Hi, I need to get the rear wheels off my ZTX 42. I did not realize it had the cheepo, one piece wheel/hub, or I wouldn't have bought it. I removed the bolt, applied lot's of blaster, tapped, pulled, cussed, even rode around the yard, and the damed thing will not come off. No holes to insert eye bolts to use puller. Guess I could drill a couple. Seems sad on such an expensive 42" mower.
Put a pair of scissor jacks or machine jacks between the wheel & the body and apply a reasonable load
replace the bolt with an Allen bolt
Get an air hammer and push as hard as you can onto the allen bolt & pull the trigger
When the jacks fall out, put some penetrant on the exposed axel, replace the jacks & repeat
This may take a very long time as you are only working with with the 0.010" to 0.100 freeplay in the axels
If you get nowhere then it is out with the oxy & heat the hub up to dull red hot and use some tractor / truck length tyre levers or if you have help some long pry bars.
Naturally this means the wheel will need to be repainted .
And of course some anti-seize on the axel when it goes back on will prevent a repeat performance .
