LS Tractor XR4046H Broken Tie Rod Flange

[BA BLUE]

have xr4046 found no right wheel stop bolt on hub,this is a factory flaw ,I tore up my tire as it went under loader bracket,contacted dealer and they got all parts needed to replace hub,tire&wheel under warranty,call your dealer or factory rep.

 

[Twotter]

I know it is an old thread, but I just had the left hand tie rod flange bust on my XR4046H. I have just shy of 400 hours on mine and have used it heavily to move beams and logs on the forks and move material in the bucket. I was in the woods with a log on the forks when it happened, running over old and new stumps and slash. New part is on it's way, as the tractor is up in the mountains in the woods. The tear down was relatively easy, hopefully I will be back up and running this afternoon, IF UPS shows up...

 

[kingrace78]

Do you have wheel stop on the other side? I broke 2 tie rod flanges, then my dealer replaced he housing on the other side which had the wheel stops. I have not had any trouble since this was installed.

 

[1stDeuce]

I read only the first and last pages of this thread, but I'm pretty certain I can tell you how to keep this from happening again.
The first poster admitted that the second part popped when he turned fully to the right.

Seems pretty likely that his steering stop on the right side was bottoming before the steering cylinder ran out of travel, and putting a lot of stress into the linkage.

My suggestion is to replace the part. Then turn all of the stops in all the way and have someone steer the tractor to lock left. Adjust the stop (or stops if there is one in front and one in back of each knuckle) so it JUST contacts the knuckle. Then turn all the way right and adjust the other stop(s).

If the stops hit before the cylinder runs out of travel, you are placing a LOT of stress on that knuckle any time you steer to full lock and keep turning the wheel.

If you feel that you must have the stops limiting your turning angle, then you need to be mindful not to keep hogging on the wheel once the front wheels hit the stops. That hydraulic cylinder is pretty powerful, and will fatigue and break things pretty quickly if you are constantly asking it to keep turning the knuckle once it hits the stops.

The stops just make contact as the cylinder runs out of travel, not before, and certainly not significantly before... If you set it up that way, you shouldn't break any more parts.

Good Luck!

 

[Twotter]

My stops are on the left side, front and back sides of the left hub, and I was turning to the right, full deflection, maneuvring with a log on the forks between trees when the left side popped. I will look carefully at the stops and see about adjusting them once I get it all back together. But I can see the left wheel's movement being limited by the stop as the right wheel's cylinder keeps pushing, and the tie rod exerting too much force for the flange to handle....

The tractor is 1.5 hours away from the house, the new part arrived yesterday afternoon and I drove up to the tractor and started to go to work, when I realized LS did not include the grease zerk on top of the housing. Compared the old and new housing a little more closely, LS also did not include the raceway for the bearing to ride on inside the housing either So a 3 hour roundtrip for nothing, headed to NAPA this morning and hope to have the tractor working before lunch.

 

[hd5]

Is there any reason to have stops on both right and left side of tractor?

Shortly after I got my XR4046 I noticed on left turns the left tire was rubbing the loader frame. The bolt the factory had installed was way too short to even make contact, I put a much longer bolt in and it hasn't rubbed since.
I have noticed when I turn to the right the wheels seem to be at an extreme angle to the tractor, but just tried to be careful, until I ran across this thread.

Took my flashlight out and checked my stop on the left front side of the hub and it is way too short also. It has never made contact and I've had the tractor for three years. So I guess I better pick up a longer bolt on the way home from work today.

Any idea what size and thread that is? The dealer gave me the other bolt after I told him it was rubbing.

My right side does not have bolt holes. I guess I could drill and tap it out. A little chicken to do so, afraid I would go too deep....

 

[hd5]

I read only the first and last pages of this thread, but I'm pretty certain I can tell you how to keep this from happening again.
The first poster admitted that the second part popped when he turned fully to the right.

Seems pretty likely that his steering stop on the right side was bottoming before the steering cylinder ran out of travel, and putting a lot of stress into the linkage.

My suggestion is to replace the part. Then turn all of the stops in all the way and have someone steer the tractor to lock left. Adjust the stop (or stops if there is one in front and one in back of each knuckle) so it JUST contacts the knuckle. Then turn all the way right and adjust the other stop(s).

