Help taking apart a tiller gear box

[clytle374]

Clytle, no worries. I know the guy I bought mine from. I think he took decent care of it. It's just one of those freak things.

To answer your questions though: it has an 8 hp Kohler engine. No, the teeth were really not worn thin at all - they were just separated from the pinion shaft - all of them. Hard to believe, isn't it. The tiller attachment is 26"

Glad to hear it wasn't the gearbox I worked on, being that I work on lots in my line of work, I take failures personally.

Hard to believe? Not if something hard got into the gears. It looks like the bearing race in your picture is broken, if that got in the gears it would do it.

 

[coaster]

Clytle, forgot to add one thing. When I removed the tine shaft, I could see that the bearing race was still intact. Everthing appeared to be just where it should be besides the teeth that had broken. I'm pretty sure that I broke the race when I tapped the pinion shaft out. I'm guessing that when the shaft fell through as I tapped it, it landed on the race and broke it then.

When I was using the tiller last, it definitely hit something and started to walk forward, so I let go, as usual, and it shut down. When I started it back up, and engaged the clutch, the tiller moved but the tines did not, so it was something that just went all at once.

I'm still giving it some thought as to what I'd like to do. The part of me that likes to tinker says get the part and finish it off. The practicle part says just buy a new attachment.

This past spring, I was cutting firewood when my husqvarna died out on me. I took it in to a dealer who told me that the cylinder was scored and it was toast. I took it apart to tinker and found that the cylinder looked good. Got some old parts (ending up replacing the magneto) and put the whole thing back together again - runs like a champ now

 

[Grut]

You also bring up some good points coaster..with the saw, good deal- sometimes it is hard to find a honest dealer for repairs..so doin' it yourself pays off both for the machine and yourself with what you accomplished and learned.

As for the tiller, you can get another but what store the old one for spare parts?, or fix up yours and have no storage..or sell old parts unit. Have fun with that decision.

I have the 730 harvester w/26" Tiller and love the 8hp Kohler Magnum. I have tilled some soil with roots and rocks that made the tiller take off like a raped ape, but I guess now I was lucky enough to not break anything..

Do you have a compact tractor? because you can use the scarifiers on a boxblade to bust it up a bit before pulling the tiller out. That is what I do hoping to save some wear and tear on the BCS.

 

[clytle374]

Is your tiller a round hood? I thought all the spline drive tillers had the angled hoods. Doesn't look like you tiller dates the same as your tractor since you have the spline to dog PTO adapter, right?

I would definitely call about just getting the gear box. Again, I remember something about Earthtools selling replacement gearboxes. Make sure you explain to him what you got with the adapter and hood style so it fits together. Of course if your tines are about wore out, just get a whole tiller.

Another option, if the tines and hood are all in good shape, and I'm correct that all the tillers use the same gearbox(again ask to be sure) is a 18" tiller is $425. That would get you a gearbox and several spare parts depending on which tiller you have now.

Maybe someone got careless in heat treating the day the pinion was made.

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Coaster,

I like Clytle's idea of buying the cheaper tiller and transferring the parts, BUT you'll still have to buy the 20 inch because the gearbox is smaller on the 18 inch. If you bought the 20 inch, you could use your hubs and tines to make it into a 26 inch. Just DON'T throw away your used parts! Those tine hubs a $70 each alone!

However you decide to go, Joel is the best place to get parts and advice. He will be about the only dealership that would even stock a shaft.

Good luck!

Bill

 

[coaster]

Grut, No I do not have a compact tractor. It definitely sounds like a good thing to have

Clytle, thanks for the suggestion on buying the smaller tiller. Yes, the tiller does have a round hood and the height adjustment extends throught the tiller. I suspect that it is not the original tiller that came with the tractor. I'm the 3rd owner. I know that new tines were put on the tractor about 2 years ago, but that's about it. And I am going to check into getting a gearbox alone as well. One thing that's occurred to me (especially since I broke the bearings getting the pinion shaft out) is that I could easily break bearings when putting it all back together, so why risk it? That's why I'm leaning towards getting a gearbox at a minimum. I don't think I'd damage anything just attaching the tines to the gearbox, eh?

Farmerboy, thanks for chiming in there as well. I will certainly keep all that you guys have suggested in mind when I make a decision on what to do with all of this. I'm glad that I decided to post here - I never would have thought of all the things you guys are mentioning as a whole.

 

[coaster]

Parts quote just in - still giving some thought as to what direction to take:

1 524.59230 Pinion shaft $99.52
1 371.41201 Bearing $75.15
1 580.49859 Rear gasket $2.68

 

[clytle374]

The pinion shaft seems pretty fair, that bearing seems like, well... not nice.

Is the ring gear still okay?

No gearbox only option?

 

[Grut]

Might want to price the bearing locally if possible should be able to save some dough..
As long as everytooth on the ring looks good that doesn't seem too bad I would throw it back together for that price!
Have fun either way you choose!

 

[coaster]

Clytle, my thoughts exactly. I don't know what a new ring gear would look like, but the ring gear I have looks to be totally clean - not a scratch and not worn at all. I tried simulating what it would be like to put it back together and I think I should be able to do it without damaging anything. I've given some thought to what you were saying earlier and it does make sense. That the race broke and the pinion shaft was not aligned properly. I think if that happened, it might still look to be sort of aligned when taking it apart. I do think that I could be gentle enough with it when putting it back together though.

And I'm awaiting an estimate for the gearbox - I would expect it to be significantly more.

Grut, I'm leaning in that direction!

Hey, have either of you ever dealt with the following site (I've actually included the search link at the site)? :

Needlawnmowerparts.com

I threw in the part numbers from the other quote for the pinion shaft and the bearings and got the quote of $66.00 for the pinion shaft and $53.00 for the bearings. The part numbers are 52459230 (Pinion shaft) and 37141201 (bearings). Just don't know how reputable that place is. The first quote was from bcsshop.com.

As always, thanks for the input.