[Pete1313]

"Reunited, and it feels so good"...

This was the mower that got it all started for me. The mower that made low cut KBG a reality at my last home. After selling it to a co-worker and he didn't use it to it's full potential, I bought it back from him. I am currently reconditioning it for a cool-season member here, and am excited that soon he will be low mowing cool-season grass as well. This is my favorite mower! It is a 2011 John Deere 220SL with an 11-blade reel. In the next few posts I will show how to replace the reel, bearings, bedknife, as well as some other things as I get it ready for it's new owner.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You are my favorite poster to read by far. You rolled out the red carpet for the JD? Seriously? :roll:

 

[Pete1313]

You are my favorite poster to read by far. You rolled out the red carpet for the JD? Seriously? :roll:

Thanks Ridgerunner! This mower has a special place in my heart... so ofcourse it gets the red carpet treatment!.. Stay tuned, it is all torn apart. Plenty of pics to upload tonight.

 

[ericgautier]

I wished I lived closer to you! Someone is going to be very happy with this machine.

 

[Pete1313]

So let's get to it. First off, I am currently an auto mechanic and have been working on cars for 15 years. Mechanical tasks come easy to me. This reel replacement is alittle more involved then the reels on my QA5 cutting heads. I feel anyone can do it, but go at your own risk as there are alot of things to remove. This process would be the same on all John Deere A/B/C/SL fixed head reel mowers from 1997-Current.

First I removed the chain cover on the side of the mower.

Behind it are the one roller drive chain and the reel drive chain.

You can see that both chains have too much deflection. The deflection spec on the roller drive chain is 7/16" and 1/4" on the reel chain. You can adjust the deflection, and I will do it on reassembly.

Next I removed the top sprocket that is on the differential shaft.

There is a keyway on the differential shaft. When removing the sprocket and chain, capture the key and make sure not to lose it.

I then worked on the other side of the reel where the compression spring is. There would normally be a cover that goes on top of this, and is missing because the previous course that had it must of had a groomer assembly on it and removed it before auction. I will get a new cover for reassembly so dirt/debris wont get into the new reel bearings. You can see the gear that is left on there is normally not on a unit without a groomer. The compression spring is what holds the preload on the reel bearings and is a good idea to replace it when reconditioning the reel.

I then removed the compression spring bolt, groomer gear, spacer, and a ring that I believe is only needed on a setup with a groomer.

Next I loosened both of the bolts that hold the bedknife adjusters on both sides, fully unscrewed both adjusters, and removed them from the unit.

Next I removed the 3 bolts on the left and right reel bearing housing assemblies that bolt on to the frame, and then slide out the reel/bed bar/bedknife assembly as one piece.

 

[Pete1313]

I wished I lived closer to you! Someone is going to be very happy with this machine.

it is going to be fun to rebuild. Part of me does this hobby just for the equipment. And the new owner will enjoy a machine that is in great shape!

 

[g-man]

A lucky guy

 

[Pete1313]

Then I removed both bed bar pivot bolts and separated the bed bar from the reel bearing housings.

Capture both springs and adjuster bolts and set them to the side

Remove the key from the keyway on the compression spring side of the reel, and then slide off the bearing housing assembly.

Remove the nut that holds the sprocket on the other side of the reel and then remove the sprocket.

Remove the key from the keyway on the reel and then remove the other bearing housing.

I then removed the bedknife from the bed bar.

Make sure you use an impact/striking screwdriver when removing the bedknife screws with a bit that fits tightly in the screws.

I then removed the bearing cone, cup, and seals from both bearing housing assemblies. You can use a special race remover tool, a press, or do it back alley style like I did and find a socket that is the perfect fit and tap them out.

Although they would cut paper, both the reel and bedknife both have wear. The reel is supposed to be 5" in diameter but is worn down to 4.5". It has some relief left, but at this point is getting replaced. John Deere has an option for a 9-blade reel that would fit, but both the new owner and I agree on keeping it an 11-blade reel.

The bedknife is worn as well. There is very little front face left. We will be putting a high-cut fairway knife on it. Since the high-cut fairway knife is significantly thicker, it has a minimum HOC of .3", but it is a stronger knife and will last longer.

 

[Pete1313]

I then took the other side cover off and looked at the other roller chain. It was alittle loose as well.

I then adjusted the deflection to spec, which is 7/16" for the roller chain. The deflection is easy to adjust. All you do is loosen the nut on the idler pulley and then slide it tighter or looser, measure your deflection and then tighten the nut on the idler. I then cleaned off any large debris, and then added some more grease to the chain. John Deere recommends using John Deere Multi-Purpose SD Polyurea Grease or an NLGI grade No.2 equivalent grease. How the chain looks with the proper deflection.

So that is about it for now. There are a few other minor non reel-related parts that need replacement, but i will go into details on those when I replace them. All cleaned up, and now it is parts ordering time! I will update once I receive the parts.

 

[wardconnor]

Nice info Pete. Excellent write up.

 

[Pete1313]

Nice info Pete. Excellent write up.

Thanks Connor.

 

[Pete1313]

I'll be finishing up this project this weekend. Finally got the parts needed. It has taken alittle longer to get the parts then normal as John Deere was waiting on one part I ordered for the speedlink system before they shipped the order. For now, here are some pics of the new reel and also comparing it to the old one. More to come in a couple days.

