beppington
Elite Member
Yesterday I was using my grading scraper to level/ smooth the dirt along a new fenceline. I was doing a lot of raising, lowering & feathering of the 3PH lever.
Oddly, my 3PH dropped a couple inches all on its own & then held firm there.
I re-lifted it & that worked fine, for a moment ... but then dropped again within a second or two. Then it dropped quickly all the way to the ground ... & then my 3PH lever was free-as-a-bird, basically dangling there in its slot :confused3:
I looked up under the rear to see what might've happened. Turns out the 3PH lever ... which is flat bar at the top where your hand engages it, but is a sort of small angle iron under the tractor station ... is welded to a rod. For some reason the weld broke.
The only guess I can make is that it was a poor weld, with very little penetration.
I don't know exactly how the 3PH linkage works, but the break results in the 3PH not being held up; it drops to the ground immediately every time. The only way to hold it up is to set the 3PH speed valve to "closed", then reach in under the station & manually rotate the 3PH lever's shaft until it's up again - Not easy to do since there's not much leverage, it's pretty far in there (well, with an implement on the back taking up a lot of the space) & it's hot!
I can take a pic if anyone cares to see it. I was hot, sweaty, filthy, stinking, tired & ready for a shower last night, so didn't take one then
Oddly, my 3PH dropped a couple inches all on its own & then held firm there.
I re-lifted it & that worked fine, for a moment ... but then dropped again within a second or two. Then it dropped quickly all the way to the ground ... & then my 3PH lever was free-as-a-bird, basically dangling there in its slot :confused3:
I looked up under the rear to see what might've happened. Turns out the 3PH lever ... which is flat bar at the top where your hand engages it, but is a sort of small angle iron under the tractor station ... is welded to a rod. For some reason the weld broke.
The only guess I can make is that it was a poor weld, with very little penetration.
I don't know exactly how the 3PH linkage works, but the break results in the 3PH not being held up; it drops to the ground immediately every time. The only way to hold it up is to set the 3PH speed valve to "closed", then reach in under the station & manually rotate the 3PH lever's shaft until it's up again - Not easy to do since there's not much leverage, it's pretty far in there (well, with an implement on the back taking up a lot of the space) & it's hot!
I can take a pic if anyone cares to see it. I was hot, sweaty, filthy, stinking, tired & ready for a shower last night, so didn't take one then
