Chipper Chinese Chipper Feed Roller Drive Shaft

[DIYGuy]

Greetings all,

I thought I publish a set of photos to help with feed roller drive issues. This is probably the weak part of the chipper if there is one.

The feed roller drive belt will smoke pretty quickly if something too big is jammed into the roller, or if it catches a limb nub just right. In 30 hours of chipping, I smoked one to death, and smoked another one pretty quickly when I didn't tighten the belt properly.

Critical to the proper operation of this assembly is the feed roller drive shaft. The drive shaft assembly consists of a male half, a female half, a ball joint on each end and a spring.

The spring in the picture keeps constant tension pushing the two halves apart. If this slip joint is not kept greased or some how binds up, the whole feed drive mechanism can be damaged.

DIYGuy

 

[DIYGuy]

There are several joints in the drive shaft from the gearbox to the feed roller.

This picture shows the square drive at the feed roller end. The ball nub has a corresponding socket and sits on the square drive. The square socket end of the male drive shaft end sits on the ball nub at this end. It is held in place during assembly by a circlip. Looking at the assembly, there is no wear on the circlip or the ball nub. The ball nub should not come in contact with the circlip during normal operation.

DIYGuy

 

[DIYGuy]

Here is the lower half of the feed roller drive shaft assembled.

You can see how the ball nub sits over the square drive from the previous photo. All of these joints are held in place by the spring. Disassembly is nothing more than grabbing the shaft and compressing the spring. The spring is quite strong and you have to be careful not to pinch a finger.

DIYGuy

 

[DIYGuy]

Here's the other square drive at the gearbox end of the assembly. This square drive is part of the drive release mechanism.

DIYGuy

 

[DIYGuy]

The upper square drive also has a slip joint that allows the drive mechanism to be disconnected during operation. It is connected by a series of levers to a push bar on top of the unit.

In the picture, the mechanism is engaged. Once again, the spring on the shaft provided the force that pushes this joint together.

DIYGuy

 

[DIYGuy]

Finally, here's a picture of the assembled upper shaft. (Albeit a little fuzzy). Visible in the picture is a zerk fitting. This zerk fills the shaft and both ball joints. Both of the shaft halves are hollow and grease is forced into both ball joints.

Grease until it oozes out of both ends and wipe off the excess.

Hope this helps.

DIYGuy

 

[TonyC]

Mark,

Thanks a lot for all of the info and the trouble to get it together. I haven't picked up my chipper yet but when I do you can bet I'm going to review all of the verbage and photos in this thread. I plan to make sure I understand exactly what to do before I fire it up the first time!

 

[DIYGuy]

I tried to get a picture of the circlip that has become a prolific topic across several boards...

It is barely viewable in this photo. The only way to get it better would be to destructively remove it.

DIYGuy (MarkS)

 

[MajMac392]

Ok I'll bite. Where is it? Is it around the base of it, kind of shiny?

Thanks

 

[DIYGuy]

The shiney bit is the surface of the socket. The clip is 2mm recessed into the joint and just barely shows up as a thin line of dots.