John Deere 47" snow blower question

[mikefamig]

I am new here at tractorbynet and a new John Deere owner so bear with me. I've been searching out info here for a week or so and hope that you guys can help me with a problem.

I just bought a slightly used -180 hour - X728 tractor with a bunch of accessories and I',m in the process of rebuilding a model 47 snow blower. I have it stripped down to the bare metal enclosure and plan to replace all 5 bearings and chain but I have a question concerning the gearbox.

The thing is that there is quite a bit of backlash in the auger. When I look at it closely I can see that the gear hub that holds the auger shaft is pretty tightly connected to the input shaft with little backlash leading me to believe that the ring and pinion gears are not very badly worn. but there is considerable play between that hub and the auger shaft.

My question: What holds the hub/ring gear to the auger shaft? The shaft slips easily left and right in the gearbox pretty freely. Can I slide the shaft from the gearbox without disturbing parts inside the gearbox? Do I need to open the gearbox to deal with this looseness?

Anyone?

Thank you in advance, Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

What I am talking about does not involve the auger or the shear bolts. I'm talking about play between the auger shaft (31) and collar (26) in the diagram below.

 

[mikefamig]

Well I removed the auger shaft from the gearbox this morning and answered my own question. After removing the augers the shaft just slides out of the gearbox freely. JD used a woodruff key to to make the shaft rotate with the output gear/sleeve in the gearbox. My woodruff was beat up and it looks like a new one will fix it up.

Maybe this info will help someone else out there.

Mike.

 

[BleedingOrange]

Mike, Thanks for the info. Mine has got some slop in it as well. Now that our winter is over, I,ll go take mine apart and see if it is the same problem.

 

[mikefamig]

Mike, Thanks for the info. Mine has got some slop in it as well. Now that our winter is over, I,ll go take mine apart and see if it is the same problem.

I thought that my gearbox was shot but on my blower I found loose shear bolts, the collar that the shear bolts attach to had loose allen grub screws and now the auger shaft has a a sloppy key all adding up to a load of backlash. Now I think that I'm going to be able to tighten things up pretty good affordably.

Good luck with yours, Mike.

 

[Bob Vermont]

Folks, I've got to tell about my 47" blower. It's about 9 years old and I brought it new with the tractor. The last storm of the season, it stopped throwing snow. I wound up finishing up using it as a plow. Just beginning the it tear down. When I unbolted the auger shaft, it fell out of the blower frame leaving the thrower blades and drive shaft still in the frame. Many needle bearing fell out the back of the gear case. I haven't been able to get the shaft out yet, I put a puller on it, but the frame seems to be bending without the shaft moving. There is a collar behind the bearing on the back of the blower that appears to be only a spacer. It does have a set screw in it that I loosened, but it did not help. I will have to put some thought into how to get that shaft out. The bearings all appear to be bad and the gear box is going to need complete rebuilding. Fortunately the gears are still good as they are not available and a new gear case is $1000. Good thing I started this project early, it looks like this is going to take awhile. If anyone has any ideas on how to get that shaft out without tearing up the frame, I'm open to suggestions.

 

[mikefamig]

Folks, I've got to tell about my 47" blower. It's about 9 years old and I brought it new with the tractor. The last storm of the season, it stopped throwing snow. I wound up finishing up using it as a plow. Just beginning the it tear down. When I unbolted the auger shaft, it fell out of the blower frame leaving the thrower blades and drive shaft still in the frame. Many needle bearing fell out the back of the gear case. I haven't been able to get the shaft out yet, I put a puller on it, but the frame seems to be bending without the shaft moving. There is a collar behind the bearing on the back of the blower that appears to be only a spacer. It does have a set screw in it that I loosened, but it did not help. I will have to put some thought into how to get that shaft out. The bearings all appear to be bad and the gear box is going to need complete rebuilding. Fortunately the gears are still good as they are not available and a new gear case is $1000. Good thing I started this project early, it looks like this is going to take awhile. If anyone has any ideas on how to get that shaft out without tearing up the frame, I'm open to suggestions.

That part that you call a spacer is a binding collar. You need to loosen the set screw and then rotate the colar oposite the direction of the shaft's normal rotation. If you look closely you will see that there is a hole drilled in the collar opposite the set screw hole. Put a metal drift in this hole and rotate the collar by hitting the drift with a hammer. When the collar breaks loose everything else should come apart.

If you can't rotate the collar in one direction try the other direction and back and forth until it loosens.

Mike.

 

[Bob Vermont]

That part that you call a spacer is a binding collar. You need to loosen the set screw and then rotate the colar oposite the direction of the shaft's normal rotation. If you look closely you will see that there is a hole drilled in the collar opposite the set screw hole. Put a metal drift in this hole and rotate the collar by hitting the drift with a hammer. When the collar breaks loose everything else should come apart.

If you can't rotate the collar in one direction try the other direction and back and forth until it loosens.

Mike.

Mike

Tried everything and that collar would not come free. I finally had to remove the holders on the bearing, drop the auger all the way down to the gear case bearing then push the shaft all the way out to the back of the blower. Then I could get a puller directly on the bearing. Even then the outer cone broke and I had to remove the race and put the puller on the inner cone. After the outer cone was gone, I removed the race then the collar could be gotten easily with the puller. Once it pop-pt loose, it came off readily. The inner cone was a little harder, but once it broke free with the puller, the shaft was easily driven through the cone. The blower assembly came off easy. now all that remains is the inner cones for the two bearings that were inside the gear case. I got the spring clip off the shaft, now I have to thoroughly clean the shaft before attempting to remove those cones. I'm going to need some detailed instructions when it comes time to put this thing back together. If I can't find some I may have to write them myself. I can see that if I screw up the sequence on this I easily can be taking it apart and putting it back together more than once.

BOB