# Couple of tractor repairs



## Nutfarmer (Jul 30, 2021)

First one was to weld a new ball end on the staybilizer on the three point hitch. Next was repairing a tension pulley for the fan belt on the John Deere tractor. The bearing froze and spun on the shaft. Dealer wanted 186 dollars for a new one. With a new 15 dollar bearing from the bearing supply house it was back to the shop. Milled off the rivets holding the bearing in place and made new rivets. Tig welded up the stud that the bearing inner race ran on. The touchy part was turning the aluminum stud back down. Had to leave the tenisioner assembled and the stud was on the spring loaded side. With a few light cuts it was back to the field.


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## markba633csi (Jul 30, 2021)

That hitch sure looked frail- no wonder it broke. Good fixes
-M


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## Bi11Hudson (Jul 31, 2021)

A *much smaller* tractor, a long time (2003) ago, I was rebuilding a belly mower. The bearings were JD special, $50-60 each. I found the same bearing, without the flange, at a local bearing house for around $6.50 each. I did need to remake the pedestals to compensate for no flange, took me every bit of an hour each for the three. That stunt of using "proprietary" parts has been around for many years.

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## homebrewed (Jul 31, 2021)

Bi11Hudson said:


> That stunt of using "proprietary" parts has been around for many years.


Sure has, and apparently ubiquitous.  There is a "right to repair" movement that is going on right now, should be interesting to see how that works out.  

But I doubt that the issue of proprietary tools will go away, even if the "right to repair" gets written into law.  We once bought a machine that used proprietary end mills -- they had .120" shanks that went into a matching holder, so users couldn't use standard 1/8" bits.  I got around that by making an adapter on my lathe. A little later we had something that eventually saved us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.  The machine didn't have a high speed spindle so it wasn't even necessary to balance the adapter. I just used a set screw to hold the bits.  

We later got a machine that could run the bits to over 100KRPM's, and THEY were proprietary too:  but I didn't mess with that one.


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## Bi11Hudson (Jul 31, 2021)

homebrewed said:


> But I doubt that the issue of proprietary tools will go away, even if the "right to repair" gets written into law.  We once bought a machine that used proprietary end mills -- they had .120" shanks that went into a matching holder, so users couldn't use standard 1/8" bits.  I got around that by making an adapter on my lathe. A little later we had something that eventually saved us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.  The machine didn't have a high speed spindle so it wasn't even necessary to balance the adapter. I just used a set screw to hold the bits.
> 
> We later got a machine that could run the bits to over 100KRPM's, and THEY were proprietary too:  but I didn't mess with that one.



Proprietary* tools *don't gripe my butt so much, they can often be justified with very little imagination. Re that box end bent into a "C" shape for setting Chev. distributors way back when. To this day, I can't see an alternative. Made a few with a torch in my time. It's those proprietary parts that I find to be obnoxious.

Those specialty tools above are, to my thinking, parts. Couldn't be metric, no, no, that's 3mm, .119, an obvious difference. I've got some metric mills for my Dremel. But to use them commercially, not on your life. I would have changed the chuck rather than making an adaptor. But that's just the way I think.
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## homebrewed (Jul 31, 2021)

Tools are one thing, but specifically designing things that require the OEM's "special" consumables (to capture more $ from their customers) instead of readily available off-the-shelf consumables is what gripes me the most.


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## RJSakowski (Jul 31, 2021)

That .120" shank is suspiciously close to 3mm.  I have a West German pneumatic pencil grinder that uses 3mm tools.  I was able to open the collet enough to accept 1/8" shank tools.


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## Nutfarmer (Aug 1, 2021)

What really burns me is on a car I can hook up a code reader and read a code. A code reader is a couple hundred or less. To read a code on an ag. engine I have to call out a dealer for 300 hundred dollars for five minutes of work to read a code.


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## rabler (Aug 2, 2021)

Nutfarmer said:


> What really burns me is on a car I can hook up a code reader and read a code. A code reader is a couple hundred or less. To read a code on an ag. engine I have to call out a dealer for 300 hundred dollars for five minutes of work to read a code.


Argh.  Yes.  I have a tractor that erratically throws codes for the PTO not being run at appropriate RPM.  Talk about a worthless thing to require a dealer rep to read out.


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