My New To Me L4330

farmstart · Apr 27, 2014

LSU L4330 said:
Yea, it's an addiction..... But I strongly believe in taking care of my toys, er, I mean equipment. Figure, take care of her and she will take care of me. Almost busted out the buffer and the 3M Perfect IT III with a little wet sanding....... :confused2: Not really. But it sure looks better. Was just a little oxidized. Figured it was the best time to clean up the paint before the FEL was in the way.

It is in really good shape. Not a ding on the thing. One owner and spent its time just cutting about 20 acres. Looks like the bush hog had never been taken off. Especially with the time I had getting the dam n PTO shaft off.

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It has one of those "quick release" couplers that was locked up so tight you'd need a 20 lb maul to drive a toothpick up its arse...... Finally crawled under there and saw the snap ring. Pulled that and took the twist release apart to get to the push pin. It was so full of crap. Not sure that is the best design and not sure I am going to put it back on there. Will clean it all up really well and grease it and see if I like how it works. May just leave the good ol' push pin release there alone. We'll see.

Details: 2006 L4330 4wd with 720 hrs on the clock and looks to have been maintained really well. Runs like a top. I like knowing where I am starting from so I have already purchased all filters and fluids to start fresh as soon as I get it back from the dealer. When the whole deal shook out I basically have $8500 in the tractor itself and the LA853 FEL with HD bucket is $4900 installed so sitting at $13.4k with a brand new FEL. I could not even come close to this deal when only looking at tractors that already had loaders on them. Like I said I did look about 4+ days a week for over a year for the right deal. Glad this one came along. I am thinking I did pretty good with what I have in it so far. Sure gives me more room for add-ons as I was budgeting around $20k-22k to get into a 39-45hp 30 or 40 series GL. Was really hoping to stay away from the Tier IV stuff. Itching for some more seat time now...... :jump:

Is the quick coupler for the pto part of the pto shaft?? The Pto shafts are relatively cheap to replace certainly cheaper then spending hours at a time to unhook your brush hog.

farmstart · Apr 27, 2014

jeff9366 said:
A squirt of Eureka FLUID FILM on the PTO splines, before you hook up a powered implement, will help a great deal getting the PTO shaft on and off.

There is nothing else that compares with Fluid Film for use on the PTO splines.

Eureka fluid film isn't that a rust proofing or under coating?? Is there any build up on the shaft that has to be removed after a dozen uses or is it a one time spray application? ?

LSU L4330 · Apr 28, 2014

farmstart said:
Is the quick coupler for the pto part of the pto shaft?? The Pto shafts are relatively cheap to replace certainly cheaper then spending hours at a time to unhook your brush hog.

Yes it is part of the "drive" shaft and that will be the solution if cleaning it does not help. It just has a bit of crud built up around the pin so cleaning it really good and a little grease should take of it. We'll see.

Oh, and thanks Bob77064, George2615 and wmonroe. I am looking forward to many years of good fun, er, I mean work....

stonypass · Apr 30, 2014

LSU L4330 said:
Thanks stonypass. How do you like the bush hog. I ran it pretty hard the first couple days and got a lot cut till the shear pin finally gave, or should I say hitch pin.......... I talked to Howse Monday and got the specs for the bolt that is supposed to be in there for the shear pin. Looks like the PO had put a 1/2" hitch pin in place of the 1/2" bolt. Sure makes for easy changes but I cannot find what grade steel is used in hitch pins. If it's stronger than grade 5 that is not good so I am going back with the factory spec of grade 5 bolt for the shear pin.

I like the bush hog fine, but would really like to have a twin spindle 7 foot unit perhaps offset.
Seem's like red handled hitch pins are grade 5 and blue handled one's are grade 8, don't know if that's hard and fast rule though. I use Grade 5 bolts with a nylon locking nut on them.

LSU L4330 · Apr 30, 2014

stonypass said:
I like the bush hog fine, but would really like to have a twin spindle 7 foot unit perhaps offset.
Seem's like red handled hitch pins are grade 5 and blue handled one's are grade 8, don't know if that's hard and fast rule though. I use Grade 5 bolts with a nylon locking nut on them.

I hear that on the 7 ft'er. That's exactly what I picked up. Grade 5 with nylock nuts.

Oh, cleaned the quick release PTO really well today and greased it up. Put it all back together and it works like a champ. Just takes a light twist and the pin goes right in to release. I'll give it a shot for a while and see how I like it.