dealer for regular service but no one bothered till they had to pull the starter 50 times before it would start.

Now the point of this is we designed the closest thing to a perfect push mower that was possible to do and it was quite cheap to buy to boot, in fact we could have sold them into the USA a lot cheaper than the very popular Lawnboys.
Yet long term they were a market failure because people refused to either service them themselves or have the serviced.
So while a better axel system could be made , it would have the same outcome that no one would ever bother till something broke.

The aside to the Victa story is for $ 30 in parts most of them can be returned to starting before the cord gets to the end but the popular persecption is that a 2 stroke mower never start so you can not sell them except to the 2 stroke fanatics, who pick up mowers from the tip & spend $ 30.

Bertsmobile1

I am one of those who oil the mower almost every time I mow. Joints that don't have alemites for grease and are moving joints steel on steel, I oil. Got several old fashion oil squirt cans around. Only negative thing about that, you catch a lot of dust. I don''t know a single person that does that but I haft to. :wink:

Enjoyed reading about the Ausi mower improved features for longevity. Bob

platefire said:

Bertsmobile1

I am one of those who oil the mower almost every time I mow. Joints that don't have alemites for grease and are moving joints steel on steel, I oil. Got several old fashion oil squirt cans around. Only negative thing about that, you catch a lot of dust. I don''t know a single person that does that but I haft to. :wink:

Enjoyed reading about the Ausi mower improved features for longevity. Bob

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I see it this way. There is dust / dirt there whether you oil / grease or not. So with that in mind do we want dry dust / dirt or lubricated dust / dirt. I'll take the lubricated dust / dirt so I grease the pinion and sector gear teeth that the factory deemed too expensive to lube along with the rusted axles. Everyone else can do what makes them happy.

Mowers love grease and oil and hate water:thumbdown: