I've been shafted!

RCJC

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I was doing maintenance on my RCK60B mower deck. While I was greasing the shaft I accidently pulled it apart. I didn’t think anything about it until I tried to put it back together. After all, it slid apart quite easily. It will slide back together. Well, it didn’t. No matter what I have tried it will not got back together. What have I done Wrong? How can I remedy this short of buying a new shaft?
 

mcfarmall

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It only goes back together one way to keep the u-joints in phase.
 
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85Hokie

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I did the same thing many years ago !!!! It is somewhat hard to "see" the different spline alignment.....

BUT you have 50-50 chance of getting it right IF you do what mcfarmall said - hold each piece and align the yokes so the are INLINE with each other........ if that does not work, spin ONE 180 degrees, but just one.

YOU may need to clean the male end a bit and lube it good while you are there.
 
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mcfarmall

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I agree with 85. Keep that male end clean and well lubricated! A must for proper assembly!
 
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Henro

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I was doing maintenance on my RCK60B mower deck. While I was greasing the shaft I accidently pulled it apart. I didn’t think anything about it until I tried to put it back together. After all, it slid apart quite easily. It will slide back together. Well, it didn’t. No matter what I have tried it will not got back together. What have I done Wrong? How can I remedy this short of buying a new shaft?
Take a close look at the splines. You may find one that is wider than the others.

If so, it needs to go into the opposing wide slot for the two parts to slide together. I think that is the case with my version of the RCK60 Deck.

Edit: Mine is the RCK60-22BX
 

GBJeffOH

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I was doing maintenance on my RCK60B mower deck. While I was greasing the shaft I accidently pulled it apart. I didn’t think anything about it until I tried to put it back together. After all, it slid apart quite easily. It will slide back together. Well, it didn’t. No matter what I have tried it will not got back together. What have I done Wrong? How can I remedy this short of buying a new shaft?
Look at the spacing on the splines. One is different.
 
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SDT

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I was doing maintenance on my RCK60B mower deck. While I was greasing the shaft I accidently pulled it apart. I didn’t think anything about it until I tried to put it back together. After all, it slid apart quite easily. It will slide back together. Well, it didn’t. No matter what I have tried it will not got back together. What have I done Wrong? How can I remedy this short of buying a new shaft?
It will slide back together.

Trust me.

I disassemble mine each time that I R & R the mower.

SDT
 

DustyRusty

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When you finally get it back together, file a notch on each part so the next time all you have to do is look for the index markings. Keep your male part clean and well lubed and it will slide into the female part with ease if you talk sexy to it.
 
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GeoHorn

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No, no, no, and really no!

This is not the place for a hammer!


Aside from the spline matching already mentioned, the alignment is very important.
Mark, … Pretty certain that Shekkie was joking…. it’s an old mech’s saying about hammers…
(and April-1 is over now)
 
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Mark_BX25D

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Mark, … Pretty certain that Shekkie was joking…. it’s an old mech’s saying about hammers…
(and April-1 is over now)
Ah, gotcha.

A friend of mine who owned an auto shop once described a mutual friend this way, 'It's not that he's a bad mechanic, it's just that his favorite tool is a hammer."

:)
 
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GeoHorn

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Ah, gotcha.

A friend of mine who owned an auto shop once described a mutual friend this way, 'It's not that he's a bad mechanic, it's just that his favorite tool is a hammer."

:)
I was once hired to go to FL to help an aircraft broker demo a jet to a potential buyer. (I had a flat-fee for such work which included expenses and per diem)

When we were all aboard and had our taxy clearance…the right engine would not start. (it was an old late-‘60s Rolls Royce Viper engine.) I shut back down and we all got out of the airplane… and the co-pilot/broker and client watched me open the right engine cowling, take a wooden wheel chock, and whack the starter/generator on the bottom of the engine. (This old jet had been sitting in Florida humidity for several months and it was not uncommon for relays, starter-brush/commutator surfaces to corrode until they were re-energized.)

