What needle bearings?

Just in the one I took the pic of. It was missing a couple and the inside lip had already started to break away.

A few more trips and it might not have been so simple to fix.

 

You can get the needle grease fitting adapter at NAPA. Probably any other parts store should have it too.

 

This one?

 

Yup, that should do it! Check the packaging for compatibility before you use it with a pneumatic greaser, if you have one. Could get a little messy otherwise . . .

 

Yeah, finding a new yoke is exciting when your broke down in Dog's ***, AZ. Just Say'in......

 

I picked up a little mini pistol grip grease gun at the local flea market today for $2. The end has a really small hole and seems flat around the perimeter. It doesn't look like it fits a regular zerk.

I figured I'd grab a tube of grease and see if it works...

Might just luck into something!

BTW, I'll be at NAPA tomorrow, think I'll pick up another universal for the front of the rear drive shaft. It is a bit floppy and has a little play.

May as well take care of it this week, too.

 

...or this...

 

Not quite.

I've pulled them out after they'd been thunking for 40Kmi. Crosses looked like cones and I'm not really sure how they didn't come out of the caps at that point, but it still wasn't catastrophic failure. Oddly enough, the only sign it was bad was a pronounce clunk when putting the truck in gear and the extra creep when parking (it'd roll a bit before the slop took up with the parking pawl). Driveline wasn't wiggly, but then I hadn't ever checked it with the rear end off the ground. For whatever reason, when I initially checked things out and also thought the tranny was to blame, I didn't see any evidence of needle bearing failure. Seals were intact, grease wasn't present (which is a sign I overlooked), and there weren't zerks so I never bothered to try lubing the thing.

That transmission still bangs into gear, but it doesn't creep as much when you park it. I should've taken pics of the cross when it came out. Talk about getting your moneys worth! hahaha

Now I check them over a lot closer from the get-go when I acquire a vehicle. $15 fix that's a whole bunch cheaper when it's not on the other end of a tow to a shop.

 

I thought that only happened when you used an aftermarket ICP ?

 

Ain't that the truth!

Having worked with very old farm equipment and stuff all my life, I'm familiar with universals and their problems. Not truck kind of problems, think 5' old-school drive shaft (sometimes homemade) with shear pins that regularly break as you hit a stump or buried piece of wood, rock, whatever is in the field and sends that shaft flopping and flying wildly as you hunker down and hope this isn't the time it lets loose on the other end or jambs against the wheel and sends out shrapnel

It's not unusual to be welding on new universal yokes and such. Or hammering back into shape, maybe adding a bead of weld, etc

Balancing the driveshaft? What's that?

Sure it would be better, but on a piece of equipment, it just wasn't that important. A little wobble in the back of a tractor as you sit on the steel seat...probably never even notice it

But on this Excursion...balancing is an issue. So I didn't want to bend the ears and certainly didn't want any part of cutting off and welding on a new yoke, then worrying about balancing

So had to really baby it when removing the universal. Smaller 3lb hammers, MAPP gas torch instead of oxy-acetylene, no hydraulic press, grinder stays on the shelf, etc.

I used a 13/16" socket to balance the yoke on, then a steel plate to hammer on top until the top cup came flush with the yoke, then a piece of pipe (eventually a much heavier walled pipe coupling) over the top hole to pound.

The first one came out like this, no problem.

But the damaged set, had to put the coupling under the yoke after getting flush and use a hammer with a chisel on it to hit the side legs of the cross alternating to knock it down through each side.

That set was much harder to get the cups into, all the hammering and heating because of the damaged cup made some anomalies to the top edges of the holes.

It worked, but I kept worrying about knocking the needles out of place, trying to hold the new cross so it floated inside both the cups and tapped the cups deliberately and accurately to put them into place.

After installing the new clips, I used a small punch to drive them all the way into the slots. I probably should have dressed the slots first, but was too lazy Don't worry, I invested that "saved" time into driving the clips into the slots

I'll be greasing the new universal today for the first time. About 100 miles on it with the pre-lubed grease in it.

Who knows, may even tackle the other universal today, as I have to exchange my alternator at NAPA today- it has a cracked case. So I'll pick up a universal for the front. If not today, I'll likely replace later this week.

I still have a little vibration, maybe 5%, but I think that is suspension related, as I can put it in neutral and coast and still have it...but the front universal is a little wobbly, so replacing it should take out SOME of the vibration...

DANG! I sound like TUGLY!!!

 

Last summer I built a 3pt stump grinder for my tractor. I can swing it to where there's enough vibration to shake the tractor (5065E JD - not a little lawn mower, a real tractor). I've been wondering how to re-engineer that joint since I built it. I wanted a double cross to make a more bendable joint, but the Ag industry goes to CV's in series 7 drivelines and those are out of my price range $$$$ (it's $800 for the joint). I'm tempted to make one, and I'm equally tempted to make the front drive shaft out of our trucks work in that section of driveline. I know where there's several F250's with cheap parts.

 

What is your hydraulic takeoff gpm? Maybe a hydraulic motor mounted on the grinder itself, instead of a driveshaft?

Or add a separate motor (off a big lawn tractor) to drive the grinder?

The other option is to extend the grinder away from the back of the tractor and use a longer drive shaft. The longer the "lever" the more swing you'll get at the grinder end and the less angle you'll get at the drive/PTO end. Double the length is half the angle

Got any pics?

 

I was going to go hydraulic but it'd require another pump and reservoir run off the PTO to keep from losing spin when adding swing. I've only got about 11.6 gpm out of the tractor's aux hydraulics. By running it PTO direct, I get 58 horsepower at the cutters and my hydraulics are reserved for moving the cutting head.


Making it longer would make it even harder to get around. The issue is that at max swing and above half lift, the gearbox u-joint ends up cogging. Simple solution is to not do that. More involved fix is to correct the excess angle with a more adaptive joint. I can blow out a lot of $16 cross bearings for what a CV would cost. Haven't blown any yet, but I've only been using it on a road clearing project at my place. This year I'll be offering stump grinding so hopefully I'll get some use out of it on other properties.

 

First off, that's AWESOME! You're in MN, too bad it's so far, LOL.

Your cogging is at the grinder end? Heck, that's pretty simple (relatively)

Your cutting head has a horizontal shaft, right? Just allow the gearbox to rotate a bit. Might mean having separate supports for the assembly and the gearbox to the tractor 3pt mount.

That would keep the gearbox input end in line with the driveshaft.

Picture the gearbox as a big "L" shape. The short end of the "L" is the horizontal shaft of the cutting head. The corner is the 90* gearbox (I'm assuming), and the long end is the driveshaft.

Keep the long end always pointed towards the PTO and let the short end "slip" (spin actually) on it's round axis as the header is raised or lowered. Possibly mount the gearbox on a slotted arc.

(Picture an allen wrench stuck into a round piece of cheese and only pivot on the long end of the wrench. The cheese is your cutter's housing)

I can't see enough detail to know if you can do that with a fixed sliding arm or if you need a hydraulic component.

 

Mmmmmmm cheese............