Bought A Used King Kutter 60" Tiller And It Broke.

[wirlybird]

Just got this tiller yesterday and started tilling with it today and it broke. Rotor stopped turning. Tiller had about 5-6 hours on it so very little use.
After pulling it apart I find that the splined shaft that is inserted and welded to the rotor shaft broke at the weld.
Inspecting it shows the weld had almost no penetration on the splined shaft and was doomed to fail. I have a feeling this has been an issue for them.

Hoping my welder friend can fix this up and I can get back to tilling.

 

[ruffdog]

Poor weld for sure... My tiller has been fine so far though.

 

[Citydude]

Thats a weld?

 

[wirlybird]

Yea, I'm just an amateur welder and I can see it is poor.
No penetration into the splined shaft.
We'll see how she does after a repair tomorrow!

 

[CH4Ohio]

Do you think the previous owner broke it and then stuck it back together with that poor repair? Seems coincidental.

 

[5030]

From the looks of it, I'd say it was 5 or 6 VERY HARD HOURS....

 

[CH4Ohio]

Thats a weld?

Looks more like a bead of something squeezed out of a tube. JB Weld maybe? I don't really see how a welder could produce that.

 

[4570Man]

Looks more like a bead of something squeezed out of a tube. JB Weld maybe? I don't really see how a welder could produce that.

You wouldn’t typically weld the end on a shaft like that. Even when expertly done it will still cause problems with metal fatigue and tolerance problems.

 

[jyoutz]

From the looks of it, I'd say it was 5 or 6 VERY HARD HOURS....

Yeah, looking at the paint, it looks not much better than my 22 year old tiller that I’ve used annually.

 

[5030]

Looks more like a bead of something squeezed out of a tube. JB Weld maybe? I don't really see how a welder could produce that.

EXACTLY. No heat discoloration on the parent metal and to obtain a huge weld bead like that, there would be. There is none. Not welded at all.