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Worst breakdown

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
I guess my worst breakwown would be on my JD 5020. I was discing, and the thing just stopped moving. I didi't know where to start, then I noticed one set of dules a little tilted. the right axel had pulled out of the final drive. It was no where near the road. I had to pull it up to the road with my crawler, and hope the axel didn't pull out completely. I hired a heavy duty equipment hauler with a winch to get it home. Then the fun started. What is your experience? Stan
 
I was combining oats with the Gleaner F - gas.

Just was running a little rough, drove to the yard & cleaned out the radiator, looked it over, worked on the points, didn't really see anything. Ran better.

Went back to the field, combined 1/4 of a round, it ran really rough. Pushed in the clutch.

BANG. Very loud bang.

Then everything was quiet, except the combine cylinder spinning down to a stop below me.

I smiled at myself, & turned the key - nope, didn't do anything. Didn't expect it to.

Climbed down to the ground, went back to the engine, and could see smoke coming out of the hole in the oil pan....

Mechanic thought he could save the engine. Dropped the oil pan, & bits & pieces fell out. Piston flakes, a valve or 2, rings, couple pieces of the camshaft (it boke at every bearing...) He still figured he could rebuild it, but then found an oil journal that was smashed, then it wasn't worth messing with.

Figure a main bearing turned & starved one side of the 6 cylinder of oil. The rod broke & stopped the engine in a couple revolutions at most, with the end of the rod shattering the camshaft & smacking the oil journal.

It was a lonely walk back to the house.

Had to drop the header where it sat, and towed it back to the yard backwards. Mecanic was kinda busy, so we pulled the engine off the top & drove it over to him.

--->Paul
 
Sugar cane harvest, High-crop JD 4430. The stub axle on the left side broke in half with a wagon full of sugar cane connected and about 100 yards from the head lane. Plus, it was muddy. We were able to get a new axle and repair it in the field in 4 hours. Not too bad considering it had 20.8 X 38"s full of water so the tire was heavy to pull off...
 
Hey Paul , I had just about the samething happen to me . It was a 300 MF , the engine sets right beside you , talk about a wakeup call . Knocked a hole in the side of the block . I guess the worst that I had to repair was clutch and throw out on a TD 9 INT. crawler loader . It broke down on the side of a hill cutting in a new road . I was young and never fixed anything like that but several trips to talk with the local guru and I got it done . It all go`s it through the floor pan and ya bout gota stand on your head to do it .
 
Something very similar happened to me; had a L2 which I had bought used. I had swapped a F in on it and the L was wonderful.......air conditioned, hydrostat, diesel instead of gasoline, much more capacity, etc. 'Bout the third year I had it, I was shelling corn and it started running hot; gauge would peg out. They could be held with 2 different engines, but this one had the small one (2900 series), and it consistently ran hot. The gauge would flicker, would quit, etc. Finally traced it down to a loose wire and it started working right. Liked about 2 days finishing up the corn and the oil pressure gauge started doing the same thing. Figured it was a bad wire, so thought I'd finish up the corn before fixing it. It ran about 3 hours before a rod came through the side of the engine. Dropped the header, borrowed the dealer's tow bar and pulled it.....backwards.....to the dealer's. Found a used engine (big engine, 3500 series) at a salvage yard and the dealer installed it for me. $3500 mistake on my part.........
 
Old Headlund Martin spreader hopper auger broke. 3" shaft right behind the driven sprocket. Had 3 tons of chicken litter in it. Shovel, shovel and shovel some more.

Where I work off farm we had a 10,000 pound flaker ring to crack and shook apart. It first threw all the knives out. 42 knives. As the knives came out it shook more and threw a 1,000 hp 4160 volt motor off the pad. The motor fell 15 ft. and fell on a conveyor. 6 days later, a new knife ring from Germany and 1.5 million dollars we were back up and running. Was lucky no one was hit by a knife.
 
Not my own breakdown, but a guy that I worked for off and on. 1070 Case had the left hand rear axle housing bolts pull out of the center section. We patched it back together with helicoils and lots of RTV. Later the rear center section was replace. That involved splitting the tractor and pulling the cab loose.
 
