Rotary Cutter, No Shear Protection.....

[Lidger]

Hi All,

I just picked up a used Rotary cutter, not sure what brand. The person painted it all up to make it look nice.
The Gearbox on the cutter does not have any shear pin protection. Is this somthing I should be worried about damaging my tractor? Is there some type of convesrion kit to make it shear pin protected?
I am mainly worried about damaging my tractor, should I be?

Thanks,

Lidge

 

[MrJimi]

You must have a shear bolt in the driveshaft, get some spares now and what kind is it and we need pictures
Jim

 

[Fjord]

How does the yoke of the u-joint on the pto shaft fasten on to the gearbox? On my old Walco there is a bolt that fits through the yoke and the gearbox shaft and that is the shear pin (at least I assume it is because I've broken it several times). If there's no bolt there check and see if there's one at the other end of the pto shaft where you connect it to the tractor. That's where it is on my snowblower, an eccentric lobe with a 1/4" bolt through it.

 

[Lidger]

The yolk on the gearbox side looks that same as the one on the tractor side. The yolk has a spline, and then some type of screw. The screw seems to squeeze the yolk onto the spline of the gearbox. I will take pictures as soon as I can.

Lidge

 

[Lidger]

Here are some pictures, The bolt type shaft you see is NOT going through the spline. It almost looks offset.

 

[MrJimi]

Thats the release button to remove shaft, whats on the other end of shaft, It should be there

 

[Lidger]

The other end does have a hole all the way through it. Is it on backwards? Is the pushbutton release supposed to be on the tractor side?
Isn't the shaft that comes out of the gearbox of the cutter supposed to be smooth? My buddies shaft is smooth with a hole for the shear pin. Doesn't the splines defeat the purpose of the shear pin feature?
Like I said the other yoke is also splined with 2 holes that line up for a pin, but it is splined.
Is this right?

 

[MrJimi]

Your PTO shaft that comes out of your tractor looks like this shaft with the groove for that realease pinn to release it, the other end of you shaft should have a ALL THE WAY THRU for shear pin/bolt, mine uses a grade 5 bolt and I have a Howse model 500
Kinda hard to explain over a keyboard but I'll see if I can find more pictures
here is a exploded view of mine and they are all very basic
300, 350,400, 500
Jim

 

[Lidger]

HI,

Yes I do understand that, but on the cutter end (shaft coming out of gearbox) shouldn't that shaft be smooth with no splines ?

 

[MrJimi]

I have never had mine off but you have me wondering, here is a picture of a gear box and it get turned to the right 90 degrees and your shear bolt should go in the shaft, hopefully the real tractor guys will chime in
I hope that helped
Jim