# John Deere BH30 blower assembly guidance requested



## dawgpile (Apr 28, 2008)

Looking for guidance on proper assembly of crankshaft, inner roller bearing, seal, and outer sealed bearing.

I removed these, perhaps improperly, by driving out the crankshaft from the case, and then driving out the 2 bearings and the seal. No heat. I'm going to be replacing these and don't know the proper method of re-assembly. (I'm replacing the crank with a spare as the impeller and flywheel got loose and trashed the woodruff key/keyway)

I'm guessing, press the inner roller bearing on the crank first, heat the case in a 350 deg oven to ease getting the crank/bearing assembly seated in the case, install seal from the outside(after case is cool!), and finally drive the outer sealed bearing in from the outside while supporting crank.

Right now I'm "unencumbered by the facts" so please advise what the proper way might be!

For those that don't know, this is a handheld blower and the crank only goes through one side of the case and is supported by the two bearings. The other side of the case has the pullstarter assembly that interlocks with the crank, but is not attached.

One final question, there are no thrust bearings or washers on the crank and I'm not sure just how close I should press the inner roller bearing to the counterweight. I need to double check if the machined portion of the crank stops short of the counterweight or if there can be interference.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.


----------



## dawgpile (Apr 28, 2008)

FWIW, I went ahead as I described. I even put the crankshaft in the freezer first to see how much shrinkage I'd get before pressing on the inner bearing. Since the shaft is only 0.475" in diameter, freezing the shaft didn't make the bearing go on any easier than at room temp. Bearing went on fine however and I eyeballed how close to get it to the counterweight.

Heating the case on the other hand, made a huge difference. The bearing/crank assembly dropped into place without a press with the case warmed(would have required the press at room temp which was undesirable since I would have been forced to press the back of the crank and could not have supported the outer part of the bearing nor could I have kept the bearing from moving on the shaft. I let it cool and pressed in the seal and outer sealed bearing from the flywheel side without much effort.

Re-assembled blower and it started right up and runs like a champ! Case closed and on to the next one!


----------

