Allis-Chamlers old rake gear worn what is cheap fix?

I have this old Allis-Chalmers rake the rake works well, but you can see the driving gear on the bottom is worn. I have the spring very tight, but the gear still slips I know the spring should to be replaced. I do not have a lot of money to buy a new gear or spring. So is there a cheap fix to keep the gears locked? My husband thought of welding the bottom gear. This will work, but I would have to loosen the belt tension for travel on the road. I would consider trading this rake for a 3 point hitch rake if anyone is interested.
I live in Cameron Missouri 50 miles north of Kansas City. My cell is 816.217.8465

Thank you for your help.

If it were me, I'd build it back up with weld and grind it to fit.

Never thought of that. Thanks My husband is not that good a welder, but we do have a friend that is, we will ask him to help.

(quoted from post at 07:42:16 05/12/12)
If it were me, I'd build it back up with weld and grind it to fit.

Click to expand...

Is the top one a slip clutch, and the bottom one is to put it in & out of gear?

Yup, weld up and grind it out, dad did several around here, on the corn sheller he didn't get it ground quite flat, so it doesn't want to release at all now.

--->PAul

We took a longer look and could not see how the gear will come off past the bearings. We think at this point we will just weld the gear together and loosen the tension on the belt for travel. What do you think?

(quoted from post at 09:13:35 05/12/12) Is the top one a slip clutch, and the bottom one is to put it in & out of gear?

Yup, weld up and grind it out, dad did several around here, on the corn sheller he didn't get it ground quite flat, so it doesn't want to release at all now.

--->PAul

Click to expand...

That's a valuable late model rake, sell it to a collector, and buy a good NH 256 or 2. I'd jump on it, if I were closer, but MD is too far away, for economical transport!

I welded the gears on my rake several years ago and I just loosen the belt and slide it off the big axle pulley when I want it out of gear. No big deal, doesn't take much time. A good rake and no gear box problems!

The gear on the pulley side is worn the worst in the picture. Have your friend weld the tops of the teeth up. Then grind them back to square. Then the other gear teeth can be ground to square. DO NOT weld the two together. This is a rare old AC rake. Don't lower it value by a CHEAP repair.

I would bet that a AC collector would pay a pretty penny for it and you could then buy a NH 256 or a JD 640 an have money left over. The NH rake or JD rake would be much better to use as the parts are readily available. If you break anything serious on the AC rake you have you will be back to making parts again.

That looks like a pretty nice rake and should have some value to AC collectors as several others have mentioned. I am not sure, but it may have been made by New Idea as they used a similar belt drive instead of a gearbox. If it is the same as the New Idea rake then parts should be rather easy to obtain although I doubt you will ever need many since there is no expensive gearbox to leak and go bad - maybe a belt every decade or so or an occasional bar bearing.

If it were me I would disassemble and build up the worn gears up with weld and then freehand shape with a 4.5" grinder and a die grinder to get a decent mesh. It would be almost as good as new that way. Also it does not take a professional welder to do this since you are grinding weld away to fit. Even booger welds usually work good enough for this and look good with enough grinding. I am far from a good welder and rarely build any projects from scratch. My main use for a welder is repair such as this one or build up worn parts, fix oblong shaped holes in equipment, fix stress cracks, etc.

To see how the rakecomes apart go to AGCO parts and look up the parts schematic for your rake model number-you can do this for free. Parts diagrams should help show you how it comes apart.

Only if the rake was worthless or if I had hay on the ground needing raked now would I weld the 2 gears together. Even then, If I had to resort to this quick fix then I would try to weld it in a way that would be easily reversible if I ever decided to fix it properly in the future when time permitted.

Pretty sure, that rake is all AC vintage. NI rakes didn't have clutches, like that, and the belt was round. AC invented the v-belt, and was loathe to use another type, on their equipment. That rake looks like a 78.

Well we really thought hard about all the advice. We are in the process of taking the gears off the shaft and remaking the teeth. We were able to do this. Never paint a shaft where the gears have to come off. We had to get all the paint off to slide the little tooth gears off. Also did not realize there was a set screw holding one gear in position until after a few minutes of hammering. Now the little rake is apart and we are welding and grinding new gear teeth. Lots of fun for me and my husband of 40 years doing these kinds of projects. I am making a small video of this event and will place it on YouTube. It seemed a shame to destroy the little rakes original design so we are working hard to keep it as those who worked hard to make it intended.

As a side note before you get married work on rebuilding something mechanical together. If you can still say I love you then you will have a long strong and lasting life together though the good time and the times that build a marriage” the bad times”.
I will keep all you wonderful people posted.

Thank you so very much for your assistance.
Farmers are the best people in the world.

(quoted from post at 18:53:49 05/13/12) Pretty sure, that rake is all AC vintage. NI rakes didn't have clutches, like that, and the belt was round. AC invented the v-belt, and was loathe to use another type, on their equipment. That rake looks like a 78.

Click to expand...

Very good result. Glad to see you are going for the right repair. Welding gears like that together would be a last resort when in a hurry and you don't want the rake to keep working after the current season. Love to see some pictures of the repairs and reassembly. These things help others do a job more easily. It took some good advice from this forum to get a couple of Farmall H parts apart without damage. Keep up the good work.
SadFarmall