I've been having a rough few weeks with tractors. My Ford 3600 is out of commission waiting for an upper steering column seal. My New Holland TC45 WAS down because I'm putting a front remote on it for a grapple bucket. But while waiting for the parts, I put the hydraulics back together as I needed to use it for brush hogging which I usually do with the 3600.
Went out yesterday afternoon and started to cut and it was making a lot of noise. Looked behind me and it wasn't cutting. Raised it up and the blades were spinning. :?: Stopped the PTO and the blades kept spinning while the PTO shaft was stopped. Uh oh. :shock:
This AM, I picked it up with the loader to work on it. The stump jumper was VERY wobbly and loose. I expected to have to heat the castle nut on the gearbox to get it off but it came off with just a wrench and some hard turning. Found that the female spline on the stump jumper plate was stripped. The output shaft of the gearbox looks ok. My suspicion is that the castle nut loosened (there was NO cotter pin present) allowing the stump jumper to drop off the tapered gearbox spline until it no longer "grabbed". There was about 1/4" of "good" spline left at the bottom stump jumper.
I looked around the net and a replacement stump jumper is about $100. I found a hub for $20 which I ordered. I'll have to cut off the old one and weld the new one in. Anyone done that before? Any "gotchas" or things to look for? It seems pretty straightforward.
I was also hoping to replace the castle nut as well but it looks to be a 7/8" x 13 TPI. No such animal that I can find. I checked the threads multiple times (both shaft and nut) with 2 different thread gages. It's definitely 13 TPI. I thought METRIC? But nothing is close. I couldn't get the old nut back on at first because the end of the shaft was buggered up. I used my angle grinder and cutoff blade to cut off the damaged last thread and was able to thread it back on by hand. Would sure like to replace the nut. [b:965178b42e]Can anyone shed some light on this?[/b:965178b42e]
In the meantime, the grass needed cutting BAD. I've got some paths where the grass and reeds are chest high. Good spots for ticks to hang out. :lol: So, I figured I'd put the stump jumper back on and hopefully engage that bottom 1/4" of good spline to at least me make a few passes in the worst spots. Just putting the nut back on didn't stop the wobble. I put a washer between it and the plate and was able to snug it up. (I'm thinking that maybe there was supposed to be a washer there in the first place and whoever had this thing before me left it off when doing some work on it.)
Well, it worked. I was able to cut for an hour or so and get the worst paths down to "walkable" height. I babied it, raised the mower when I got near any branches or logs. Hit a few hidden pieces that rattled around underneath the mower but everything held. I've got my fingers crossed that I get the new hub on time. Pretty amazing, bought it off Amazon this afternoon, free shipping from the supplier and scheduled to be here Saturday. I know what I'll be doing this weekend on Father's Day. :wink:
Went out yesterday afternoon and started to cut and it was making a lot of noise. Looked behind me and it wasn't cutting. Raised it up and the blades were spinning. :?: Stopped the PTO and the blades kept spinning while the PTO shaft was stopped. Uh oh. :shock:
This AM, I picked it up with the loader to work on it. The stump jumper was VERY wobbly and loose. I expected to have to heat the castle nut on the gearbox to get it off but it came off with just a wrench and some hard turning. Found that the female spline on the stump jumper plate was stripped. The output shaft of the gearbox looks ok. My suspicion is that the castle nut loosened (there was NO cotter pin present) allowing the stump jumper to drop off the tapered gearbox spline until it no longer "grabbed". There was about 1/4" of "good" spline left at the bottom stump jumper.
I looked around the net and a replacement stump jumper is about $100. I found a hub for $20 which I ordered. I'll have to cut off the old one and weld the new one in. Anyone done that before? Any "gotchas" or things to look for? It seems pretty straightforward.
I was also hoping to replace the castle nut as well but it looks to be a 7/8" x 13 TPI. No such animal that I can find. I checked the threads multiple times (both shaft and nut) with 2 different thread gages. It's definitely 13 TPI. I thought METRIC? But nothing is close. I couldn't get the old nut back on at first because the end of the shaft was buggered up. I used my angle grinder and cutoff blade to cut off the damaged last thread and was able to thread it back on by hand. Would sure like to replace the nut. [b:965178b42e]Can anyone shed some light on this?[/b:965178b42e]
In the meantime, the grass needed cutting BAD. I've got some paths where the grass and reeds are chest high. Good spots for ticks to hang out. :lol: So, I figured I'd put the stump jumper back on and hopefully engage that bottom 1/4" of good spline to at least me make a few passes in the worst spots. Just putting the nut back on didn't stop the wobble. I put a washer between it and the plate and was able to snug it up. (I'm thinking that maybe there was supposed to be a washer there in the first place and whoever had this thing before me left it off when doing some work on it.)
Well, it worked. I was able to cut for an hour or so and get the worst paths down to "walkable" height. I babied it, raised the mower when I got near any branches or logs. Hit a few hidden pieces that rattled around underneath the mower but everything held. I've got my fingers crossed that I get the new hub on time. Pretty amazing, bought it off Amazon this afternoon, free shipping from the supplier and scheduled to be here Saturday. I know what I'll be doing this weekend on Father's Day. :wink: