Disc Harrow old disc repair

Jstpssng · Jan 24, 2018

^^^^^ Yes, that was the current price (plus shipping) when I posted them. I went that route with my Dearborn when I was in the OP's position; I bought the harrow without knowing what to look for, only to realize when I got home that two of the bearing housings were broken.
I did need to grind down the spool end a bit to make it fit, but it's worked for 5 years now.

cedar21 · Jan 25, 2018

I may go the route of replacing the bearing housing with the type recommended by Jstpssg. It is either this, or replace the wood bearings. Thanks so much for all of the information.

bspeedy · Jan 25, 2018

I would not put another 200 dollars in this disc. Band-aid it (like the last guy probably did) and use it to tear up the ground until you can buy a tube frame disc of good quality.

My take on the money side is like this - invest 500 bucks in this disc and you have a disc worth 150. Invest 800 dollars into a heavy, tube frame disc and you have a piece of equipment that makes you happy to use it AND is still worth 800 bucks for probably the next 20 years.

downslope · Jan 25, 2018

bspeedy said:
I would not put another 200 dollars in this disc. Band-aid it (like the last guy probably did) and use it to tear up the ground until you can buy a tube frame disc of good quality.

My take on the money side is like this - invest 500 bucks in this disc and you have a disc worth 150. Invest 800 dollars into a heavy, tube frame disc and you have a piece of equipment that makes you happy to use it AND is still worth 800 bucks for probably the next 20 years.

Well the last guy's "band aid" cost him ~$25 in parts and it's still working 5 years later.

I would say if it's feasible, replace 1 or 2 of the bearings and see how it works. Some of the older disks do a better job of leveling than than new rigid frame models.

The massey #25 and #22 models had rear gangs that floated independently of the front and the front gangs were mounted on ball joints to allow them to float. Older Ford disks did not use a tubular frame but a high tensile angular spring steel frame that allowed it to flex. They also used a floating 3-point hitch to allow the disk to float up/down somewhat independent of the tractor.

You're correct about not dumping too much money in, but I think at $18/bearing plus shipping it is worth a shot. This is assuming the rest of the machine isn't bent up, welded up, patched up, etc.

Also $800 isn't going to buy you much of a new 3-pt "heavy duty" tandem disk with 20-24 blades count of 18 or 20 inch disks.

cedar21 · Jan 25, 2018

I am going to try to get it to working condition for this spring. I think it is worth salvaging if possible.

Jstpssng · Jan 26, 2018

From the pictures, it looks like a solid unit, and definitely worth a little effort.

woodlot · Sep 5, 2018

I believe I have this exact same disc, in nearly the same condition as yours. I was the victim of my own ignorance when I bought it. I'll never to my ending days understand seemingly honest and knowledgeable people who knowingly sell junk machinery to a novice person. Anyway the disc was made by the Love-Lift Inc. company in Michigan, and I'd like to know if you ever found a reasonable solution to your worn wooden bushings.

I feel like I've googled myself to death looking for some type of modern high wearing plastic (UHMW hollow rod) that would be a suitable alternative. I've found a few nearly the correct size, which I believe is 1 7/8" ID by 2 3/4 OD, but nothing just right. It's also very expensive in those large sizes (30-50 dollars per foot!) and you need 7" per housing.

As others have mentioned, there are bushings available through a company called WoodEx, but those aren't without issues as well. They are not the full 7" needed, but instead come as two 3.5" pieces. If you go this route you need to add two new press-in zerks to your housings and drill a hole through each new bushing. The zerk is then pressed through the housing and into the bushing, thereby preventing the bushing from turning and offering a way to grease the inner spool bearing-to-wood area. You then should seal the original hole to prevent dirt from entering. These are sold at 15 dollars per set of two 3.5" bushings. So, 120 bucks, plus shipping, and 16 new zerks and some significant time to refurbish the disc.

The other route I explored was new bearing spools (ribbed) and the housings from AgriSupply. Unfortunately they a quite expensive in the 7/8" axle format that this disc has. So I ruled that option out quite quickly.

I have not done it and am leaning towards just buying a new King Kutter from the farm and home store to get my food plots done. Please update this post if you found an inexpensive, ingenious solution!

cedar21 · Sep 5, 2018

My disc is still sitting torn apart. I was not able to even get the wood bearings out of the housing yet. I like the disc, though for the cost to repair it, as it will need new axles as well, I am thinking to try to get another used disc that does not have the wood bearings. There must be a way to fix it, but without even being able to get the bearings out, I got discouraged and have not gone back to working on it again. Sorry to not have better news.

cedar21 · Jan 15, 2020

I hope it is OK to revive this old thread.

I am finally getting around to trying to repair the old "Love" disc that I got a few years ago. One thought I had was to replace the bearings and housings with spool type bearings. The square shaft is 1 1/8". I looked on the Agri-supply website and they have spools that are 1 1/8 inch, but don't seem to carry the half-bearing part in the 1 1/8" size. I haven't found anyone else who carries that size either. I am also wondering if it would be possible to repair the disc by finding bearing that would fit in the original bearing housings, though am not sure how they would be held in the housing. It has wood bearings at the moment.

I was wondering if anyone might have some ideas on how to get the disc operational again. I was also wondering if someone could tell me what a half-bearing spacer is and how it is used.

I am attaching photos of the disc again, and also photos from the Agi-Supply website of a half-bearing spacer (1 1/8"), bearing spool (1 1/8"), and half-bearing (1").

Thanks in advance.