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What are the chances on straightening this?

F

fixerupper

Well-known Member
Top link on a Deere 4650. It was bent like this when I bought the tractor. I'd like to get the top link screwed in farther but the end has to be straight first. It's 1 5/8" thick. I have a gut feeling it'll crack or break if I straighten it cold but heating it won't do it any good either strength-wise. Getting it perfectly straight so it'll screw into the housing easily will be time consuming unless I get lucky the first time. I can buy a new one from Deere but if it'll survive a straightening I'll save a lot of money. What do you think? Any advice? thanks. Jim
11972.jpg
 
I think it will straighten. Screw it out & then put it in a press. Don't try to straighten it together because I think you will break the casting. You may need to clean it up with a wire wheel & maybe touch up the threads with a tapered file. Let us know what happens. Gerald
 
What do you have to lose? Can always buy a new one.
I would take a shot at straightening it first.
If it was real pricey consider cutting the threaded end of and welding on a new piece of threaded rod.
 
You can straighten it, but the threads won't work. The threads on the "outside" of the bend have been stretched, and they won't contract to where they need to be when you bend it back. Instead, the threads on the "inside" of the bend will also stretch when you straighten it.
 
It will straighten like said just heat it then quench it in oil will temper it some. The oil will not harden it like water would. Just drop it in the oil then pull it out let cool will need to either file with a knife file or run a die down it.
What do you have to lose? If you don't like those options then cut it off and weld it back together in the bend so the threads work.
 
I have straighten many of them. Heat them up slowly to keep the threads in as good as shape as you can. I always leave them together. The end and center gives you something to press on. I also have a bronze block I put on the threads to push on.

When I get them straight I then take it apart. Then I reheat the straightened area to cherry red. Then slow cool it in a bucket of oil. Dip it in and pull it out. Few seconds in and 5-10 out. This will heat treat it but not to glass hard like watered cooled will do.

Then I have a set of thread files that I use to clean the threads up with. You usually can get them to work as good as new if you take your time.
 
Thanks for the quick responses. What I'm worried about is an invisible weakness that could make it break sometime later. The V ripper does pull the front end of the tractor off the ground if it's really pulling hard and that's a lot of pull on the top link. I've had a top link break twice, both times on a three point boom and it's quite a sensational event for sure. Never thought about the stretched threads. I'd like to have it so I don't have to lug my guts out with a 24" pipe wrench to turn it. Jim
 
Your top link is under compression when you are in a hard pull. The lift arms are doing the pulling, the top link is keeping it from tipping forward and out of the ground. I don't know how puncture-resistant your rear-end castings would be if it snapped just wrong.
 
Do you have a nut that will fit over the threads? If you remove the bar and heat it with a nut on the end so you can secure it in a vice or something, you should be able to straighten it. You will likely have to chase or rethread the end, yet, you should be able to get it straight.
 
Straightened mine on a press.I took the end that was bent out of the housing found two nuts that would fit.One nut was at very end . used the other to push on. No heat . Ran a die nut after to clean up threads.Was tight at first but loosened up after a little use.
 
I don't know ? the one on our 4020 snapped like a pretzel ! Had a goofy 3 point boom on it where the top links go up on them too high and went to raise it a tad more and it bumped up against the hook that holds it up and the top link and snap !
 
I would replace it, you could straighten it, but do you want it to break in the middle of the field later.
 
Bent it once, it's going to bend again.
Is there a beefier top link used on a larger tractor model?

Time to lengthen that top link and level out the ripper point so
it will just barely stay at working depth. Then shorten the link 1-
2 turns.
Odds are you are lifting and heaving dirt instead of ripping
slots in he soil.
How wide are the ripper tips?
 
Ripper tips are maybe two inches wide, maybe a bit more, and there are five of them. Lifting and heaving in the low black areas is my goal. This soil is so darned tight it has to be fractured completely between the shanks. Making slots won't do me much good, except for improving drainage down into the tile in really compacted low areas. When I look back at the ripper the soil is lifting and then dropping between the shanks. In our soil in the low black areas the roots will go down to the plow pan and then go sideways because they can't burrow down any farther.

Like I said, it was bent when I bought the tractor so I don't know how it happened. Maybe one of the bottom links popped out and the implement twisted sideways? My first inclination was to just bite the bullet and get a new one and I just might go that way yet. Jim
 
Heat it cherry red and bury it in a 5 gallon bucket of ag lime, it will take at least 24 hours to be cool enough to handle but then you can straighten it on a press without weakening the steel, when you have it like you want it heat it back up and quench it hanging vertically submerged in oil for several minutes and then allow to air cool rapidly, if it has never been heated before it will be back to basically new metallurgical properties.
 
I just went ahead and ordered a new one. $220. The bent one goes in the scrap bin. It's not gonna break me. I wasted a LOT more than that on other stuff. Jim
 
I have to agree, never hurts to try a repair. just may get lucky. i'm guessing everyone noticed the LEFT HAND THREAD! now that would be one pricey thread die! i had never thought about using a thread file on left hand thread. that should work! good luck!
 
I saw you already ordered a new one but wondering if you can put a cutoff wheel in your grinder and cut the threads off just behind the bend? Or would that not leave enough thread to safely hold in the end of the link? Might be handy to have an extra one, wouldn't have to readjust for different attachments?

Anthony
 
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