Dave S. #2 tiller refurbish

[dschwandt]

Figured I may as well start a thread on this project.
The unit had tons of slop in the lower end so I disassembled it and found the following.

Decided to put in new lower bearings and new chains along w/a general clean up to good operating condition for this seasons work.

Many parts were acquired from Charlie and some locally as well. Pictures should be self explanatory. Any questions just give me a shout. First up was removing the tine tubes. Very difficult as they had probably never been removed.

Make sure to get a good solid weld all the way around. I used a 7/8" fine thread gr 5 bolt and nut here. The 1/4" wall tine tube made welding in on a snap. I dropped a 10" piece of 1" shafting in the tube to bottom out on the main tiller shaft prior to welding on the nut, and then drove the bolt in w/my 1" air ratchet. When I got to the end of the threads, I simply backed out bolt and added a short piece of 3/4" round and repeated the operation. Had to do this twice due to the limited length of the threads on my bolt and had to use smaller round to fit through the nut, remember I used a piece of 1' shafting to begin with. This thing fought me all the way out despite repeated heating w/the torch and soaking w/penetrant.

upon splitting the case, this is what greeted me. It's no doubt where the slop was originating from.
TIP: Polish all the shafts before attempting to remove the bearings. Too much prying and berating will distort the case when prying the bearings & retainers off.

I will address this repair in my next update.

 

[dschwandt]

This is how I fixed the ruined holes in the case.
I sliced off the flanged portion of a new flange and then expanded the hole with my die grinder to the same size as the hole in the case and bolted the whole thing together temporarily in order to align the shaft and make sure it was square and plumb w/the case.

Then I took the case halves apart, leaving the flange and bearing bolted to the case and welded the new flange I had modified to the inside of the case.

When reassembling the unit, I used stover (top lock)nuts to bolt all the flanges in place. This should prevent loosening the bolts in the future.

If you suspect this is happening to your unit, the nuts can be tightened w/a 'skinny' open end wrench once the dust cover bolts are removed and the cover slid towards the tine tube. You do not have to remove the tubes to tighten these nuts that way.

the loose shaft had also hogged out the dust cover on that side. A simple fix was to weld a 1-1/4" machine bushing to the outside and dress it down flush.

 

[dschwandt]

From here on it was just a matter of installing the new chains (2) making a gasket, packing the case with 2 pounds of wheel bearing grease and buttoning it all up and adjusting the chain per the manual.

You will need a piece of gasket mat'l 2 x 24 for your new gasket. Car Quest has 3 choices on thickness, I chose the latter, about 1/8". laid the case on the sheet and cut around the outside w/a drywall knife. Then clamped it to the case and punched out the holes w/a lineup punch, inserted bolts, washers & nuts through the holes as they were opened up then cut around the inside w/the knife. Piece of cake!!

This along w/a new set of tines and she is ready to rock 'n' roll. A coat of paint later this summer and it should be good for another 40 years!

 

[eford]

Nice work Dave!

 

[dcalkins]

David,good for you ,and the tiller ,and the form, ,not a easy thing to do ,.but worth it .

 

[digger]

I hope you saved the pattern when you made that gasket.

 

[dschwandt]

I did, Charlie....
It's right there on the chain case of the next one I'm gonna open up!!
Guess that makes me a glutton for punishment, huh!!
I had so damn much fun rebuilding this one, some days I could hardly stand it!!

 

[Greg Riutzel]

+5 years later. Great write up! I am currently doing the same to a Model 2. From the photos in post #3, there appears to be a spacer or boss in the case's lower half for a bolt that mounts the chain case to the hitch bars. I can't get the bolt out of mine. If I try driving it out, there's a round "bushing" or spacer that wants to come with it and is stopped by the bar the bolt secures the chain case to. Turns with a wrench or impact gun on the bolt just spins it with the bolt. I have found operator's manuals, but no parts list so I'm trying to figure what's in there.