Tru Cut P20 reel removal

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Spacklerstyle
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Tru Cut P20 reel removal

Post by Spacklerstyle » June 11th, 2019, 10:19 pm

I am pleased to say I am the proud new owner of a used P20 - picked up last weekend. It runs great, was fairly well maintained from what I can tell, and it cut very nicely during my initial mow. However, of course I wanted to immediately jump right in and start playing with the reel/bedknife adjustment anyway... and low and behold I popped a hex bolt inside the unit when tightening the reel back down... doh! Then to make matters (much) worse, the screw extractor snapped clean off inside the bolt! I might be DOA on this RH Retainer Ring unless anyone has some advice. It’s gonna be real tough to get that out now.

So... it looks like a new retainer ring is in order... however, it doesn’t appear that can be replaced without taking the reel off (unless I am missing something). Any advice on the best way to do that and then reassemble once I get the replacement part? I am a pretty rank amateur when it comes to mechanical repairs like this. I won’t be offended if the advice is to take it into the shop...

Thanks in advance.

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Tru Cut P20 reel removal

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 12th, 2019, 7:04 am

What were you doing that required loosening the reel with respect to a reel to bedknife adjustment?

The two most common reel maintenance tasks are the bedknife to reel and parallel adjustments. Neither require moving the reel, you move the bedknife to the reel.

Once it is good, it's a game of minor adjustments once a month.

If you loosen the reel you may throw the entire unit out of alignment and need to get it all reset. If that's the case that can be tough for a new reel owner.

In addition, make sure you torque bolts to spec. Mine requires inch lb torques. I snapped a hex bolt off once when I torqued to ft lbs instead because I didn't slow down and read carefully and am used to auto specs.

Spacklerstyle
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Re: Tru Cut P20 reel removal

Post by Spacklerstyle » June 12th, 2019, 7:34 am

Hey, thanks for the reply... I am fairly certain the bedknife placement is fixed on my mower. I loosened the hex bolts on the outside of the unit’s retainer and fitting in order to cam the reel up/down to the knife. See pics below of the bolt that snapped. When the bolts are loosened you can rotate the cam clockwise or counterclockwise to slightly adjust the reel to bedknife (at least I’m 99% sure that’s what’s happening...)

I’m going to try to Dremel the broken screw extractor out today... hopefully then I can use a larger extractor to get the snapped bolt out. Wish me luck!!!


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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Tru Cut P20 reel removal

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 12th, 2019, 7:52 am

Ah ok. It's the bolt for the adjustment not holding the reel to the frame etc.

Yeah just order another screw and take your time removing the broken one, then replace.

Spacklerstyle
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Re: Tru Cut P20 reel removal

Post by Spacklerstyle » June 12th, 2019, 11:11 pm

Well, I was able to grind the bolt extractor out with the dremel... and was able to remove most of what was left of the old bolt. Unfortunately I can’t get the new bolt to thread back into the retainer ring. There is either still too much of the old bolt left in the threads or I ground the threads down. Unfortunately if I need a new retainer ring, it doesn’t look like it can be replaced without taking the reel off.

Any suggestions before I bite the bullet and take it into the shop?


Spacklerstyle
Posts: 92
Joined: January 20th, 2019, 9:50 pm
Location: Dripping Springs, TX
Grass Type: Bermuda Tiff 419
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Re: Tru Cut P20 reel removal

Post by Spacklerstyle » June 13th, 2019, 10:53 am

Ok... I did it!!! I know this is a super simple, straight forward thing anyone with some basic experience could have solved days ago... but, I am very happy I didn’t need a new part requiring reel disassembly. Since I had resigned myself to worst case scenario, I took the dremel grinder to the inside of the hole knowing full well I could have ground down the threads to smithereens... however after about 20 seconds a tiny ring of steel from the old bolt popped out of there... and that was that.

Can’t say i’ve ever felt so stupid and so excited at the same time in my life...


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