Loose Flywheel on 730

The flywheel on my dad's 730 is loose and is working its way off the crank. Don't know how long he's been running it this way. When I drove it today, I shut it right down as soon
as I figured out what all the racket was, and then we towed the thing home with my faithful A. I've never seen this type of flywheel before. I shimmed and tightened the original
flywheel on this tractor when I was a kid, but that was made differently. It looks to me like the square thing in the middle is a nut screwed to a taper inside the flywheel. Am I
right? Do I just loosen or tighten the nut to loosen and tighten the flywheel? How close should it run to the, umm, block? The two bolts through the flywheel have had their nuts
welded. Is this typical for this center tightening system, or has someone buggered this up?

It looks simple to me, but I'd like to hear from someone with experience with one of these before I learn as I go. Don't have a service manual for this tractor. Tain't mine.

30 some years ago, I was working for a Deere dealer and we had a 730 (I think)
come in with a loose flywheel. After an over haul, we tried shimming the splines.
Didn't work. Tried having the splines chromed back to standard. Didn't work.
Finally had to replace the crankshaft.

Someone shall come and explain what and how you adjust and tighten your flywheel:

This Flywheel BORE has been bored tapered.

Then a matching Tapered sleeve has been inserted into the Flywheel:

Once you position the FLYWHEEL on the crankshaft...you tighten the SQUARE NUT ?.this in turn draws the taper lock into the taper bore of the flywheel that in turns caused the splines of the taper lock to become tight on the crankshaft.

Once the flywheel is tight on the Crankshaft, with a dial indictor, I would check the amount of running THRUST clearance the crankshaft has.....

You have an original flywheel with the Nuts welded to the original Through Bolts ...I WOULD NOT LOOSEN the NUTS from the BOLTS:

Some one shall explain the proper tightening procedure?..

You may be more enlightened if this topic was posted in the John Deere Section?

The repair on your Fathers Tractor is a very good upgrade....you need to know the installation procedure...?.I have no hands on with the installation of this type of device on a Farm Tractor.

If this was my tractor I would ask myself.....WHY is this FLYWHEEL LOOSE ?...?.What has failed to cause this Flywheel to become loose?

Cracked Flywheel..?????....Through Bolts of Flywheel have failed...??..etc..etc..

Flywheel was not installed as per tried ,tested procedure..??

What all should I check before I set the Flywheel and tighten the Taper lock...?

Once this Flywheel is in place and the taper lock is tightened it is NOT EASY to loosen off the Flywheel:

It's imperative to have the proper installation procedure and to follow the procedure:

I have never installed a taper lock on a Tractor Flywheel.....I have installed dozens of taper locks in the petrol Chemical Industry:


Bob..

I had a 730 that had one of those. The flywheel has been bored and a new tapered hub put in. I'm not a JD guy, so I don't know how to set the flywheel, but those hubs need to be very very tight. Once the fly wheel is set you use a hammer on the nut, when it's tight you whack the flywheel with a mall, then the nut again. Keep doing that til it doesn't turn any more. Then run the tractor for a bit and do it again. Had to keep re-tightening mine for days before it finally stayed tight. Once they are right they are better than original.

Looks like a Taper Lock flywheel. Once rather common.

Post on the JD forum for advise.

Dean

If JD would have used a taper like they did on the wheels, it would never come loose.

Thanks. I will.

The 730 is made too light, in my opinion: flywheel's too small, short stroke, hardly any torque and so on. My dad's 80 is much more reliable. Never had a flywheel issue with that old girl, and it has the torque to pull its 5-16" plow at an idle. I'd like to know if a G would be more robust than a 730. I'd love to swap, but it's not my tractor to get rid of.

A G will burn a ton more gas and have less power. Might be slightly more reliable. Re-set and properly tighten that flywheel and it will be a decent tractor.

First, brace the crankshaft on the pulley side. Make sure it is pushed all the way to the left and brace it good because if you don't, when you pound on the flywheel, you will ruin the thrust bearing. Make sure the bushing between the flywheel and the crank is all all the way on and the groove in it lines up with the pin in the oil slinger. Now you are ready to tighten the square nut. I used a 4ft pipe wrench. When you have it tight, take a 12lb sledge and hit the flywheel on only one of the flats near the center close to the nut. Tighten again. Now hit the flat on the other side of the nut. Tighten. Now go back to the other side. Keep doing this until you can't tighten the nut any more and DONT hit both sides of the flywheel without tightening between blows. IT WONT WORK! When you can't tighten it anymore, leave it sit overnight and in the morning whack it again and tighten. If it doesn't move you're good to go. If it moves, try it later in the day. It took me 5 days of this before I couldn't move the nut. One more thing put the tractor in gear and st the brakes for tightening the nut

DO NOT LOOSEN the 2 original flywheel bolts. The nuts are welded for a reason.