Tiller Used Tiller - What to look for?

[House]

There's a large grey market distributor near where I live that refurbishes kubota, yanmar and mitsubishi tractors. They also have a lot of used tillers brought in from Japan that they sell for $600 CDN.
I want to go take a look at them but don't know what to look out for. What are the typical weak points in a tiller? These are small (48") tillers. What type of things should I pay close attention to?

Thanks

 

[mtsman]

I have a used gray-market Yanmar tiller. Mine had a gap where roots and rice pattie stuff wrapped around the very end of the tine shaft and pushed the shaft out of the lower bearing housing so to speak. This caused other problems.

Look at each end of the tine shaft where it goes into the bearing. Make sure there is no debris down in between the shaft and the bearing inner oil seal.

 

[Darren]

Most of the small tillers use a chain drive on the end to transfer power to the tine shaft. That's supposed to run in an oil bath. I'd check the tines to see if you can move them by hand without the pto shaft end moving.

If they move that means a stretched chain or possible worn sprockets. Check for slop in the gearbox. If you can rock the pto shaft back and forth by hand without the tines moving, the gears may be worn or again it may be in the chain drive.