Well today I thought I would do a close inspection of the 128 and see what could be adjusted and what needed replacing. I pulled the front wheels off of the spindles and checked out the bearing inserts and put some grease into them. I cleaned off the old grime from the spindles and arms, checked all of the drag link ends for play,all were tight including the two ends on the main steering arm from the steering box. As I had mentioned in another post I thought a pulley on the mule drive was going bad, due to smelling burned grease and some smoke from front end while mowing yesterday, but each pulley spun with no problem and neither one had any type of play between the bearing and the shaft. The PTO released and engaged great no adjustments there. Crawled under the tractor and removed the belly pan so I could get to the steering shaft easier. I loosened the cam follower and turned it 1/4 of a turn in case there was some wear on it which I am pretty sure there is. I then tightened the nut to tighten the swivel plate a bit more and locked down the lock nut. Then pumped some grease into the unit. Much Much better steering now. Also greased the spindle king pins. The only other thing I could find that had me concerned was the clutch. No play of the drive shaft back and forth from front to rear at all. But if you grab the clutch disc you can pull it up and move it around just a bit, the shaft end that looks as if it goes into the pulley next to the debris screen had some movement. Also the four holes that allowed the pegs to come thru the clutch disc seemed to be elongated allowing the disc to rotate a bit back and forth, is this normal or are the holes worn out?
This was about all I could stand to do today, as the humidity was about 98% and my back was screaming at me to give up. Anyone have an idea of why I am getting a grease smell and some continuous smoke out from the front underside of the tractor by the front wheel. Since it doesn't appear to be a pulley I am stumped.
Thanks
DWayne
