Posthole drill gearbox hard to turn

[Laneman950]

When I bought my place the seller left me a post hole drill attachment. It's been sitting out in the pasture. I hooked it up yesterday and noticed that the driveshaft does not turn by hand. If I swing the shaft out to the side and use it like a wrench, it turns, but this seems like too much force. When hooked up to the PTO it seems to take too much torque to get it going. Gears sound fine. There is very little oil in the case, so I didn't run it more than a few seconds. Should I: A) add oil and run it B) Flush old oil out, then fill with oil and run it (what do I use to flush?) C) Open the gearbox and try to fix. This is almost beyond my expertise- I'm thinking it may need a backlash adjustment or new bearings

 

[N80]

If the gearbox has a 'top plate' or some other easy way to open it I open it and clean it out thoroughly with kerosene and then put new gear oil back in it and see how it does. Its easy to do and you have nothing to lose. You made need to seal the top plate but you can get a tube of gasket material to do that.

I don't know anything about these simple gear boxes but I'm guessing that backlash tolerances are pretty huge. Certainly a bad bearing is a possibility but it seems like you'd hear something if that was the case.

If you find that it is leaking gear oil, you can pack it with cornhead grease instead of gear oil.

 

[bjcsc]

I would add as much diesel (or kerosene as N80 suggested) as there is oil to the gearbox and run it as slow as you can for a few minutes. Drain all of that out and see what it looks like. You can do it more than once, but I wouldn't use straight diesel without adding some oil to it if you're going to run it. Once it's clean, fill it up with oil and see what you've got...

 

[Laneman950]

Sounds like good advice. There is a cover that bolts on, reminds me of a differential on a car. I like the grease idea. I was thinking there is a leak since there is almost no oil in it. I've never heard of cornhead grease- what is that and where can I get it?

 

[bjcsc]

Corn head grease is a lithium based grease that is semi-fluid. You should be able to find it at any dealer that sells combines or any big Ag place...