If the stops hit before the cylinder runs out of travel, you are placing a LOT of stress on that knuckle any time you steer to full lock and keep turning the wheel.

If you feel that you must have the stops limiting your turning angle, then you need to be mindful not to keep hogging on the wheel once the front wheels hit the stops. That hydraulic cylinder is pretty powerful, and will fatigue and break things pretty quickly if you are constantly asking it to keep turning the knuckle once it hits the stops.

The stops just make contact as the cylinder runs out of travel, not before, and certainly not significantly before... If you set it up that way, you shouldn't break any more parts.

Good Luck!

After reading this again, are you saying the stops are causing the breakage?

 

[1stDeuce]

After reading this again, are you saying the stops are causing the breakage?

Yes. Or at least that it's a very good possibility. The stops don't limit the cylinder, they limit the knuckle. So when you steer to max, the cylinder can pull HARD on the knuckle if you keep steering once the stops bottom. Probably hard enough to break things eventually.

If you feel that you must limit the turn angle with the stops, be very mindful not to keep steering once they contact. (IE, don't turn the wheel until it stops, stop turning when the tires don't go any more... Personally, I'd adjust the stops so they contact right at the limits of the steering ram, and let the tire rub remind you not to steer quite so tight. You're not going to damage anything that way, aside from rubbing the paint off the loader bracket if you steer hard all the time...

Good Luck!

 

[1stDeuce]

Ok, I looked at some more pictures. It appears LS uses two single acting cylinders to steer, as indicated by only one hydraulic line to each cylinder.

The left cyl extends to turn the left knuckle to the left, which turns the right side and compresses the right cylinder via the tie rod. Turning right, the right cylinder extends and turns the right knuckle right, and the left is turned again through the tie rod.

If both the left and right sides had stops on the front and back of the knuckle, you could probably get away with adjusting them all to limit steer angle. But it sounds like only the left knuckle has stops. (Pretty dumb on LS's part IMO...)

What that means is that when you steer right, you are bottoming the left knuckle from steering farther because of the longer bolt. But the right cylinder is still pushing the right knuckle, which has no stops. That force is pulling HARD on the tie rod. This gets critical as you near the full lock because the inside tire turns quite a bit more, and because of the steering arm angle, its leverage on the tie rod gets better the closer it is to full lock. Steering left, you may be stopping the knuckle early, but the tie rod doesn't see any more load than it takes to steer the right tire, since the right side doesn't have stops.

Limiting steering to the left with the left stop is not ideal, but doesn't over stress the tie rod or it's arms, only the stop and knuckle bearings. But limiting the right turn with the stop on the left side is not good. It allows you to really reef on the tie rod and steering arms...

I would at least return the stop on the front side of the knuckle to stock length, unless you can remember not to steer hard to lock going right. Your tires may rub a little, but in short order, you'll remember to back off a bit when you hear that noise. And you probably will never break another steering part...

Honestly, I kinda doubt the stops are even necessary. You would be better off without them, and I can't think of how anything would be damaged by not having them.

Again, if you do want to limit steering with stops, you MUST be mindful not to just turn the wheel until it stops. Stop steering when the knuckle won't go any more, or you're just loading things that can't move, and that's how stuff breaks...

 

[1stDeuce]

Oops, I just realized that I'm posting to two different people...

Twotter, I would adjust the front stop on the left knuckle so it does not limit steering angle if possible. You may have some tire rub that way, but that won't break parts... The rear stop is not so critical, at least to the tie rod, but I'd do the same for it...

HD5, same applies to you. Unless you are careful not to steer past when the tires stop turning, I would shorten that forward stop until it JUST contacts as the right side cylinder is fully extended.

Honestly, with the two ram setup LS is using, they really screwed up having stops only on the left. That would be OK if there was only a cylinder on the left side, but there are two... Probably an engineering oversight, where they changed to two cylinders from one, but they should have then gone to stops on the back side of each knuckle. that front stop on the left knuckle is just going to cause parts to get overstressed if it is actually limiting the right turn angle...

Sorry to use so many words, but I want to be clear. Hopefully this all makes sense...