Rotary Cutter Rats! Sheared spindle in Bush Hog

[horse7]

Going through heavy brush (very dense stringy 1" to 2") with a Bush Hog 278 the left side ("driver side") spindle sheared off. For those not familiar with the 278, there are two rotary cutters side by side, counter rotating.

OK, well, that's expensive and of course the left side is the one with the input shaft and a shaft to the second cutter-- i.e., the more expensive side to break if you have to break a shaft.

My question is whether the stump jumper, which was thrashed by the other cutter, can be saved, maybe pressed back into usable condition with a big enough hydraulic press or other means-- picture attached. [for when the picture is gone, two of the edges of the jumper are folded back almost 90* from normal-- two large folds reversing the "pan" shape inwards towards the spindle. The cross bar is fine, as are the blades. Well, OK, the blades have a lot of wear from numerous rock encounters, but the pivots are fine]

Bent Stump Jumper 03dec2011 - TractorByNet.com Photo Gallery

Another stump jumper is about 350 [Messicks]... more than the broken shaft costs sans peripheral parts like gaskets, seals, and such needed for repairs.

Thanks.

 

[kebo]

Ouch, that's just too bad that it happened. You can try pressing/bending/beating the pan back into its former shape, but if you don't get it just right it will likely be out of balance and wobble some. That can cause vibrations that may lead to other problems down the road. I think the smart thing to do is bite the bullet and get a new one. Jmho.....

 

[bigbull338]

that stump jumper looks to far gone to me.even if you heated it an got it fairly back in shape it would still give you probs.because i doubt if itll ever fit right.

 

[slowzuki]

Spindle is cheap compared to a gearbox. I had one shear off and assumed the gearbox was junk and sold the thing for scrap, found out later the shaft was still available.

 

[Soundguy]

i agree with the others. that SJ looks rough to fix and get corret and ballanced. I'm afraid it would be shearing another shaft like that.

soundguy

 

[Gary Fowler]

Call me cheap, but I would heat that sucker up and work on it with a 12# sledge hammer first to see if I could straighten it. It shouldn't be that hard with some rosebud heat and if you get it pretty close it shouldn't vibrate as you dont seem to have lost any metal so the weight would be the same. The portion that holds the blades is straight, so I would try to straightened it first. Then if I couldnt get it back to near original condition, I would have only invested a little of my time which is cheap since I am retired and gas for the torch.

 

[horse7]

My general opinion is that the SJ could be recovered if the SJ could be statically balanced after beating/heating/pressing back into shape... the heavy bar appears ok and the blades spin freely, it's just the soft steel pan that is bent up.

I only have limited time and space for rework (house is torn up for renovation, which has to get done sooner rather than later as certain other persons object to the mess). So the SJ will likely be replaced due to lack of time to attempt a fix, although I can procrastinate until spring if I have to.

The BH has a slip clutch-- after the shaft sheared off I went back to see if the adjustment had gone bad since the last time the clutch was adjusted. It took 2 full turns of the bolt/nuts (8 of them) before the tractor would spin the clutch with only one spindle of load. This seems like more than it was last time... the BH hadn't been used much in the previous 3 months, but adjusting the slip clutch is a PITA due to the safety shroud on the PTO, the recommendation is adjust the SC after 30 days of idle. But the antique awkward design makes that unlikely to happen[1].

[1] really, either the shroud needs to be easily removed, or the bolts need to be captive so that the both the bolt head and the nut don't both have to be held-- the shroud has access holes, but one can only reach both ends of 2 bolts at a time with poor visibility of the bolt head marks (which the user has to make, as the mfg doesn't help at all in marking positions). Also with the shroud, it is dang hear impossible to measure to 1/64" spring length as they recommend. To remove the shroud one has to remove the slip clutch... umm, partially defeating the purpose of the exercise. I won't run without all safety mechanisms in place (which is the old timer solution, just remove the offending part!) OK, I'm off my rant now

 

[Dead Horse]

Call me cheap, but I would heat that sucker up and work on it with a 12# sledge hammer first to see if I could straighten it. It shouldn't be that hard with some rosebud heat and if you get it pretty close it shouldn't vibrate as you dont seem to have lost any metal so the weight would be the same. The portion that holds the blades is straight, so I would try to straightened it first. Then if I couldnt get it back to near original condition, I would have only invested a little of my time which is cheap since I am retired and gas for the torch.

100% agree.

I have a MX 10 and have fubar'd it way worse than that. Sheared spindle (rebuilt the gear box) and tore the stump jumper OFF the blade rotor plus put a nice "bow" in the rotor.

Heat, a smoke wrench and a BFH applied over a couple hours and all is well.

Key is to get the jumper (attached to the rotor) balanced. I did this by putting the assembly on a spindle and grinding bits off until no matter where i stopped it on the horizontally mounted spindle, it would stay there. I balanced the weight of the blades (used a food scale! HA!) reassembled everything and good to go.

And I still have the $300+ that JD wanted for a new disc.

 

[Gary Fowler]

It seems like everyone now has the throwaway mentality. Dont even try to fix it, just get a new one. Money is no object or maybe it is because it is not their money so they recommend for someone else to spend theirs rather than repair. I have just enough of my Mom and Dad in me who lived thru the great depression, to want to salvage anything that I can and dont throw away any scrap of material till throughly looked at for future uses.

 

[cowski]

Gary Fowler and Dead Horse gave you excellent advice .i have heated and beat out several before .i did not have any balance problems.i do not see you having balance problems unless you cut some metal off.