Sweepster Rotary Broom - rebuild and modification

[dstig1]

Thanks, Mike! And Happy Thanksgiving all!

More progress. Got the wiring almost done, but still looking for a weatherpack connector to disconnect this to be able to split the loader from the tractor. I'll try Napa tomorrow as I have got them there in the past.

Lots of minor details addressed but the big one was getting the broom core and motor assembled. They said it took 41 broom wafer sections, and that is what they sent but I could only get 39 on it, following their directions. I'll see if it "settles in" or something and I still have the extra 2. Adding them on later will be very painful, no doubt, but I just don't see how they would fit. But the big item was to make sure you put the carriage bolts into the motor mount thingy BEFORE you mounted the motor to the core as there is no way in hades to put them in once you bolt on the motor shaft to the core. It would kill probably 2-3 hrs to take that all apart and reassemble again if you forgot. I remembered! (you can see them in the left picture sticking out below the motor)

The only way I can figure to mount it to the frame is to drive the tractor up to it and use the loader to angle/adjust the sweeper frame until I can connect it up. I'm guessing that will be fun... Getting closer!

 

[dstig1]

Got the broom mounted with the help of a neighbor to guide the tractor/loader into place to pick it off the jack stands. Then ran into a snag. I am now seeing that I should have put this together prior to powder coating and tested everything out. I guess I Ass-U-Med that being a commercial product I would not have to do anything new with the parts I reused without changing, but now I am seeing that this thing would greatly benefit from a hard stop so that the broom can't tip back too far. That would have been fairly easy to fab and weld on before, but now not so much. So here's a couple pics

And herein (below) lies the problem I see now. With the loader sitting on the ground, the broom bristles push the head back at a fairly decent angle, to the point where the pin for the angle cyl (circled in green) almost touches the shroud. I can see a dent from where some PO did that. If I could come up with a heavy duty hard stop in the center where the purple arrow is pointing, that might help, but I wish I had tried all this earlier as there are a couple other details that I would have like to improve, if I knew better.

The hoses in red from the check valve spin-down loop to the motor are easy enough as nothing much changes there, but the blue hoses are a problem. The one on the left is a very short path as shown here and I am not sure if I can loop hoses enough to make it work if the head is allowed to angle back this much. So I may need to pause here and see if I can come up with a solution for that first. I'll get some time to play with it tomorrow more and see what my options are.

Oh yeah, and powder coat on the cylinder pins is waaaay too thick to alow the cyl ends to slide on, so that has to get wired wheeled off too... Yippee. I should have guessed that and masked them off. I ran into the same issue with the bearing on the free end of the broom core. I started on removing the paint here, as you may be able to see if you zoom in.

 

[dstig1]

Holy Heap O' Hoses, Batman!!!

Yes, the hoses arrived and I got it all plumbed today. It appears all my lengths will work out just fine. I can raise the loader up quite a ways without any risk of the hoses to the pump going taught, and way more than I would ever want to raise it with the broom on anyways.

Haven't filled it yet and still waiting for the float springs to arrive so I can finish it off. But here's what it looks like now. That first photo is missing a couple of the return lines, but the rest were after completion.

 

[dstig1]

Almost there! Springs showed up yesterday. Only had enough time today to make these little keepers to stop the springs and chains from falling off when you release tension on them. Just a little leftover 1/2" DOM tubing that I drilled out the inside diameter a bit more and cross drilled for a 10-32 set screw. No real stress on them but I will probably add some loctite to keep them from loosening over time. Got them painted and tomorrow should be it for getting the final assembly done and filling it and giving it a trial! Fingers crossed that the hyd motor is good as this will be the first time it has been run in many years, as best I can tell...

 

[dstig1]

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!
Houston We Have Liftoff!
It works! Woot! Woot!

I got the springs sorted out and in place, then filled it up (I need a better pump than the little plastic hand piston pump I have - took forever). Started it up at idle speed and after a few seconds for the fluid to work through it spun a little. Shut it off and checked it over, then tried it again and it was spinning! The wrong way! Arrgh. Not sure if I read the motor specs wrong or what but I was able to swap the 2 hoses to the motor around and didn't make a horrible mess like I was expecting. That worked and I slowly ran the speed up without issue. At least I managed to get the angle directions correct. 1 out of 2 ain't bad for mostly guessing...

We had a dusting of snow overnight, so I went out to give it a spin (pun intended). It throws snow great! The only thing I found is that you need to keep it in the sweet spot for contact. Too much down with the FEL and it stalls the broom/motor. So you need to keep your hand on the joystick to adjust slightly as you go, but not bad. This does make me wonder if this is normal or if perhaps the motor is worn out or something like that. For now, I will live with it and look into it to see what i can find in the manual under troubleshooting.

No video yet as it was dark and I wasn't set up for it. I will get some video when I get a chance and post it here. Final pic of the springs in place below. Only thing left to do is some better support for the hoses. I just used a rope to keep them off the ground for now.

Ran for about 30 min blowing off the snow and noticed the snow spray was "steaming" off the tank, so I decided to stop and check temps. IR gun had the tank at 120-130ish so no problem there. I guess snow spray just steams off real easy. I will continue to monitor temps for now until I have a good idea how it is going. I pretty much had it running the whole time too, rather than stopping and starting it many times.

What a relief that is to have it done and working!

 

[mike0000]

That’s awesome, Job well done!

Mike

 

[dstig1]

Thanks Mike! I used it for one more small snowfall the other day. Still getting used to it. Tank temps maxed out around 140-145 so still fine. It was a longer run, so not too surprising it was warmer. Still keeping an eye on it for now.

 

[Bill_M]

It works! Woot! Woot!

Dave,
Excellent work! it will serve you well for many years.
a couple of things I can tell you about those brooms & wafers in case you don't already know.
1. It is common to put 2 wafers on each end with the center ring matching not 90* like the rest of them are stacked.
2. Don't park the broom with down pressure on the bristles it will cause them to take a permanent set & cause it to hop as it rotates.
3. Ideal contact patch of 2" to 4" is best.
Any questions please ask.
Again excellent work!

Bill

 

[dstig1]

Thanks, Bill. I followed the instructions from Sweepster on building the core and they did not mention to put 2 on the ends. I have 2 left over so maybe that would have worked, but no way I am going to take it apart for that now.
I still haven't figured out the float to get ti to sit right without having to adjust it constantly, but I am working with it for now.

I did make a pair of simple stands to keep the brush off the ground. I don't see why the stands are optional with this. If you can't set it on the brush, you NEED some sort of stand to hold it up. Doesn't make sense to me...

 

[ponytug]

Dave- wonderful build series! Thanks for documenting what you did, and how you thought about doing it. Did you ever consider a diverted for spinning in reverse?

How did it work for you this winter?

All the best,

Peter