Export thread

I've got a nice Toro 16785 front wheel drive mower with a 2 stroke engine. Back wheels have plenty of tread, and the front wheels are bald. I'm thinking of swapping the metal drive gears from the back to the front...but the pins holding the gears to the wheels are doing their job well.
I don't want to break the metal gears by prying on the pins holding them to the plastic wheels. How have any of you gotten those gears off? Perhaps a cut-off wheel to the pin heads?

Locate your Serial # first then proceed to your parts manual.

those look like shear bolts (snap off head torque screws). The heads snap off when a pre-set torque is reached. Or they may be screw nails. I personally don't think they are pins. Try using a dremel cutoff blade to put a small slot in each one and unscrew them. They may also be glued when they were put in.


OR

sgkent said:

those look like shear bolts (snap off head torque screws). The heads snap off when a pre-set torque is reached. Or they may be screw nails. I personally don't think they are pins. Try using a dremel cutoff blade to put a small slot in each one and unscrew them. They may also be glued when they were put in.

Click to expand...

Nope, they appear to be pressed in type. Note to the letters in the center of the fasteners

look at his wheels. They appear to be rounded heads. It is a poor photo. That said, a smooth pin would not hold unless it was some form of screwlock or a glue was used. It would need pressure to hold and that would eventually either expand the plastic or crack it. The other exception is we cannot see the other side. It may be a rivet that is expanded on both sides. Me, I'd either leave it as is or buy new wheels if it means that much to me as a mower. I HATE front wheel push mowers. You have to push upwards to be sure the front wheels don't lift. I watched my poor worn out 84 year old dad struggle with one and had to show him why he was having so much trouble. When the engine died he had a local guy rebuild it, and it looked like a DDT fogger afterwards. I was 3000 miles away. I bought him a rear wheel drive Toro and he was happy with it until he became disabled and then passed in 2010. My brother has the mower now, and I have its twin. I also hate 2-cycle engines vs 4-cycle.

Sorry you hate 2 cyclers as they both more reliable and are more powerful as the hit on every 360 rotation of the crankshaft. Plus with modern fuel oils don't smoke like a freight train.

But is an image of both sides of the 11-1419 wheels. And they are costly too.

Having worked in Toro dealerships since the early 80’s I’ve see many DIY guys attempt to do this and have not seen one that will last more than a month. If I remember right, was told they are hot pressed in and when you remove them there is not enough material left to hold another type of fastener. Even had one auto body guy use his best Bondo.

carbs on EVERY 2-cycle I have owned crap out in a very short lifespan. Most of the 4-cycle stuff has lasted 15+ years in comparison. And I used to assist in the building of professional 2-cycle racing bike engines in the shop - as in both road track bikes, and moto-cross when I worked for the machine shop because the owner's son raced them. Fastest reflexes I have ever seen in a human. A mouse darted across a table/wall in front of about five or six of us once in the shop. All the rest of us saw was a blurr. His son reached in his pocket, pulled out a pocket knife, opened it, and pinned the mouse before it crossed the table. He said it "walked" across the table. To the rest of us it was a brown blurr. Oh, I used to bore 2-cycle engine cylinders at the shop too for others, only shop at that time for about 100 mile radius that had the equipment and staff (me) capable of that. Also remanufactured 4 Mercury racing outboards for myself up to about 140 HP. So, no I do not like 2-cycle engines and your tone was condescending which it did not need to be.

Yes but what were they doing 15,000 rpm ?
As previously mentioned my fathers original 1962 125cc Victa 2 stroke is still being used by an old fart friend of my sister to mow the common areas of 5 or 6 blocks of 3 story flats ( apartments to some ) been used continiously since 1962 now on a + 20 piston & I have pistons here to + 80 as it has a cast iron barrel so can be bored out to 172 cc , ball bearings on the crank & needle rollers on either end of the con rod.
Love em
And still on the original Amal carb but it has had a couple of slides & needles

Thanks for these responses. I'm pretty confident these pins are pressed in, so what I wanted to do is remove the metal gear off the bald tires, and put the gear on the other wheels that and use 3 bolts to hold the gears onto the wheel. The challenge is prying the pins off and not breaking the gears.

I'll give this a shot this weekend.

bertsmobile1 said:

Yes but what were they doing 15,000 rpm ?
As previously mentioned my fathers original 1962 125cc Victa 2 stroke is still being used by an old fart friend of my sister to mow the common areas of 5 or 6 blocks of 3 story flats ( apartments to some ) been used continiously since 1962 now on a + 20 piston & I have pistons here to + 80 as it has a cast iron barrel so can be bored out to 172 cc , ball bearings on the crank & needle rollers on either end of the con rod.
Love em
And still on the original Amal carb but it has had a couple of slides & needles

Click to expand...

I may not have that length of use. But the two McCullough chainsaws that I wore out cutting many cords of firewood over 30 yrs had out several 4 cycle riding lawn mower engines

It is the maintenance that is important to the longevity of any engine. Many fellow techs here hate 2 cycles simply because they don't understand them. Just like many techs hate Nikki carburetors.

bertsmobile1 said:

Yes but what were they doing 15,000 rpm ?
As previously mentioned my fathers original 1962 125cc Victa 2 stroke is still being used by an old fart friend of my sister to mow the common areas of 5 or 6 blocks of 3 story flats ( apartments to some ) been used continiously since 1962 now on a + 20 piston & I have pistons here to + 80 as it has a cast iron barrel so can be bored out to 172 cc , ball bearings on the crank & needle rollers on either end of the con rod.
Love em
And still on the original Amal carb but it has had a couple of slides & needles

Click to expand...

the racing bikes more like 20,000 - 22,000 but the lawn stuff I keep having to replace the carbs on no. Just conventional 2-stroke engines made for the landscape industry.

Can't we all get along LOL?