Rebuilding homemade wood splitter

rus_geek · Sep 12, 2014

Recently picked up this wood splitter, after it had been sitting in a shed for about three years. They were having a hard time keeping the engine running, so they bought a new commercial unit and parked this one that "grandpa built back in the day." I'm probably not going to try to get the old hand-crank-starter engine up and running again, so I'll dismount that and either sell it or scrap it. My original intent was to get some hydraulic hoses and run this off my tractor hydraulics. Once I got a look at the pump setup, though, I started wondering if I could run that off the PTO and get better flow than my onboard hydraulics.

Any suggestions for identifying this pump? It has raised TRW on the back of the case, but I haven't been able to locate any other numbers. Would they be embossed on the face of the mounting plate, or anywhere? The input shaft of the pump is a keyed 7/8" shaft with a flat spot for the retaining bolt. The engine looks like it might be the front of an old tractor, but I haven't found the ID plate on that either.

This splitter is built like a tank with a lot of 1" steel and 5"x30" cylinder, so I don't expect it to move quickly, but I do expect it to split all the stringy elm I can throw at it!

-rus-

rus_geek · Sep 12, 2014

FWIW, I believe this is a John Deere LUC power unit, based on the part number in the head, "L4234T"

I don't think that helps me in the hydraulic pump department, though

Eyecatcher · Sep 12, 2014

Your pto isn't going to turn the pump fast enough to supply the needed gpm for the pump, making the splitter so slow it will be worthless. Put a little time and effort into the old JD power unit. A set of points and maybe an oil seal in the magneto and a kit in the carb, it should run forever, and you already have a unit that works, without any tinkering. I'd love to find one just like it.

Cord · Sep 12, 2014

Honestly, I'd love to see you fix up the engine and run it. That splitter that grandpa built is better than some of the stuff that I've seen on this site.

I'd start with cleaning the points.

MinnesotaDaveChalmers · Sep 13, 2014

Personally, I love old equipment so I'd fix it.

But if you want to go with your PTO, then two pulleys and some belts will get it spinning fast enough to pump enough fluid.

Just size the two pulleys to make the RPM it's used to turning and you're all set.

rus_geek · Sep 15, 2014

Oldnslo was able to dust some cobwebs off the archives and come up with this info on the pump, over in the Hydraulics section:

2000 PSI Continuous pressure rating
13 GPM @ 2000 RPM flow rate
clockwise (right hand) rotation facing the shaft

At this point, I have the hydraulics set up to connect to my tractor aux, and the splitter behaves pretty much as I expected it to -- slow, but strong. The tractor doesn't have to come above idle to split the stringiest stuff I had sitting around.

Next up, I guess, is to see if I can get that old engine up and running after all. Can someone recommend a good online resource for getting that cleaned up and running? The fuel tank was run dry, so I don't need to clean old junk out of there. The oil is jet black, and I should probably change that out, so I need to know what grade oil it should run. I'm also wondering if I should use a fuel additive to make up for running unleaded? (Definitely not going to let any ethanol get anywhere near the fuel tank.)

-rus-

Cord · Sep 15, 2014

Best I know the leaded fuel myth was nothing more than that. I never heard of any problems with valve seats.

I'm a bit concerned about the 2000psi rating for the pump. That relief is probably set at 3,000psi. Worst case scenario would have you splitting the pump case, so maybe just watch it and replace the pump when it fails. You might get hosed down though in the process.

rus_geek · Sep 17, 2014

Okay, so maybe I should have just started out working on the engine. Fresh oil, fresh gas, learning the compression pattern on the crank and it starts pretty easily! I had already plumbed the hydraulics to hook up to the tractor, so I just put female fittings on the on-board pump assembly. Now I can easily switch between running the Deere, or hooking up to the tractor in case the engine develops trouble. The old Deere is more than twice as fast as my tractor at PTO speed and is MUCH quieter than the tractor. I split a few logs to verify all is well and checked that the relief pops off at 1500psi, so I shouldn't need to worry about damaging the pump.

One new problem, though, after running for a while, a pinhole leak in the radiator appeared. If I burped the pressure off the radiator cap, it stopped, but its obviously something I'll need to address.