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Remove 2305 drive shaft

9K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  iamrfixit 
#1 ·
Although completely unrelated to the project that started the weekend, now that I have my floorboard out, I tried again to get grease into the u-joints for the driveshaft. I have still had no luck. The rear joint has more play than I would like. The front one does not seem to have any slop, but now that I have detached it from the engine, I am not thrilled with the lack of motion in that joint. My thought was to get the assembly on the bench. look closer, try to get grease in it and possibly replace the spiders.

BUT, I can't get the darn thing out. I am attaching 3 photos to show my lack of success. I can't see any way to get this thing out without either cutting away part of the tractor or significant disassembly. I have the technical manual and I can't seem to find any guidance for this removal. Maybe I am missing something.

Any suggestions?

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#2 ·
My 2210 is very similar to your 2305. The only way I have been able to get the drive shaft out without breaking the tractor in half is to disassemble the rear U-joint and then drive shaft slides right out. I am not sure if you have enough space on a 2305 to take it out without doing that. I assume you have removed the clip and pin on the front end of the driveshaft? There are some threads on here and over at mytractorforum.com that discuss greasing the front U-joint with the shaft still in the tractor.

There should not be any "play" in the joint. If you are finding slop I would get a new U-joint. Much cheaper to replace that then a whole drive shaft which goes for around $800. The play will only get worse over time and eventually the drive shaft will break. That happened on mine.

If you do remove the shaft, take a look at the flywheel and check out the rubber isolator. Make sure it isn't dry rotted/etc. That will make the shaft vibrate as well. Good luck. This is one of the big Achilles heels of the early generation SCUT's. :cheers:
 
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#3 ·
With the rear u-joint apart, you managed to pull the shaft towards the motor? I was actually thinking I would need to do the opposite on my machine. Yes, the snap ring and pins are out. Which reminds me, I have never seen a pair of roll pins used in a concentric configuration. Was your 2210 like that? Mine is so close to going that I was considering taking a grinder to the opening in the plate that supports the steering column. It seems insane to me that it is so close but no consideration was given to removing that assembly.

Some have suggested going to NAPA for generic joints. Did you? It looks like the factory joints are about $50 each. Still much cheaper than the $800 assembly.

Lee
 
#5 ·
I pulled the shaft out towards the transaxle. Once I had the rear U joint apart it came out fairly easily. You can move the shaft forward about an inch to gain some room to remove the rear U-joint but that is about it.

Yes, my drive shaft had the concentric pins or did. I replaced that madness with a bolt and nut so I didn't have to deal with that snap ring. Too much of a PIA for me and my snap ring pliers not the best for this job. I have not had any issues over the past 30 hours. I am not the first guy to do this as I picked up that idea from another forum.

I had to buy a whole new drive shaft because mine snapped in half. I would say any quality U-joint that is the right size and has a zerk fitting is fine. I am sure JD charges way more than what they are worth. They are pretty small U-joint so I am not sure how common they are but a good NAPA store should be able to size them for you.

Glad you were able to remove it. That whole driveshaft system is a design failure if you ask me. It doesn't it's job but it is almost impossible to service. Hopefully your transmission fan is in good shape other wise this is the time to replace that too.
 
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#6 ·
It took me over an hour to get the first u-joint apart. That thing is toast. I am going to go visit NAPA tomorrow. As for the roll pin, After two round trips to the store, I now have a decent pair of snap ring pliers. I planned to put it back to original. I seem to have misplaced the darn roll pin already in the mess I have made in the garage. I wouldn't want to reuse the same one, but it sure would have been nice to have the original for size. You have me thinking with the nut and bold.

My fan and rubber isolator both appear to be OK. Thanks for your assist.

Lee
 
#8 ·
Randy,

565 hours. It is a 2006 model. I bought in 2011 with 425 hours. I read the warnings (and your instructions) about this and knew that I should have worked harder to grease these joints. I am now paying the price for my lack of effort.

