Is this standard equipment?

18 years ago

OR "Why I don't trust people"

I decided to make my new-to-me 715's tiller a 26 inch since it would only cost me around 50 bucks to do it. As I tore into putting the extensions on, I noticed a lot of plastic and sisal twine between the gearbox and the first set of tines. I started digging at it and got a lot out, but some just wouldn't come. Since this is a new-to-me, I wanted to make as new as possible so I tor it apart right down to the gearbox. Here's what I found -

This part is actually supposed to be welded to the last tine bracket. No problem, I'll just take it to a welding shop today and have it fixed.

After I was done I swept up everything that was packed in between the tines and the gearbox.

Now they're clean!

{{gwi:296574}}No big deal, eh? As I was working on them, I was thinking I could smell burnt oil. I was thinking about how they hadn't kept the crap from by the gearbox maybe they hadn't kept the oil to the top, so I took all the sheet metal off and opened the plug. Whew! There's the burnt oil! This gearbox holds somewhere over a quart and it had about 2 tablespoons of sludge in it! No metal shavings came out, it had some oil in it, and the gearbox is still real tight, so I'm gonna put fresh oil in it and run it. I hope Hope HOPE it's not ruined. Tonight, I'm gonna go through the tractor and snowblower.

Moral of the story - Always check EVERYTHING after making a purchase of used equipment.

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Comments (4)

lbpod
18 years ago
Good catch. Your last sentence says it all,
especially the word "EVERYTHING". And it is also
important on equipment you've owned forever.
A logbook, containing all of the maintenance you've
ever performed, including dates, part no.s, type of
fluids, etc. , can save you a lot of time and grief
down the road.
barbedwire
18 years ago
I`d replace that seal that you`re holding in your hand and I would also flush the gear box with some diesel before re-filling with new oil, gotta get that abrasive crud out of there.
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nevada_walrus
18 years ago
There's another lesson here. Former user either tilled an area with non organic debris not picked up first or lined out the work area with twine which he got to close to and snagged up. Don't do the same. the debris shield and shield work pretty well against organic debris but not man made stuff like twine. That stuff don't belong anyway.
farmerboybill
Original Author
18 years ago
Hey Nevada,

Great advice! I never line my gardens with twine or use plastic of any kind. The only thing I use twine for in the garden is for something for my pole beans to grow up. At the end of the season, I just cut them off and run the whole works through my chipper. The sisal is pretty far along in the rotting and breaks up nicely for the compost pile.

Hey Barbed,

That's not a seal, it's a shield that protects the seal from being ruined by wrapped material. I think the theory is that the stuff will wrap between this shield and the first set of tines and not cause any problems. It was originally pressed on the last tine set but the the garbage was wrapped so tight it popped off. I think the twine got in because it was loose, the other side had no twine by the seal. Since it was plenty loose when I put it back on, I think it's been popped off several years. The welding shop spent 20 minutes to weld it and smooth the welds for a charge of 10 bucks. The BCS dealer said it's a 71 dollar part.

Hey Ibpod,

Records are also great when it comes to reselling a machine. Any yahoo can claim he did regular maintenance but if he can't cough up a paper trail it's only his word. Maintenance records can be faked just before a sale but fakes can be spotted and if the guy was too lazy to do the work, he'll pry be too lazy to fake the records. This guy said he did regular maintenance and look what I found. I'll bet you 10 dollars if I called him up and asked him how to check the gearbox oil he'd blank.