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I have a Craftsman yard vacuum. It actually works pretty well. But my yard is kind of rough and the thing has small wheels so I bought a pair of giant 12" wheels to help it roll smoother. They actually fit really well, AND turns out there's a second position I can put the axle in to help accommodate the bigger wheels.

But the one glitch in this plan is that the "hub" portion of the new wheels is a lot wider than the original wheels. So I need a longer axle. This axle is not threaded, it's just a perfectly straight rod with a pin hole on each end.

The OEM axle is 20.5" wide. Looks like I need one that is 22 3/8" wide. (or a little wider, I can always pad it out with extra washers). Anyone know where I can get an axle like this? I gotta assume that some piece of equipment out there probably takes this exact axle and I could just swap it in. But I'm not sure how to look for it. Is there a name for this type of axle, with the pin holes instead of threading?

No, you won't find a wider axle to work, so you will have to fabricate one.
Put up the unit's model numbers off of the tag, so we can look at the illustrated blowup of it.

If the wheels are held on with a bolt. drill the bolt hole a bit deeper then get a grade 9 cap head bolt to fit in it.
make a spacer to extend the axel the desired length.

Craftsman model number 987.799601

Manual: https://c.searspartsdirect.com/mmh/pd_download/lis_pdf/OWNM/L0708441.pdf

The best picture of the axle is actually on page 10. It's just a plain straight bar with pin holes on each end.
The breakdown is on page 36. The part number for the axle is 1763391

bertsmobile1 said:

If the wheels are held on with a bolt. drill the bolt hole a bit deeper then get a grade 9 cap head bolt to fit in it.
make a spacer to extend the axel the desired length.

Click to expand...

No bolts. They are held on by a retainer clip that goes through the small hole at either end of the axle.

Hopefully I can buy a new axle that's very close to the right size, all ready to go.
If nothing close enough exists, then I guess I'll have to make my own. If I do go this route, at least it will be cheap. They have half inch metal rods at home depot.

They have zinc plated 3' for $7.53. That looks like the same metal as the original axle. Although I assume it will no longer be plated on the end where I cut it, and also inside the holes I have to drill?

They also have half inch aluminum rods for $8. I won't have to worry about that rusting, and it should be a lot easier to drill in to. And it won't hurt having the machine be a tiny bit lighter. But will an aluminum rod be strong enough to carry the load of the machine? I assume it will, it's not that heavy after all. But I don't know much about metal strengths-vs-thicknesses.

They also have plain old steel rods for $6.40, but I assume that will rust very quickly. I'm thinking the zinc or the aluminum is the way to go. Thoughts?

Related question, somewhat off-topic:

Does this yard vacuum do a good job picking up burrs from the yard/dry dirt?

Cusser said:

Related question, somewhat off-topic:

Does this yard vacuum do a good job picking up burrs from the yard/dry dirt?

Click to expand...

Burrs?

l008com said:

Burrs?

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Yeah. From weeds. They get caught in the cocker spaniel's fur, like little tiny velcro invaders from outer space. See the little hooks on them !

Cusser said:

Yeah. From weeds. They get caught in the cocker spaniel's fur, like little tiny velcro invaders from outer space. See the little hooks on them !

Click to expand...

I don't have these so I do not know. All I have is a never ending sea of giant oak tree leaves.

Cusser said:

Yeah. From weeds. They get caught in the cocker spaniel's fur, like little tiny velcro invaders from outer space. See the little hooks on them !

Click to expand...

They're called burdock around here..
Pesty little devils..

So I ended up just buying the zinc plated steel rod at home depot and turning it into an axle tonight. Went pretty well except my WD40 leaks about 10 parts out of the cap for every 1 part you spray out the straw. So I made a real big mess while drilling but oh well. It came out descent.

These pictures look very similar to the second picture on the original post. But in this picture, the wheels are installed with the newly fabricated axle and they are ready to go. I also rounded the edges of the axle on a bench grinder. Since they stick out further than the wheels, hopefully this will prevent them from catching on things when i'm up close.





Now I kind of want to replace the front wheels. They're not worn out and I can't go any bigger up front because it will rub on the vacuum sucker part. But now I want front wheels that match the rear wheels in color and shape