 

[MasterMech]

I'm very curious as to why you decided to keep the 11-blade setup. Especially for cool-season grass. Of course, this curiosity has NOTHING to do with two boxes from R&R sitting in my foyer. :nod:

One more bit of curiosity - did you go with Deere or aftermarket parts for the reel and knife?

 

[Pete1313]

I'm very curious as to why you decided to keep the 11-blade setup. Especially for cool-season grass. Of course, this curiosity has NOTHING to do with two boxes from R&R sitting in my foyer. :nod:

A 9-blade would have increased the clip rate to .222" from .182 with the 11-blade and I agree would of been a better fit on longer cool season turf, although only slightly better. It was a decision I left to the new owner as to what reel to go with. Part of the decision was based on keeping it original, maybe the possibility of resale, that he has not 100% decided what turf he is planting and what HOC he will end up maintaining at, and also that the 11-blade on this mower previously maintained KBG and did well.

I love R&R. Great service, fast shipping. I used them for the reel bearings and seals for this mower. There were a few specialty items that I needed to get from JD and also decided to keep the reel and bedknife JD.

You piqued my curiosity! What's in the boxes in your foyer?

 

[MasterMech]

You piqued my curiosity! What's in the boxes in your foyer?

The 7-blade reel and high-profile bed-knife for the Jake. It's not doing as well as I had hoped with the 11-blade setup. Double-cuts are pretty much mandatory.

For the heights that most of us are mowing at, (over .375") I would think 7/8/9 blade reels would be desireable. We mowed PRG tee boxes @ .500" with 8 blade reels and I remember having to double cut with the walk mower (11 Bld) to rival what the triplexes were getting in 1 pass.

 

[Pete1313]

The 7-blade reel and high-profile bed-knife for the Jake. It's not doing as well as I had hoped with the 11-blade setup. Double-cuts are pretty much mandatory.

Sorry to hear about your cut quality issues. Hopefully the new knife and reel fix it. :thumbsup: I know I initially got stragglers and some missed cuts when I first started going low(even with the triplex with 7-blade QA5 reels). Once I kept up on the mowing, and the grass transitioned/learned the lower HOC, the stragglers and missed cuts disappeared. Since renovating, and keeping the KBG short from the start, the only time I got missed cuts is when I let it get too long between cuts (which was my fault and had to double cut). My experience is only with KBG though and not bermuda.

 

[MasterMech]

The 7-blade reel and high-profile bed-knife for the Jake. It's not doing as well as I had hoped with the 11-blade setup. Double-cuts are pretty much mandatory.

Sorry to hear about your cut quality issues. Hopefully the new knife and reel fix it. :thumbsup: I know I initially got stragglers and some missed cuts when I first started going low(even with the triplex with 7-blade QA5 reels). Once I kept up on the mowing, and the grass transitioned/learned the lower HOC, the stragglers and missed cuts disappeared. Since renovating, and keeping the KBG short from the start, the only time I got missed cuts is when I let it get too long between cuts (which was my fault and had to double cut). My experience is only with KBG though and not bermuda.

I'm actually mowing Annual Rye now @ about 1.25". So the weak canopy isn't helping anything for sure. The stuff grows at an insane rate, I'm getting nearly an inch of growth every 4 days. That would be a lot easier to keep up with if it didn't get dark at 5pm this time of the year or I wasn't mowing 20k of the stuff.

 

[Redtenchu]

Love this thread Pete!

Have you needed to use or make any special tooling to remove the reel bearings or seals?

 

[Pete1313]

Love this thread Pete!

Have you needed to use or make any special tooling to remove the reel bearings or seals?

You can just use a socket and tap the seal and outer race out at the same time. Just use a socket that fits just inside the opening in the bearing housing. Putting the new seals and races in are alittle trickier. I'll show the install in a bit.

 

[Pete1313]

Time to get this thing put back together! To start, I took the bearing housings to work to press in the new seals and outer bearing races. If you look close inside the housings you can see a lip/stepped bore. The seal presses in the smaller bore, and the outer race in the larger one.

Press the seal in first and it is important that you press it all the way down until it bottoms out against the back of the housing. You might be able to do this with a socket and hammer if you have the perfect size, but I ended up using the shop press and adapters.

Then press the outer races in and make sure they bottom out against the stepped lip that is inside the housing.

It is important that the seal and race are pressed separately and that the seal is bottomed out all the way in the housing. There needs to be a space between them. This is because the opening for the grease fitting is right between them and if it is covered you won't be able to grease the bearing properly.

I then took them home to be assembled with the reel. I did alittle work on the bed bar. First I ran a tap thru the holes for the bedknife screws. Then cleaned the mating surface for the bedknife, removing any surface rust and built up grass clippings. A wire brush works good for this, and then finished up by rubbing alittle fluid film across the bottom.

I ran a tap and die thru the bed bar/bedknife adjusters and bolts and then gave a coating of fluid film to the threads. Be careful when using a tap and die on John Deere equipment as some of the threads are metric and some are standard.

A quick look on how JD packages its new reels. The blocks of wood have holes drilled in the center that snuggly centers the reel in the box.

Then took the bearing housings with new seals and races and put alittle grease on the seals and races.

I then installed the bearing housings on the reel, installed the bed bar to the housings by tightening the bed bar pivot bolts and fit the bed bar adjuster bolts and springs netween the bed bar and bearing housings.