Not all that bad but for me I was moving the bale elevator in cramped quarters and while turning I noticed a small tree branch just touching the elevator about 3/4 of the way up. I had it cranked down as low as it would go. I stopped and looked and then thought that little branch couldn't do anything. I moved another 6 inches and then watched as the elevator proceeded to tip over in very sloooooow motion. I'm thinking while it was going over "at least it should miss the electrical box on the pole in the yard", wrong again. Smashed it to the ground with a big pop and flames shooting out of the ground. Now I'm thinking I don't dare step off the tractor but Dad was in the house and heard the commotion and came out to shut the power off. Next thought was SHIIIT it's Sunday and no electricity. That was about 3 months ago. Elevator only has a slight bow but now that I think of it I still owe Dad the electrical repair cost as it happened at his place. Funny Dad hasn't reminded me.
 
I've got to vote for the loaded spreader with the broken draper chain. That's alot of work, not very pleasant and the day this happened it was cold. Bad breakdown!
DSCN0810.jpg

bill
 
Had that happen more than once back when milking cows. So cold the manure was freezing before you could pitch it out. Had to take an axe and bar to chop it out right in the field. That was back in the 1980s when we had real winters. It only happened when it was 20 below or more.

Same thing with the barn cleaner and that stuff sometimes would freeze into chucks before it was out the chute into the spreader. You could only stand to fix for 5 or 10 minutes when that north wind would blow so we (me, my Dad and a brother or two) would take turns warming up in the barn. That's when the toes and fingers would be so numb you couldn't feel them and when you went into the house the first 5 minutes your feet would be in severe pain until they finally warmed up in the tub. Awe, the good ole days.
 
Probably my worst was last summer when I had about seven hundred bales of hay down. I had just finished one field and was pulling into an adjoining one that was already done, with a full wagon behind the baler. The hitch dropped off the bottom of my Ford 8240, and the full wagon pushed the baler under the back of the tractor. the PTO shaft broke in two places, and I still had about 500 bales to go. Fortunately some friends were able to come and bale for me. I was thankful that it didn't happen five minutes earlier when I was on a steep hill.
 

Broken axle. Running along in the field when the tractor stopped going. Tsts to see if axle is broken is to engage the differntial lock and see if the tractor will go. It did and had to get dealer to pick up tractor and repair it. Big bucks. "Bright" spot was that the tractor needed a clutch so I got both done at the same time. Big bucks. Factory service said one cause of broken axle is to engage differential lock with tractor pulling, pto lock should be engaged tractor still.

KEH
 
Happened at work. Just sitting down for lunch and the boiler that was being worked on blew up,that was back in April, work still being done to get things back up and running.
 
When I was a teenager, my brother and I were sent up the road to borrow a couple wagons from the neighbor so we could get the rest of the tobacco picked up before a rain. I was driving the Farmall 140 in the front, my brother (younger than me) was driving the MF 135 behind me. I had to stop and let a car pass to make a left turn, my brother didn't stop and hit me square in the rear end. The 140 broke in two, right at the joint of the engine block and bell housing. My Dad was not a happy man. Good thing no one got hurt.
Good Luck and God Bless.
 
Amongst all that I have experienced, I don't recall anything as catastrophic as this one:

White Freightliner, tri-axle dump, was sent to work on a site with it, this was really a road truck, 315 cummins and 8 spd with lo hole, 19'-0" long box with 5'-0" sides, you could load 30+ tons of asphalt from the plant into it, truck weighed 33,000 empty.

I back into the pile, excavator loading us out, well when there was an operator, sometimes it was load yourself day. The operator overloaded me for the conditions, haul road was a bit soft, dry but underneath was soft and the trucks were making 2"-4" ruts. About 100 yards or so from the pile, on my way to the fill area, just the other end of the site, as I am going along....... BANG !!!!, what the..... ???? Power divider literally exploded, sent gears right through the case, I still have pieces of both the case and the gears in a jar. Good thing no one was standin nearby. It needed to be towed to the shop, and myself and the mechanic who also drove and ran equipment, repaired it that evening so it was ready to work again, did not go out on that job again.

