Richard
Elite Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2000
- Messages
- 4,822
- Location
- Knoxville, TN
- Tractor
- International 1066 Full sized JCB Loader/Backhoe and a John Deere 430 to mow with
I know the title might not make too much sense so here's the situation.
I've got a 10' Rhino mower. The shaft on it connects of course, to the PTO on the tractor.
To get into more detail, the "shaft" itself is actually connected to the ...what to call it... "yoke?". It's this yoke that actually connects to the PTO.
My question is regarding the attachment of the shaft to the yoke, NOT the yoke to the PTO.
The shaft itself is a 'star' pattern as opposed to square, oval... this star pattern fits into a star receptical in the yoke. The star pattern is what absorbs/transfers all the rotational energy from the yoke to the shaft and onward.
There is a pin. I think they call it a roll pin? It's something like 10mm x 70mm although the exact dimensions won't matter here.
My brother in law once said that this pin was broken. (I DID back into a stump pretty hard and jammed things)
However, this pin was SO entrenched that my BIL had to take a torch and burn it out. While he was doing that, I kept asking myself... "if it's so freaking hard to get OUT, why didn't you leave it IN?"
I digress....
Anyways, got new pin and put things together.
Just other day, mowing a flat field (and having been VERY careful about backing into things) all the sudden, it let go.
I'm a bit embarassed to admit, I spent 30 minutes searching all over the field for the missing shaft, only to find that it had jammed inside its other half and was hidden by a plug of dirt.
I've not yet fixed this.
I need to unplug the dirt, pull the shaft out, hammer out the now broken pin and replace it.
It looks like the pin itself has sheared. There are two tips visible on the yoke side and when I look inside the compressed shaft, I see the middle of the pin.
I've got absolutely NO idea how this happened
I called Rhino about the need for replacing with an exact pin and of course, they said I should.... however, he then went on to say that "if the pin is loose, you could use a bolt" Which is the very exact thing I was calling to see if I could do and he said "no"
So, I put it to you guys...
Although I've got a new pin on order, for future reference, can this rolled pin be replaced with a bolt instead? Would you simply put a lock washer on it? Would you drill a hole through tip of bolt and wire lock it?
The only purpose of this pin as I see it is to simply keep the shaft from sliding out of the yolk holder. It doesn't deal with any rotational energy....it's just a placeholder (as I understand)
This darn little $2.00 pin is shutting me down until I can get another one, so I've ordered FOUR!!! this will guarantee it will never happen again of course but I was simply wondering about using a bolt and if so, any certain grade?
I've got a 10' Rhino mower. The shaft on it connects of course, to the PTO on the tractor.
To get into more detail, the "shaft" itself is actually connected to the ...what to call it... "yoke?". It's this yoke that actually connects to the PTO.
My question is regarding the attachment of the shaft to the yoke, NOT the yoke to the PTO.
The shaft itself is a 'star' pattern as opposed to square, oval... this star pattern fits into a star receptical in the yoke. The star pattern is what absorbs/transfers all the rotational energy from the yoke to the shaft and onward.
There is a pin. I think they call it a roll pin? It's something like 10mm x 70mm although the exact dimensions won't matter here.
My brother in law once said that this pin was broken. (I DID back into a stump pretty hard and jammed things)
However, this pin was SO entrenched that my BIL had to take a torch and burn it out. While he was doing that, I kept asking myself... "if it's so freaking hard to get OUT, why didn't you leave it IN?"
I digress....
Anyways, got new pin and put things together.
Just other day, mowing a flat field (and having been VERY careful about backing into things) all the sudden, it let go.
I'm a bit embarassed to admit, I spent 30 minutes searching all over the field for the missing shaft, only to find that it had jammed inside its other half and was hidden by a plug of dirt.
I've not yet fixed this.
I need to unplug the dirt, pull the shaft out, hammer out the now broken pin and replace it.
It looks like the pin itself has sheared. There are two tips visible on the yoke side and when I look inside the compressed shaft, I see the middle of the pin.
I've got absolutely NO idea how this happened
I called Rhino about the need for replacing with an exact pin and of course, they said I should.... however, he then went on to say that "if the pin is loose, you could use a bolt" Which is the very exact thing I was calling to see if I could do and he said "no"
So, I put it to you guys...
Although I've got a new pin on order, for future reference, can this rolled pin be replaced with a bolt instead? Would you simply put a lock washer on it? Would you drill a hole through tip of bolt and wire lock it?
The only purpose of this pin as I see it is to simply keep the shaft from sliding out of the yolk holder. It doesn't deal with any rotational energy....it's just a placeholder (as I understand)
This darn little $2.00 pin is shutting me down until I can get another one, so I've ordered FOUR!!! this will guarantee it will never happen again of course but I was simply wondering about using a bolt and if so, any certain grade?