Rotary Cutter brush hog pto repair

[bitternut]

I have a 6' brush hog that I purchased used over 20 years ago. It is painted blue and was made by Long Manufacturing. It has a Luppy gearbox that was made in Italy and the original pto shaft with the name Luppy on it so I assume that it is the original pto shaft that came with the unit.

Well after all these years the cross on the gear box end of the pto shaft failed and the yoke got bent. The yoke is 1-3/8 smooth bore diameter with a sheer pin. The sheer pin hole is elongated and sloppy so I figured that I would just replace the yoke with a new one.

Well that seems to be not quite so easy. I have searched quite a bit and can't seem to find one that will work. All the parts of my shaft have the name Luppy on them and a number 5 so I assume that they are a class 5. The problem is that my unit has a 7/16" diameter shear pin hole and everything that I find uses a 1/2" shear pin.

Can anyone help me out in locating a class 5 yoke, 1-3/8 dia smooth bore with a 7/16" shear pin hole? I would like to keep this old cutter going for a few more years if possible. New units seem to be rather pricey.

Thanks in advance to any help.

 

[JRobyn]

Maybe drill out the 7/16" shear pin hole to 1/2"?

 

[Steave]

Maybe turn the yoke with the 1/2" hole and drill the yoke to a 7/16" to fit the gear box output shaft.?

 

[bitternut]

Drilling out the 7/16 hole in the input shaft to 1/2 would require me to remove the shaft from the gear box since the shaft is hardened and not an option I want to try. I'm not willing to risk damage to any part of the gear box since I am quite sure parts would be really hard to find for it. I am unable to get any info by googling ( luppy pto ). I could do as suggested by Steave and buy a yoke with the 1/2 inch hole, rotate it 90 degrees and drill a 7/16 hole. The local farm store was of little help even when the clerk checked with weasler customer service. Doesn't seem to be any standard for pto shafts between manufacturers past and present that I could find.

 

[Turbys_1700]

If the deck is decent your best bet IMHO is to get a new gear box. Parts are going to be an issue going forward with your current unit. If you spend the time and money to spend on it to repair it and you have a problem in a year of so you will have the same problem again.

 

[bitternut]

Well Turby this thing is at least 25 years old, sat outside uncovered for all that time and spent many summers whacking down multiflora rose, honeysuckle, buckthorn, autumn olive and thorn apples so I guess you can imagine it does not appear as lightly used. Besides I paid a kings ransom for it when I bought it used ( $200 ). It does weep a little gear oil and has a few pin holes in the deck with faded paint. But in spite of its tattered look it has always worked well and been trouble free. I just thought that finding a replacement pto shaft part would be a much simpler task.

I know we like to spend other peoples money here so I am surprised that no one has suggested that I just go buy a new frontier mx6 that would match the paint color of my tractor.

 

[BHD]

won't a 7/16" bolt fit in to a 1/2" hole?

 

[countrybumpkin]

Get or make some bushings to go in the yoke from 1/2" to 7/16" then tack them in place so if the sheer bolt does sheer you wont lose the bushings.