RC48 mower deck removal question

[Roger Fowler]

I had a few minutes to look at it again this evening. All of the pins now move back into their hole when pressed. They did not do that before. Even when I tried to move them with vice-grips (carefully). Sprayed everything with Kroil again. Stay tuned.

Roger

 

[Roger Fowler]

Good morning Hugo,
I went back out this morning to take some more pictures. Looking at it directly from the side I see that there are actually 4 pins. 2 in the U-joint housing and two in the rotating collar. The pictures from the left side show the collar rotated to different positions. And I threw in the picture from the right for reference. I haven't found any holes for the pins to drop into, but maybe they are full of rust and dirt. I will keep looking. Thank you for the information and suggestions.

Regards,
Roger

Finally got back to the driveshaft this morning and the "quick disconnect" is now removed. I started turning and wobbling the one remaining pin and was able to pull it out. It then took vice grips on both sides to fully retract the retaining ring - but then it slipped right off.

One remaining question - what is the purpose of the four little pins (2 on the ring and 2 on the splined part) and how should they work? Are they supposed to be spring loaded to allow retracting the retaining ring?