First Bush Hog Experience

[Anonymous Poster]

Hi All,

Well over the weekend I tried out my bush hog for the first time. The grass was about 2 ft. tall and since we only go there on weekends, I was behind. I have a long story but really need some help so here goes.

When the dealer brought out my tractor (TC40D) with the bush hog (Rhino SE5) he showed me how to use it. When he first engaged the PTO, there was a "pop" but he said, "Oh, that's just the paint..." Made sense to me. This was two months ago. Friday I hooked up the brand new bush hog went out to mow and it wouldn't cut anything...

Well, it was the shear bolt that "popped" on delivery, and after much reading of the boards here and the owner's manual, I bought some grade 2 shear bolts and got everything working. I mowed for the first time yesterday, taking it easy, and really trying to finese engaging the PTO.

The PTO on the TC40D basically engages full force as it is hard to "feather" the engagement. This, I think, is why the dealer sheared the bolt the first day.

Anyway, after mowing for 1 hour, I was really getting the hang of it and decided to mow a bit of the pasture. Not 20 ft into the pasture there as a "bang." I immediately pulled up the cutter and dropped the throttle. I had hit about 4 ft of rolled up barbed wire. The shear bolt sheared and was laying on the cutter.

I grabbed my spare shear bolt, but, as you can see from the attached picture, when it sheared it pushed the yoke heavily back into the gear box. In fact, the cutter still cuts and I have tried to pry the yoke forward to no avail. From the picture, you can see the remains of the shear bolt and it is actually loose in the hole, but I can't for the life of me get the yoke to move forward so I can put in a new bolt.

Is there a special tool that I can use here. Would this be a warranty item? I've got but 1 hour on my new Rhino and I've already got this major problem.

Thanks for listening...

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Here's another pic. I had to remove the housing plate just to get some room to work. IOW, the end of the yoke was rubbing on the housing plate and destroyed the plastic collar that was there as well.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Can you drive it out with a drift pin? That is what I would try, unless there is some reason that it can't be done. If there is a reason, it's not apparent to me from the photos.

Nice close ups, BTW.

Also, are you engaging the PTO at idle or at PTO operating speed?

SnowRidge

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I can't drive it out as only a small portion of the hole is showing, and the yoke won't move.

I know it's hard to tell from the photo, but only about 1/4 of the shear bolt is showing. The yoke is jammed about 1 1/2" to the right (in photo) of where it should be. You can barely see it at the very center of the second picture. I'll find some photo software so I can circle the location of the shear bolt hole.

Yes, I engage the PTO at idle (800 RPM). I do remember the dealer, though, engaging it at about 1500 so that's probably what sheared it that first time. I really didn't have any problems when mowing and I engaged/disengaged probably 12 times.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Here's a pic with the shear bolt area highlighted. If you look hard you can see just the edge of the bolt inside the blue rectangle.

 

[normde2001]

It appears that the shear bolt is smashed between the shaft and the yoke. I believe you are going to have to remove the u-joint, (cross and bearing), from the yoke and pull the yoke off the shaft with a fairly large gear puller. I don't believe they would consider this a warranty job. Cutting barbed wire would have to be considered abuse. To shear the original pin, at what rpm did you engage the clutch. I would engage the clutch at just above an idle and then get up to speed after you get the cutter turning.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Here's a picture from the other side showing the shear bolt access hole. This really shows how far the yoke was pressed back toward the gear box. It would have shoved it farther but the housing support plate was there, but I removed it to get a better look at the problem as well as some leverage to try and pry the yoke forward.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

SnowRidge / Norm,

Thanks for the replys. Yeah, the gear puller will do the trick. That's the route I'll take. Hey, there was no intentional abuse here, but can you believe with 40 acres of pasture, I hit some barbed-wire in the first 20 feet and tear up my brand new cutter the first time I use it. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif Oh well, I can always use a good gear puller. Can't be too expensive. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[CTyler]

Do you have a 5-6' digging bar? You may be able to pry it loose. You may have to put a blcok of wood between the case and the bar to gain extra leverage. Either that or as suggested a puller.

 

[JackIL]

I can't quite figure out how an encounter with a wad of barbed wire could shove the yoke back. I think a possibility is that the PTO shaft is too long and that by raising the cutter to full height the yoke was driven back too far. This is an issue that the dealer should have resolved before delivery. You should be able to raise the cutter fully and not cause the PTO shaft to reach the totally closed state. Some implement / tractor combinations require that the PTO shaft be shortened to prevent this from happening. I would start with reporting this to the dealer before doing anything to try to remove the yoke.

JackIL