We all re-boarded the jet and it started right-up, we taxied out, took off for the short demo-flight and then landed at Lakeland where the aircraft was to undergo some minor service before delivery to the new owner.
A week later I received a letter from the broker demanding to know why I added $400 to my invoice for “starter work”…. as he’d seen what I’d done and “it didn’t take much to “whack it” with a block of wood”

I replied to him that old saying I’d learned early in my aviation career…. “You owe me $400 ..not for whacking it….. but for knowing WHERE to Whack It!”

(He paid my invoice.)
FABB7DED-0929-412A-B1D6-C374BEBC898D.jpeg
 
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ejb11235

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A week later I received a letter from the broker demanding to know why I added $400 to my invoice for “starter work”…. as he’d seen what I’d done and “it didn’t take much to “whack it” with a block of wood”

I replied to him that old saying I’d learned early in my aviation career…. “You owe me $400 ..not for whacking it….. but for knowing WHERE to Whack It!”
Sounds like the old joke about the steam locomotive repair man who submitted a $1,000 invoice for having fixed the locomotive by whacking it with a mallet. When his invoice was challenged, he submitted a new invoice with two line items. "Whacking the locomotive: $1, knowing where to whack the locomotive, $999" Those of us who earn our living through specialized knowledge always need to remember this attitude. It's not how long or how hard we work that's valuable.
 

PoTreeBoy

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I was once hired to go to FL to help an aircraft broker demo a jet to a potential buyer. (I had a flat-fee for such work which included expenses and per diem)

When we were all aboard and had our taxy clearance…the right engine would not start. (it was an old late-‘60s Rolls Royce Viper engine.) I shut back down and we all got out of the airplane… and the co-pilot/broker and client watched me open the right engine cowling, take a wooden wheel chock, and whack the starter/generator on the bottom of the engine. (This old jet had been sitting in Florida humidity for several months and it was not uncommon for relays, starter-brush/commutator surfaces to corrode until they were re-energized.)

We all re-boarded the jet and it started right-up, we taxied out, took off for the short demo-flight and then landed at Lakeland where the aircraft was to undergo some minor service before delivery to the new owner.
A week later I received a letter from the broker demanding to know why I added $400 to my invoice for “starter work”…. as he’d seen what I’d done and “it didn’t take much to “whack it” with a block of wood”

I replied to him that old saying I’d learned early in my aviation career…. “You owe me $400 ..not for whacking it….. but for knowing WHERE to Whack It!”

(He paid my invoice.) View attachment 77590
Had to look that one up on Wikipedia. I didn't recognize any of the aircraft it was used on. What were you flying?
 

GeoHorn

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Commonly known as a “Hawker” but more widely as a “HS-125”. It was originally (1960’s) a DeHavilland DH-125, but DH was acquired by Hawker-Siddeley (1970s) so it then was known as a HS-125. Then British aviation began a nationalization and British Aerospace acquired them…still known as HS125 worldwide. It was a very successful corporate jet especially in the US, but also had military applications in the RAF and Maritime Search-Rescue in Japan. It had “pure-jet” engines (the Vipers) until the ‘70s…then was produced with fan-jets (AirResearch/Honeywell 731s)….until around 2015. Mfr’d continuously for over 50 years…eventually acquired by Raytheon and airframes were completed in Kansas and Arkansas until the end of production. The recession of 2008 was the beginning of the end. Thousands still flying around all over the world.
The only civilian jet which ever actually hit with a heat-seeking missile from a fighter-jet but still landed safely with its passengers.
I was a demonstration/production-test pilot for the mfr’r on it after flying it corporately and lastly training and examining pilots rated on it until I retired.
The engine began life as an Armstrong-Siddeley Viper, but acquisitions thru Bristol-Siddely and finally Rolls-Royce. It was also used as a target drone engine (and may be still in the Jindivik drone) ..but it was so durable that shooting it down didn’t kill the engine…it’d crash if the drone was hit by a missile…but the engine would continue to run even after the crash until the drone ran out of fuel….so the realization it might make a great passenger-jet engine. Doh.

Used in a wide-variety of aircraft including one of the very first vectored-thrust aircraft (Bell X-14.)…and before Bezos got too far into “Blue Origin”…Four of tghem were used instead of rockets in guidance tests.

Here’s an informative link for the engine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Siddeley_Viper

And for only ONE of the airplanes that used it (believed to still also be in service in and after-burning version of a Romanian figher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Aerospace_125
 

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