Mechanical Repairs

 I have mentioned before over the years that one way to have additional money for food is to avoid other unnecessary costs. One area everyone can improve on is self-sufficiency, which saves thousands of dollars annually.  Basic home repair involving plumbing, electrical, painting, woodworking, etc. should be on everyone's list of skills to improve. Basic mechanical knowledge is another.

I have never attended any formal training in mechanics but I do have a solid foundation in the sciences and was especially good at Physics and Chemistry. Physics comes in handy the most and I have a deep understanding of the Laws of Physics to include simple and complex machines (levers, wheels, inclined planes, etc.) and the Laws of Motion. With that knowledge, and 55 years or so or tinkering, doing repairs in the field, and just experimenting, I can look at almost any machine or mechanical device and understand how it is put together and how it works. 

I have a Kubota B7500 tractor that came with a front mounted snow blower. This thing is awesome for moving a lot of snow, very fast. But it came with no instructions. In fact, I didn't even know it came with the tractor as an accessory; it wasn't listed on the advertisement (the tractor was bought from a Used Equipment lot). So I laid out all the parts, studied them and their probable attachment points, and mounted it the first time in about two hours (three years ago). A couple days ago (way later than usual) I decided to get the tractor and blower set up for a forecasted snow storm coming our way.

The big snow is still up in the air but regardless, it is way over due to get the snow blower hooked up. My B7500 tractor stays up on the farm property for maintaining the roads and woods during the warm months. I went up yesterday to unmount the flail mower and the belly mower, loaded it on the trailer, and brought it down to the house. Then I had to unmount the brush guard and belly mower front mount. Next is to mount the snowblower drive train frame.

This is the frame that the snow blower gets attached to. The cylindrical part is a coupler that joins the Power Take Off (PTO) shaft from the tractor to the PTO shaft that attaches to the snow blower. When I turned the PTO shaft coupling, the bearings felt dry and crunchy, not a good thing for bearings. It has no grease zirks so I spent the next hour disassembling the shaft coupling into its seven internal parts. I have never disassembled anything like this but figured it out as I went. There are seven internal parts: two split rings (I had to go buy a special tool to remove them), two locking collars that hold the shaft tight to the bearings, two bearings, and the shaft itself.

 

Below is what one of the two bearings looked like. They, unfortunately, cannot be taken apart and repacked with grease, which was my original plan. So I had to drive 30 minutes to the nearest Equipment repair shop to get two new bearings. Online the best price was $27. At the shop, they had two bearings in a box of customer returned items and the shop charged me only $16 for each. So I saved $22 right off the bat.

The tool shown is the split ring pliers I needed to remove the bearings. It comes with various tips for different size rings and different angles. Once I removed the split rings I needed to remove the locking collars, which has Allen screws being used as "Set Screws" to clamp the locking collar to the shaft. These were stuck in place and it took careful tapping with a hammer on a pin punch and prying to get the collars removed. The shaft came out with one of the collars and then I punched out both bearings.

I spent another hour cleaning all the parts with a wire wheel, a file, and sandpaper then solvent to get the burned grease off the parts. Then tapped in the new bearings, added the locking collars, then the split ring and presto, a brand new coupler.

 Eight bolts attach this frame that supports the two PTO shafts and the snowblower itself.

 Fully mounted and ready for the snowblower and PTO shafts.

 

So, all in all it took me about five hours to do this installation, which included removing the mower mount and brush guard, repairing the PTO coupler (one hour drive to the equipment sealer and thirty minutes to go to a car parts store for the split ring pliers). Total cost was $32 for two bearings and $37 for the split ring pliers (which will get lots of future use); $69 total. Had I taken the tractor and snowblower to the tractor shop to have them do all the work, this would have been over $300.

Time, knowledge, and a willingness to get my hands dirty saved me $231 on just this one repair.