After it happened, I looked into the box, operator had it spilling out the sides, had I known or saw it first ( the way it was handling I knew something was up, just did not stop in time ) I'd have dumped it off right there in front of the excavator, and had him re-load 2/3 or a bit less than was on there, too much resistance on that haul road, and it found a weakspot. Plenty of breakdowns with trucks, and earthmoving equipment, but this is the only one that exploded, not too bad to repair, owner was not happy, but realized the truck should not have been used on the site, we trailered over an old tandem F-850 ford that was off the road, had a detroit and automatic, the box on this thing was unreal, never saw one raise so fast, not all that big, but much better for this site job. A lot of contractors would use old mack B-models or old DM's, or similar trucks for on site hauling, sending the tri-axle was a mistake.
 
I remember that happening, too... only I was young enogh to not have to deal with it then... was my Grandpa's and uncle's problem. Christmas day, one year, about '82-'83. Not near as bad now with plastic floors in spreaders.
 
Dad had a flat on a wagon load of beans right at the cousin's house. The cousin video-taped the repairs and showed it at the Thanksgiving dinner. Dad could dish it out but not take it. He took this one pretty well though. It's hard to git mad when everyone is hysterical....
 
About two weeks ago my son was finishing up chisel plowing a field. He was driving a John Deere 95 something. I can't remember the numbers of the new series. This four wheel drive with duals on it took up the whole road. This was past dark and there wasn't much traffic on the back roads.

He noticed a small vehicle coming at him. At about the time the car was passing him there was a crash and explosion that shock the whole tractor. His first thought was the car was run over with the duals. It scared the *$%^&$# out of him. He looked behind him and saw the car wasn't moving. Scared he ran back to the vehicle expecting to see a disaster. The driver had gotten out of the vehicle and was carring something back to him. The man was carring the front drive shaft out of the tractor.

It was just coincidental that the shaft let go at about the same time the car passed. He was thankful that nobody was hurt but was shook up for the better part of an hour.
 
Draper like chain gathering system in an automated Egg production building. (a landlord of mine in late 70s)
150,000 chickens in one building.
seven rows of hens each with 4 layers of layers.
Manure pull system ran 24/7 It stopped one day and the chain had to be repaired in ~7 minutes. Put it together in 5 or so, but on startup, it broke again. The only solution is to kill chickens (about 10 workers doing it killing 1800 layers for 40 minutes or so) They end up in soup, so it was not total waste. The manure chain must move or the load exceeds the capacity. Each is usually changed every so often with a new chain spliced in, old chain run out the same end and rolled up at the same time stopped and tail spliced, then restarted. One minute for each splice. No issue. That is bad reality. JimN
 
I have the same exact JD spreader When That happened to me , I laid out serveral Sqare bales and Flipped the speader over with front loader ,,. All survived well Including the Sq bales ,, got a new floor chain and spreader is ready to go at moments notice ... I suppose the worst breakdown Is A smallone that cannot be reversed that Multiplies thru a series of failures into a terrible catastrophy , like a fullbin collapse !! ,, ?
 
Our worst breakdownS happened on July 4th weekend when we were cutting the hayfield. Too long to list all that went wrong, but every piece of equipment we used and at least 2 of the tractors broke down. Had my horse at the farm and he colicked. Got him to the vet at 10:00 pm July 3. Worst 4 days we've ever had.
 
chopping stalks with my 4020 it started to die down pulled the pto kept on dieing down; shut it off restarted it and it ran fine for about 10 min and started to knock, scored a cylinder,took it to the dealer and 4439.00 later have a totally ouverhauled engine. bearings.sleeves,rod bearings,2 new valves should be good to go.
 
Not exactly a machine breakdown but last winter just after a Baptism for my friends son. the Machine shed roof tried to come down. Up on the roof in church going clothes in 6 degree weather with plenty of wind. Thought that shed was 1 mile long by .5 mile wide.
 
I lost the front axle on an Allis-Chalmers 190 once. Bounced through a small pothole in the driveway on the hills out of the field and rolled the front axle right under the tractor. Best part was that the boss was in the service truck right behind me, and that was our only way home, I was driving the tractor to the shop for routine service. I had asked Jim a couple of times when he was gonna fix the axle, and he always said it was fine for a long time. I knew it was not going to last very long, but he insisted on running it with the axle loose. "Run "im till it falls out" he"d tell me.

Scary stuff, especially on a hill.
 
this is probably my worst equipment break skidding wood got stuck tried to back up pic says it all
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I'd have to say our 1755. I was loading manure and went to shift from R TO 4, and it locked up the transmission. $1500 for a used transmission plus labor to do the swap. All this after replacing a shift fork not too long before that.

