Anyone ever take apart a Kuhn rotary rake?

[JasG]

A friend of mine has asked me to try and repair his Kuhn rotary rake. Some how 2 of the arms have come out including the bearing that follows the cam in the center. Looks like the whole center has to come up and off the machine and all of teh arms will need to come off.

Has anyone taken one of these apart before?

Is it worth fixing? My fear is that what ever damaged these 2 arms may have damaged all of these arms. By the time I tear the machine apart and put all of the parts into it. He may be looking at what a good used one could cost.

 

[spidersmouse]

Don't know about that part, but we were given a Kuhn with a bad ring gear by a friend. Took it apart, put in new gear for $200 and have a wonderful rake. Didn't seem too hard to take it apart, sounds like you don't have anything to lose by trying.

 

[RickB]

The tine arms, pivots, and cam followers can be removed without major rake disassembly. So long as the cam itself is intact, you don't have a big job ahead.

 

[art]

Go for it! Should have the parts in stock!

 

[JasG]

I've got the arms off, took them apart earlier in the week.

Unfortunately the cam is shot.

Now the issue is removal of the roll pins that hold the top on. Probably going to have to try and drill it out. It is actually a doubled up set of pins, one inside of the other. Had the right size punch and a huge hammer and it doesn't move at all. Tried heating lightly and then a good spay of PBlaster to try and loosen it. Looks like I started to mushroom the pins. I hate brown loctite (rust).

Oh well, at least he won't need it till spring so I have some time to work with. Hope to get the right bits next week and try next week end drilling it out. I could try driving it the other way, I didn't touch the one end, but I don't see a point.

 

[RickB]

Doubled rollpins usually come out easier one at a time. Don't expect them to respond well to drilling.

 

[JasG]

Doubled rollpins usually come out easier one at a time. Don't expect them to respond well to drilling.

That is what I tried. I had the proper punch one with a nipple on the end to keep it centered. Nothing seems to move. The outer pin sticks out about 1/4" on each side, and the inner about 1/16" more than that. The innner pin end started to deform out a little so I stopped, no sense in continuing to pound.

I may give the punch one more try by grinding both pins flush to the casting. Then use a roll pin punch again.

Drilling I've done before, it's not fun. I've never done one this long or large before. Drilling the smaller one may free the outer, I hope. Then maybe drive the outer one out.

 

[art]

Try a fifty fifty batch of acetone and atf. learned of it here and it does work on the brown loctite.

 

[JasG]

Try a fifty fifty batch of acetone and atf. learned of it here and it does work on the brown loctite.

I'll try that this week end.

This project is for a friend that is retired and got into small time farming.

As I told his wife, the great thing about farming. He never has to worry about what to do with his money, the farm takes care of that automatically.

 

[JasG]

I've go most of the rake apart now. The ATF and Acetone does work rather well.

I have all of the cam, bearings off the end of the rake arms (more rool pins) and the upper frame and PTO shaft removed.

Any tricks to get the top casting off? This would be the part that the PTO shaft goes back through and hold the drive gear onto the rotary gear. Been working the casting back and forth around the center shaft. Keeps getting more "free" as we go, but no matter what we try it won't come up. The only thing my drawing shows is that doubled roll pin that was stuck and 1 set screw. They are out now. The drawing does show a ring of some kind or a seal. I don't know what it is, probably inside the top of the casting. Don't know what it is.