Harrow operating question

[mikeg135]

Just picked up a used 6 ft 20 disc 18" leinbach harrow for $200. The disc currently spin freely to one another. Are they suppose to spin together?

 

[SLHawkins]

they all spin independently of each other.

 

[jbooth]

I have never seen a disc harrow designed for each disc to spin independly. I'm not saying it is not possible, I just haven't seen one.

 

[gwdixon]

Hmm...my 3PH tandem disc has four gangs. Each gang has a square axle and the disc blades all have square holes. The entire gang turns together.

However, I had an old offset disc whose blades turned independently of each other. When it was taken apart to replace the blades it was discovered that the square axles had round grooves worn in them that allowed the square holes in the blade to just spin on the axle.

With the price of the disc (not knowing the age) you might expect it is well-worn. You might want to pop off the end nut and see if it has a square axle. It may be worn like my offset disc was.

The solution was to weld up the grooves and grind them back to square. Real weldors will cringe at this since the axles were likely hardened steel. But on the farm you sometimes just have to do what works.

 

[mikeg135]

After a bit more research looks like the previous owner replaced the axles with a solid round bar. Looks like I will be needing to replace them with some square axles and probably new square bearings. The bearings have a round hole not square hole.