Tractor Literally shaken apart!

[browns40]

Hi Alan,

Sorry to hear you (& the machines) had a trying week...

Again, family is family, so all's forgiven... maybe next time you can be on the tractor... where he's a fellow tractor man this may be opportunity to check out areas on his to watch for just in case (?).

I wouldn't trust any out of the box slip clutch... sitting in perfectly dry warehouse conditions still seems to cause them to bind together...

Here's how to adjust:
1. Get a "feeler gauge"; paint stirrer, nail, file, metal rule--whatever fills the space of the "set" spacing on the clutch in work shape.

2. back the nuts compressing the spring out flush to the ends of the bolt.

3. scribe a line across all parts of the clutch with crayon, paint, chalk--whatever, so you can be sure it's slipped

4. engage the implement at 1500 or so RPM's... a puff of clutch material/dust/rust sometimes blows out. Push up RPM's. Back to idle. Stop PTO, repeat 3, 4, 5 times (polish the faces). (may need to engage at higher RPM's if plates are really froze up)

5. tighten nuts down to spacing of your feeler gauge, OR, in this case, where you're overimplemented, leave slightly more of a gap to encourage slipping at lower forces than "factory"

You're done. Plan on checking for slipping any time you let the shaft sit idle for any amount of time, especially in damp conditions.

Again, sorry about the damage...

 

[dieselsmoke1]

A good rain does help a lot, however doesn't do a thing for all those baseball sized hunks of granite I've got in mine. I beat the living crap out my old tiller for the first few years here, had a chance to sell it for cheap and sent it down the road. Now I rent a tiller when I need one. May have to change rental yards someday.......

 

[texbaylea]

For those stress cracks and a quick repair if the cracks are short: get "fender" washers, their larger diameter helps distribute the load over a larger area to prevent just such a problem.

Vernon

 

[john_bud]

Browns40 gave an excellent set of instructions on setting the slip clutch. I would only add that if it is froze up, you can loosen the bolts and with them loose attempt to till. That will give more torque than just starting the PTO and free it up. BUT, be ready to raise the 3pt quick! You only want to break it loose and let is slip for a 1/2 second or so. Then just flipping the PTO on will slip it. Oh, if you haven't used the tiller in 1 month or more, you NEED to make sure it will slip, this is not an optional point. It is the only thing protecting your PTO and driveline. More tractors are broken due to poor slip clutch maintenance than I care to think about! Twenty something horsepower suddenly stopping at the far end is going to snap something expensive and hard to fix on the inside of the rear end.

Let's see, there was a Q on the bolts. They are 6x25mm metric fine if I recall correctly (don't trust me on this one!!). I bought them at the local Fastenal store. I used grade 8 or 8.8, probably overkill, but...

For the original poster, there are 2 things to remember on attachments. One is the HP of the tractor to power it. Your tractor has tons of power and can operate very large implements. The other is the weight of the tractor and by inference, it's strength. In the marketing wars, the HP's have been boosted way up, while the weight of the tractors is really pretty low. This allows you to use attachments that are honestly too big. I think you will be able to use the tiller without problems for many years, just keep it out of the hard clay and keep the slip clutch loose!

Happy Tractoring,

jb

 

[Iowachild]

Hmmmmm...........
My Dad told me that you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't eat your friends.

I'm not sure which is the better saying.

Well, I learned it as "you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you cannot pick your friend's nose"!

 

[bbse]

As for the bolts vibrating loose, I think I would just drill the heads and safety wire them together. It worked on B52's

 

[john_bud]

BBSE,

Loctite is for people without the time to drill bolt heads for safety wire!

Besides, if something rattles off, it only falls a foot or two, not 50,000!

jb

 

[Alan L.]

I received a new gasket and some new bolts from King Kutter, took it a part, cleaned it all up with brake fluid, and put it back together. Its no wonder the bolts won't stay tight because you can't tighten them to begin with, without squishing out the rubber gasket. I put the bolts back with medium blue loctite.

Found some dirt inside the gearbox so I'm glad I changed out the oil. Also, noted quite a bit of sludge in the bottom of the gearbox, so I cleaned that out as best I could.

Here are some pics. Note the clearance between the gears. There is a little play, but I don't see any wear, so I assume this is normal. Note the dirt gear, this is the one at the end of the shaft coming from the main gearbox. Its on top, followed by a transfer gear, followed by the gear for the tine shaft at the bottom.

I haven't gotten around to adjusting the clutch yet, though I know I need to. I think I'd rather have a shear bolt. Seems easier to just replace it when it breaks than making sure the clutch is slipping right all the time.

In hind sight I should have done the job, and if I had, I would have figured out it was too abusive and stopped.

I got into some pretty hard clay today after I put the tiller back together, the tiller was jumping all over the place. Its just too dry right now to do any tilling.

 

[rbargeron]

The gears look fine in the pics - straight spur gears normally have backlash (clearance). A little dust in the oil might act as a lapping or polishing compound - probably not do any damage. But it's good you cleaned it out & replaced the oil. If gears like this ever fail, its usually by a major chunk (2 or 3 teeth) completely breaking out of the gear from an impact load. Or sometimes they split across the center. Visible wear is less common to see because gears are usually hardened and keep their shape for thousands of hours of use.

On the shear-pin vs slip clutch topic, the slip clutch may protect the machine better, especially if someone other than the owner is operating it. If a shear pin is soft enough to truly protect the machine, it may fail often enough to be a nuissance, prompting someone to put a higher-grade bolt - and there goes the protection. Its less easy to cheat with a slip clutch. They do need to be checked once in a while to make sure they are not stuck from rust. But even if they are they may only be 30% high on release torque.

 

[john_bud]

Alan,

I HAVE to ask, Why don't you rent pigs?

jb