3930 Cat II ball joint - bad weekend

On Saturday, hooked up the brush hog to a new addition to the barn where I work part-time, Ford 3930. Was just going to work an hour or so cutting a smallish area (less than an acre) that was SERIOUSLY overgrown for horse trailer parking. There was a horse show on Sunday. Could have baled the grass, it was so thick.

Anyway, after I got most of it cleared, making multiple passes to chop of the piles, I looked back and the hog was skewed sideways, hanging on by one lower pin. The top link had also unscrewed. Wow. Found that the link arm ball had popped out of the link arm. It's a Cat II hitch where the ball is NOT fixed in the link arm. It's removable and held in place by a spring clip. Now, for the ball to come out means that the linch pin came out of the pin on the brush hog, the link arm separated from the hog (to be expected without a linch pin), the ball had to rotate to one perfect position to come out of the link arm AND the spring clip had to open. (The spring clip was closed when I got off the tractor). A perfect storm of sorts. Not sure when it happened as the top link probably kept it somewhat straight until it unscrewed.

Called around Tractor Supply didn't have one and the one sure place that did (within 4 miles of the farm) had closed 15 minutes earlier. Would not normally be a crisis (get a new ball on Monday) but the problem was that they needed the tractor to drag the arenas on Sunday.

Spent a couple of hours with a few people walking the field, kicking at the piles, got a metal detector and spent a couple of hours with that. Finally decided to cobble together a bushing for the link arm so they could use the drag. Called this AM, it's a $5 part. Gonna buy more than one, that's for sure. Guy on the phone suggested that we remove the ball when we're not using the 3 pt. Guess it happens a lot.

I figure that once we have the spare balls, I'll walk right out to the field and step on the one that was lost. :lol:

paint your balls bright red or orange or white..

it will happen, especially when a lynch pin falls out.

(quoted from post at 09:33:22 06/20/11) paint your balls bright red or orange or white..

it will happen, especially when a lynch pin falls out.

Click to expand...

etter use water based paint.....that lacquer thinner is sure to sting!!! :lol:

Those clips are worthless for keeping the balls in
the link ends. I keep teh balls for my 4600 in the
toolbox whenever I don't have something hooked to
the 3-point. (the one exception being the cat. II on
the left side that was made in the land of almost
right... it's slightly oversize and will NOT come
out.)

Ha!

(quoted from post at 09:48:57 06/20/11) Those clips are worthless for keeping the balls in
the link ends. I keep teh balls for my 4600 in the
toolbox whenever I don't have something hooked to
the 3-point. (the one exception being the cat. II on
the left side that was made in the land of almost
right... it's slightly oversize and will NOT come
out.)

Click to expand...

That's kind of what I thought when I looked at the contact area between the clip and the ball. For a piece of machinery that is bouncing all over the place, there ain't much "keeping-in" protection, especially as the spring clips get rusty and worn from use.

I like the idea of removal when not in use, but this tractor doesn't have a fender mounted tool-box and I don't dare take them off and put them in a drawer or box in the barn, never to be seen again. :lol:

Best thing will probably be to add a small tool box to the fender and store them there, like you suggest. It seems like I learn something new everyday working on a farm. Pretty soon, I'll know enough to be dangerous. :wink:

I have a ford 4610 and one of the spring clips is loose so I"ve lost the ball just driving around with nothing on the hitch. I have never lost the ball withan implement on the hitch. You must have ahad a failure of the lynch pin sprin that allowed it to fall out. I have twosets of hitch balls, Cat I and Cat II if I don"t have an implement on the hitch, I put the balls in the tool box til I need them.

Jerry/MT,
Yeah, I agree that the lynch pin must have come out first. No way the ball comes out with an implement attached. The problem at the farm is that so many people (including kids) work there, I often find equipment with pins and clips bent and/or missing. Then someone will stick a nail in it to use the equipment. It's unbelievable. I've found equipment that's had baling string (not wire) or duct tape holding it together.

Classic example was when I went to use the battery charger a while ago. The battery post clamps had no spring tension. The clamps AND springs were all rusty and broken. I asked someone how they had been using them as I had seen it hooked up to cars and tractors recently. They said they just wedged rocks in between the clamp handles to hold them closed on the battery! Been doing that for a few months according to one person. A 15 minute trip to the auto store and $7 later and I had it fixed so it would actually pass some current to a battery.

A short piece of electric fence wire twisted a turn or two works good too if you don't want to take them out each time, but I guess you'd still need a toolbox to store the wires!

We've got two tractors that use those balls so we try to keep at least two sets for each tractor. We also remove them when they're not in use because they're notorious for falling out. What probably happened... the lynch pin broke off or came out, the link end slid off the pin... then you lost the ball.

Rod

It"s amazing what people will do when they"re in a hurry!
I"ve been known to do some of that stuff but a try to moinimize it.