Not long after the transmission swap, it spun a bearing. Parked in the weeds now, but I still wanna fix it up again. Too much money in it to let it go for scrap.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
Back in the 60's we had a VAC Case with a narrow frontend. One day my buddy was using it in one of our fields disking and, without any warning, the front axle broke off the upright steering shaft. The front wheels stayed on the spindles, and they rolled back under the oil pan, almost to the transmission before my buddy got the tractor stopped. He walked back to the house to tell us what had happened.

The old Case just sat there for a few days until we were able to get a replacement part. As I remember it, my Dad was able to get a used frontend for about $25 at a tractor salvage place. We fixed the Case right there in the field by jacking it up and blocking it. The Case still had that frontend on it when my Brother traded it in about 25 years later.

I was sure glad my buddy had the presence of mind to push in the clutch so fast and get the Case stopped. If he had not, or if the front wheels had not kept supporting the front half of the tractor, I don't know what might have happened. My buddy might have been badly injured or killed if he got thrown off and run over, and it probably would have wrecked the nice old Case. As it was, it turned out to be no big deal.

No warning at all. I suppose the shaft was cracked where the spindles connect to the upright shaft. The tractor had always steered just fine. Marv didn't remember any bumps just before the shaft broke. Just all of a sudden, the front wheels were no longer where they should have been.

Sure glad it didn't happen at one of those times when we were going down the paved road at relatively high speed. You really need to have front wheels!
 
Had a vacuum leak on the glass receiver jar of my milking system and decided to snug up the connection. You guessed it, I broke the glass jar.

Waited an hour or 2 until dealers were open and started calling around for a replacement. Found a used one about a 2 hour drive away. On the way back about 15 miles from home, the rear axle went out on my pickup.

Meanwhile the cows were waiting to be milked the whole time. That was a bad day.
 
There's a couple things but nothing real serious.
-Rear tire fell off manure spreader (empty), bolts got lose. Just chained the tandem axle to the end gate and drove home .
-there was some $hit in the back of the spreader and it hit a big bump and that was it for the drawbar(broke) and the PTO shaft(bent in half), that was more of a winning situation because the old pto shaft was had broke and welded back on off centre and we got a brand new $1000 PTO shaft covered by insurance.
- A forage box tipped over into the ditch after getting too close to the edge(wasn't there for that one)
- A gravity box full of corn got too close to a ditch and slipped in, It was a borrowed wagon but luckily no unfixable damage done(snowy,muddy ground) (missed it too)

Probably more but not that I can think of.
 
Patz manure spreader, boss said to keep the web running till you get back home as to freeze dry the web. Be sure to go to the back of the farm and check the stock cows (over a mile and a half all corn stalks) because the snow srorm may be a few days.

As most of you know Patz is noted for their hook together (like a log chain snare hook) web chain. It came apart 3/4 of the load off and dumped the chain over a two mile length. Heck no I could not take the same tracks home while I sorted a sick looking heifer out and chased her home arond the route she decided to take, and not wanting to be out of the herd. We found all the bars, but less than half the chain. It was snowing real hard, and we all thought we would be going home early once we got the manure hauled.
 
Bearing went out of idler pully, ran belt off straw chopper of combine. warning lite not working, loaded up back of combine, kept packing it in until it bent the walkers. Took five hours to dig it out, ten hours to take walkers out and rebuild, three hours to reinstall. Stupid Massey combine.
 
Pulling a NH 515 3 tie baler down I-5 south of Portland,Oregon about 10 am and lost left wheel and tire. Broke axle right lane. No big deal just drag it off the freeway right? Wron. ! ton chev 454 / 4x4 wouldn't budge. Incident response comes along puts out flares and stays behind to keep me from getting hit. Locate wheel and tier 4 hours away and spindle about the same distance in the other direction. Both parts and tire dealer show up at the same time. Rush hour and state patrol says you got 20 minutes to fix and get it moved. We made the 6:00 pm news. Took 10 minutes to fix and sure don't ever want another day like that one
 
My Great Uncle had a VAC with mounted cultivator. You know the one where the square shaft goes through the square hole up around the front pedestal. He hit a stone and broke the tractor into two pieces right at the square hole.
 
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