Woods 9180RD Batwing came apart

[alldodge]

Pull the my Woods Batwing Turf mower in the fields behind my vacation rental. I keep an eye on maintenance checking gear box oil level, belts, blades, all that kind of stuff. Finished cutting the back side hills and was in the home stretch on the front side which is mostly flat. Hear a loud couple bangs, stopped the tractor and disengaged the PTO.

Then see this, took pic at my house


Note the gear box, it's not bolted down
One by one over time the bolts loosened and fell out through the bottom. There was only one of the holes in the lower gear box that had a slight nick, meaning the box didn't come loose until the last thread of the bolt broke.

It busted the quick connects on each wing and one yoke. I spent today getting new bolts, unbending the braces and other stuff. It didn't hurt the gear box so reinstalled with new grade 8 bolts using red loctite. Will be looking for 2 wing PTO shafts Monday, of parts to fix the ones I have.

The shafts use quick connects on both ends which means they cost more. One is square shaft and other was replaced at one time and used the 3 side round. They are series 4 and 26x41, so should be able to use a 30x40 which is regular size, or will cut to fit

 

[Scott Danforth]

That sucks

Look into prevailing torque locknuts

 

[alldodge]

No nuts, 1/2 bolts go in thru bottom
Finding nyloc bolts would be nice but none in grade 8

 

[alldodge]

Looking for 2 PTO shafts in the 30 inch compressed with Quick Disconnects on each end. Found 3 different vendors and like Sutter Bros in OH the best. Going to look local tomorrow to see what I find. Can always get a longer one and cut it down

 

[alldodge]

Looked a bit further and found one of the belts broke, so no big deal. But ..... also found one of the pivot points has a broke weld, that's going to take a bit more work, bummer.

Have 2 welders but I'm not that good, but the question now is do I try and hope it works out, or take it to a "real" welder and let them fix it?

 

[Scott Danforth]

I say practice a minute or two before hand. You have this

 

[dingbat]

You got to love working on farm equipment.

Bush hogged the back pasture Sunday morning. Got back to the barn… the tail wheel assembly only made it half way.

Weld breaks on equipment are typically vibration related. Prep, not welding skill is the key here. Anything short of 100% penetration will crack/break again. Grind to base metal on both parts and start from scratch. Run hot…use the arc “gap” to control puddle temp. Once the root pass is done you can back off the temp a bit to make it look pretty.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Welding and Planting are two things where penetration is critical

 

[Pmt133]

I'm not an excellent welder by any means... my knee jerk response is that a grinder and paint can cover all sins. That being said, I agree, you got this.

Also, maybe nordlocks for the bolts?

 

[Mc Tool]

You got to love working on farm equipment.

Bush hogged the back pasture Sunday morning. Got back to the barn… the tail wheel assembly only made it half way.

Weld breaks on equipment are typically vibration related. Prep, not welding skill is the key here. Anything short of 100% penetration will crack/break again. Grind to base metal on both parts and start from scratch. Run hot…use the arc “gap” to control puddle temp. Once the root pass is done you can back off the temp a bit to make it look pretty.

Smear a bit of filler on the bad spots too before painting

 

[flashback]

man what a mess. Glad you weren't injured. that could a been alot worse..

 

[alldodge]

man what a mess. Glad you weren't injured. that could a been alot worse..

Yes, thankful lady luck was on my side

Got the tab bent back where it should be and need to move the unit over to my shop to even use the welder. Guess I could add a double 50 amp breaker in the barn (have 200 amp service) and bring the welder over.

Have a old Lincoln stick welder and have never been good with it at all. Also have a Hobart 220 Mig welder with no gas. Have flux core wire so it wouldn't look as pretty, but I can get the amps up

My finger is at the end of the crack, so it cracked about half way. It was bent out and I hammered it back in place. The 3/4 inch pin that goes thru it is not bent but it did brake the keeper off the back so I can wled a piece of rebar on that end

 

[Scott Danforth]

Grind out the weld with a 4-1/2" grinder. Then hit it with the flux core

 

[alldodge]

Bought 2 PTO shafts off amazon for the ones that were damaged. They show there quick disconnects on both ends were the ring type. The ones received were the single spring pin

I'm sending them back and have ordered others like I wanted from Farmer Bobs

 

[Mc Tool]

Scuse my ignorance but whats the difference ....I mean obviously the latching is different , is one better than the other ?