Newbie here

[farmerboybill]

Hi All,

Just found this site and thought I'd join.

Here's a pic of my new-to-me 715 I just purchased off eBay and a pic of the good old 205 it replaced. I had the 205 for 5 years, and though it wasn't BCS's shining star, I will miss it.

The 715 came with the shown 28 inch snowblower and a 20 inch tiller I am now rebuilding due to the misuse it got from its previous owner. It had plastic twine and electric fence wire wrapped up in it. It was so tight, it busted the seal guard on one side and got in there as well. While I'm working on the tiller, I'm converting it to a 26 inch. Gotta love used. I already have $150 in parts in a machine that hasn't tilled a square foot for me

The snowblower is a throwing machine! I swear it threw 30 feet straight sideways. The blower does whine a little with no load. Is this normal? I really like it for blowing snow but wish the 715 had a lower speed. I'll be keeping a lookout for a 725 or 735 to trade up but we don't have many old BCS machines up here in Wisconsin.

So anyway, here I am!

 

[milkman]

Really like my 735, it's been an awesome machine and I plan to keep it for many more years, bought new in '87 and has been pretty much bullet proof. I put one ignition coil on it about '94. If it has a weak point, I'd have to say it is the PTO connection, the splined connection, they are now the three dog type, I've replaced the coupling and engaging fork twice since I've had the machine.

 

[clarksvilleal]

Really like my 735, it's been an awesome machine and I plan to keep it for many more years, bought new in '87 and has been pretty much bullet proof. I put one ignition coil on it about '94. If it has a weak point, I'd have to say it is the PTO connection, the splined connection, they are now the three dog type, I've replaced the coupling and engaging fork twice since I've had the machine.

I presume the engaging fork is internal to the transmission, right? Why would it be more prone to failure with a splined PTO vs. a three-dog PTO? I have a newer 853 with the three-dog PTO, but I was just curious what caused the fork to fail and whether there that might happen on newer BCS's as well -- and also whether there were in general any operational practices to avoid to prevent the fork failure from occurring.

Thanks.
Al

 

[milkman]

Al,
The fork that engages the PTO is right in front of where the attachment connects to the machine, the PTO on the tractor is splined and the driveshaft on the attachment is also the same spline, the coupling slides between the PTO shaft and the driveshaft on the attachment to engage and disengage the attachment, I'm sure the same as the three dogs. The splines in the coupling gets a little worn, even though they are greased, and then the attachment drive will disengage. The coupling is rather easy to replace and not that expensive, just drive a pin out of the fork that holds it to the shaft that engages the attachment and slide it out of the fork and the fork and the coupling will slide off the PTO, that's with the attachment removed from the machine of course.
With the three dogs, I would expect them to last a lot longer since the contact area is a lot larger, I'm sure there is a reason they went to that type of coupling on the drive. Then too I'm talking about replacing mine twice and I used it a lot with the 40" mower and the tiller and the machine is 21 yrs. old so I'm not really complaining . Sure would love to have one of the 853s with a diesel though.

 

[clarksvilleal]

OK, thanks for the explanation, Milkman. I didn't understand how the PTO engagement was done, and at least on my 853 the fork is not externally visible, although now that you have explained it I can see where it is. I'd love to have an exploded parts diagram to see the details of how the BCS is put together.

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Al,

I bought the cd from The BCS Shop. It has the parts breakdown for all the current and past tractors and all the implements. The diagrams aren't the clearest but they give you a pretty good idea of what the guts of your machine look like. For 10 bucks and shipping, it's a really good buy.

 

[clarksvilleal]

Thanks, Bill. I'll look into that. I'm the kind of guy that buys the full shop manual for each of my cars as soon as I buy them. And I have saved way more than the price of the manuals over the years by being able to confidently wade into even some of the more complex maintenance & repair operations myself.

Al