MChalkley
Elite Member
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2000
- Messages
- 3,239
- Location
- Eastern Virginia
- Tractor
- EarthForce EF-5 mini-TLB (2001)
I started to post this under the Danuser digger post I just made, but thought that might limit the potential audience a little, since this idea should be useful for just about anything that takes a shear pin.
My Danuser F8 digger can really chew up shear pins in a hurry when digging in rocky soil. The F8 is very well made and even has a bolt similar to a setscrew to hold the auger on the digger shaft in the right position, but when a pin shears, you have to line the holes up with the piece of bolt left in the center of the shaft, take a punch and drive out the old one, drive in a new pin, put a nut on it (which 9 times out of 10 has to be a new one because the old one got flung who-knows-where), etc. I finally got tired of all this nonsense and bought some bolts that were way too long (so the shoulder extends out to the outer diameter of the auger collar). My friend Jack and I cut them off to 1/2" sticking out, ground the ends down so they're like a sharply tapered drift punch, drilled a hole 1/8" from where the edge of the auger collar is, and bought a bunch of cotter keys that will go into the hole. Now, all I have to do is get the hole fairly closely aligned, stick a new shear pin in, use it to drive out the old one, and slip a new, much-cheaper-than-a-nut cotter key in it. Much, much faster and a lot less hassle.
MarkC
My Danuser F8 digger can really chew up shear pins in a hurry when digging in rocky soil. The F8 is very well made and even has a bolt similar to a setscrew to hold the auger on the digger shaft in the right position, but when a pin shears, you have to line the holes up with the piece of bolt left in the center of the shaft, take a punch and drive out the old one, drive in a new pin, put a nut on it (which 9 times out of 10 has to be a new one because the old one got flung who-knows-where), etc. I finally got tired of all this nonsense and bought some bolts that were way too long (so the shoulder extends out to the outer diameter of the auger collar). My friend Jack and I cut them off to 1/2" sticking out, ground the ends down so they're like a sharply tapered drift punch, drilled a hole 1/8" from where the edge of the auger collar is, and bought a bunch of cotter keys that will go into the hole. Now, all I have to do is get the hole fairly closely aligned, stick a new shear pin in, use it to drive out the old one, and slip a new, much-cheaper-than-a-nut cotter key in it. Much, much faster and a lot less hassle.
MarkC