Based on the paint on everything, this has never been touched. I tried to see if I could get some grease into them and delay the swap. I couldn't get the fittings to turn enough to use the needle. Now that I am banging it apart, I am not regretting the decision to swap it out now. I plan to go to NAPA at lunch and see if they can set me up with some universal universal joints.....

Lee
 
#9 ·
Lee, mine is an 2009 model with around the same hours. Even though I try to lube it regularly, I am trying to keep an eye on it. There are no guarantees' and it is way better to be safe than sorry. I think you'll not regret fixing it now. It would only cost you much more later. :thumbup1gif:
 
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#10 ·
Thanks Randy. Now that I have a snow blower, my biggest fear is that it would let go in the middle of winter. Although the working conditions would be better than my 88 degree garage. :laugh:

Although we don't get much snow, when we do it has to be cleared. It would be my luck that it would be down for the count when we get our biggest snow of the year!

Lee
 
#13 ·
Went to NAPA today armed with a PUJ410 part number I found on another thread. The NAPA guy was eager to help but simply couldn't believe that was the right part. He tried to cross reference the JD part #, no luck. I also found a Kubota part number and he was able to find that one. It also pointed to the 410 joint. He decided to have a couple brought up from the warehouse. Sure enough, it was the right dimensions. One had the grease fitting in an end cap. The other had a fitting in the package, but was not drilled for a grease fitting! He pulled his third and last one from the warehouse and voila, it matched the first with the grease fitting in the end cap. I took them home for $26 each. Although a bit trickier to assemble, I like the idea of an easily accessible fitting.

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I proceeded to remove the other u-joint and installed both in the driveshaft. Installation will have to wait for another night. I am still undecided on the roll pin vs. bolt. I didn't break the old pin taking it out. The old snap ring is also intact. Decisions, decisions.

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#14 ·
One more observation. The front joint did not have any appreciable play, but was very difficult to disassemble. It also had no evidence of grease! The rear joint had noticeable play, was easier to assemble, but also still had grease in it.

I have to wonder, though, with these new joints having a fitting in one of the end caps, how much confidence can I have that I will get grease into the opposite cap.

Time will tell.

Lee
 
#15 ·
I like your chances better now than they were before! Good luck with the assembly :bigthumb:
 
#16 ·
The driveshaft is back in. I did put the roll pin in. Yes, you read that correctly, I only used one larger roll pin. I am not sure what point of the internal roll pin is except maybe to show off. :laugh: The larger pin is very tight and with a retaining ring around it seems to be more than secure enough.

Of course, like everything else on this project, I ran into another snag. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but this new location for the grease fitting is still an issue. For the front joint, the fitting is obstructed by the frame cross-member that the driveshaft passes through. I ended up using the needle adapter to fill this joint. I considered swapping this fitting for an angled fitting, but the angled fitting I had sits a bit higher than this straight one. Since the hole in the cross-member is square, the existing fitting gets fairly close to touching as it is. I worried that any additional height would make this worse. I may look for a lower profile 90 degree zerk. For now, though, I was successful in greasing this new joint with the needle.

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Lee
 
#17 ·
Update: The highlight, the grease fitting in the endcap is a fail! For the front u-joint, there is not enough clearance between the u-joint and the crossmember it passes through. During low RPM and other rough running situations, the zerk hits the crossmember. This is what the zerk looks like after a few years.

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I struggled with what to do with this. I am not ready to change these u-joints yet. I settled on this plan. I installed a new zerk to grease the joint, then removed the zerk and installed a 1/4-28 set screw in place of the fitting. Granted, this will be an extra step every time I want to grease the joint, but now there is no longer a clearance issue.
 
#18 ·
I'd locate the spot that's rubbing and grind away enough of the crossmember that it will clear the zerk. Another option is to install a low profile zerk and grease it with a needle.
 
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