BCS Tiller gearbox rebuild

[Smallholder]

Hi All,

I recently bought a used Camon C10 which is the equivalent to a BCS 730 with a 26" tiller.
Long story short it had a lot of teeth missing on the crown wheel so a rebuild of the tiller gearbox was in order.

So the new crown wheel assembly has arrived and the crown is not located on its splined shaft in the position as the same as the original. As it stands now, it looks like the crown and pinion would hardly mesh.
As part of the assembly process are you expected to press the crown further along the shaft to get the correct mesh with the pinion?

The other possibility is I have ordered the wrong part. ( 50948408 )

New bearings and oil seals will be fitted all round as part of the rebuild.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I have contacted the UK parts supplier, but thought I would post on here whilst waiting.

All the best,
Ed

 

[farmerboybill]

Depending on how old your tiller box is, the gears should only be ordered in pairs as they changed the number of teeth on the gears throughout the run. This makes rebuilding them prohibitively expensive. Can you return the gear? Count the number of teeth on the drive gear and tell them this number. They may be able to match it up unless it's NLA. If it is NLA, you're in it for the drive shaft as well. I usually recommend people replace badly damaged tiller boxes with new. about the only cost effective thing you can do inside the gearbox is change seals and bearings (and the bearings only if you buy them from a bearing supplier. BCS commits highway robbery every time they sell that throwout bearing. Why sell a $10 bearing when you can sell a $60 one, right?).

 

[TomSeller]

What the? BCS tiler boxes have lifetime warranties, don't they? What is the cause of the failure? Was it run without oil?

 

[farmerboybill]

That's a very common misconception. The transmission has a lifetime warranty to the first owner. If you purchase a secondhand machine, the warranty is null and void. This isn't surprising, really. Most warranties are not transferable, not matter what you buy.

Also, the tiller boxes are not bulletproof. They can be destroyed. The older models had smaller diameter shafts that very commonly broke. BCS started installing stronger shafts in the early 80's and that pretty much cleared up that problem. The biggest things I see are ruined splines due to the main nuts on the cross shaft coming loose or dry gearboxes from the seals going out when crap gets wrapped up in underneath the seal protector. It's a very smart idea to take the hub assemblies off every year, clean out underneath them, buy new nuts, and thread lock them back on.

 

[Smallholder]

Hi Bill and Tom,
Unfortunately the previous owner ran it dry as a bone. Yes it is a bit of a lemon. The difference between the old and new part is a good 10 mm so we would be looking at pinion about 20mm bigger in diameter (from memory). Totally agree if I have to replace the pinion gear/shaft it would be better to buy a new gear box. That new set of bearings and seals I bought will just have to sit on a shelf in the shed for years next to all my other junk

Cheers,
Ed

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Smallholder,

The dealer got you the wrong part. Ask for your money back or the right part. You sure shouldn't have to swallow the cost of the parts when it was their fault.

I try to avoid returning stuff to the store, usually by being very careful to not buy things I don't need, or being sure what I'm buying is the right item. But if an item is wrong, either due to low quality or by being the wrong part, I'll return it.

 

[TomSeller]

Ed,
Sounds like you know these BCS tillers well. I knew the warranties we not transferrable but usually anything that has a lifetime warranty is a well designed unit. I did not know that the older ones from the 80s were less robust.

Smallholder,
That was my guess that the guy ran it without oil. I am always amazed at people that don't check fluid levels. Good luck.