Front Drive Casting Repair Kama 554

[3RRL]

This last week we had to do the usual road repairs at the ravine switchback. We decided to widen it and build it up another foot and also add more boulders around the sides of the land bridge. I had to dig into DG and get a bunch of boulders. I was driving up some steep embankments to get them. In doing so, I got my left front drive casting smashed against a boulder as I was driving over a bunch of them and developed a leak where the oil seal is.

As a side note, I have 575 hours on the Kama clock now. I noticed that over 2 days of work ... about 16 hours or running the tractor doing this repair, building a garden shed pad and then grading the road, I had clocked only 6.4 hours on the meter! I run the tractor (usually) between 1500 and 1800rpm. I wonder how many hours I truly have on this tractor now?

My finger (gloved) is pointing to the leak and seal which is sandwiched between the upper and lower drive castings.



I was hoping it was just an oil seal or "O" ring or something easy to fix.
So I took the tire off and started to dis-assemble the front drive. I took the top bracket off which captures the upper and lower castings together. Then I slid the big lower drive casting down and off. The top casting which bolts to the end of the axle housing has a one-piece machined sleeve on it that fits into the bottom casting.
It looks like this normally (one-piece) casting.



To my disappointment, I found that the machined sleeve had broken off clean and was stuck in the bearing and mating sleeve in the lower half. These pictures show it when I took it apart. Then I pried out the broken off piece and put it next to where it should go in the last photo.



Holy crap, how am I ever gonna fix that and make it strong enough?
I've been considering calling Chip to order a new casting, but I have a plan to repair it myself first. It will force me to set up one of the milling machines (finally ). So I had a lot of prep work to do such as run some 3 phase electrical, level and tram the mill and lube it all up. Then I will have to open all the boxes that contain my cutters, end mills, drills, clamps, indicators etc before I get started.
I've been running around like a chicken with his head cut off ... shees.
Rob-

 

[Bob Rooks]

Looks like a piece of schedule 160 double extra strong pipe would weld or braze in there just fine (after it's cleaned up a bit).

 

[Dyer retired]

Rob,

I feel bad when you break something, but I sure like following these threads as you do the repairs! I look forward to the progress reports on this one. Dyer, retired

 

[bluechip]

I do have that part in stock...

 

[shvl73]

Rob,

I feel bad when you break something, but I sure like following these threads as you do the repairs! I look forward to the progress reports on this one. Dyer, retired

I agree completely! I hate to see it happen, but love to follow the repair!
I'm very envious of Rob's ability and talent.

 

[tommu56]

Rob when most of us have some thing break then check to see what cool new tool we will need to fix it.
I think you have all the cool tools and when something brakes you don't have to think what new tools are needed!

I cant wait to follow the thread I usually learn some thing on most of them.

tommu

 

[3RRL]

Thanks for the interesting comments guys.
I'll have to give Chip a call ... since he has this casting stock. By my call will be for a new set of the small bevel gears, not for the casting ...yet . The bevel gears on the drive shaft and the top mating one on the vertical shaft inside the casting were chipped. Luckily no teeth were broken or ground off like last time. The chipping must have occurred when the sleeve snapped, causing the gears to mesh harder together. Do you have those gears in stock Chip?

Anyway, I got right to it and quickly ran some wire (not permanent) to one of the mills. I set it up for the machining I was about to do. Then I tore open a couple boxes to find a boring bar and a couple end mills.

Earlier, I had fit the broken piece back onto the casting and it fit pretty darn good when I lined it up correctly. My plan is to arc weld it back together. However, I wanted to make sure it was welded both from the inside and outside so that the sleeve would be completely welded throughout it's 5/16" wall thickness.
What I did was bore out the casting so that when the sleeve was put back in place, there was about a 3/16" gap on the inside of the casting exposing the inside of the sleeve. I clamped the sleeve back onto the casting all lined up and you can see in the last photo how much of an area I can weld inside there to give me giant bead in there.



In the picture below, you can see the 7018 stick weld on the inside. It got the inside of the sleeve and then I ran another bead so it lapped over the inside of the casting too. I will leave that weld build up on the casting for added wall thickness since nothing butts up against it. The second photo shows the casting with the sleeve back on it. It's the same photo I shared in the first post after I welded the inside. That's how good the sleeve fit back on there and why I decided to do it this way.
But I'm not done yet...

 

[3RRL]

I wanted to make sure the entire sleeve was welded which meant now grinding a deep groove on the outside of the sleeve and milling a deep 1/4" wide groove into the casting. I set up the rotary table in the mill to do this.



I dragged my Lincoln arc welder over to the mill and welded the entire outside of the sleeve and the face of the casting together again using 7018 stick. I did it while it was still set up on the rotary table right in the mill. Now, the weld goes all the way through both pieces.



After that, I cut off all the weld back down to the original face on the casting and also trued up the OD of the sleeve. It was slightly out of round but not anymore. All you can see is the slight sink marks from the weld on the OD.



The last thing I did was bore out the inside of the sleeve so the vertical shaft could pass back through it. It's smaller ID than before making it stronger. I bored it out only enough for the shaft to pass through it.



So then I spent about an hour putting it all back together again and re-filling the gear oil. The 2 halves fit really nice and tight so I know I got a good fit. I started the tractor and tested it out by driving over some rocks ... hahaha. I hope the repair lasts or I'll have to get that casting Chip says he has in stock when I order the new gears.
So far so good ...
Rob-

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Hey Rob,
For you that difficult repair was like rolling over in your sleep! Nice job and of course I appreciate the documentation.

Brad

 

[3RRL]

Hey Rob,
For you that difficult repair was like rolling over in your sleep! Nice job and of course I appreciate the documentation.

Brad

lol, thank you Brad!
Today, I'm back working the old horse.
We are gathering logs from all around the property to saw up and split. I'll be going over some nasty terrain to collect them with heavy loads in the grapple, so it will be a test on the repair for sure.
Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[EddieWalker]

Rob,

Is this the same axle that you rebuilt last year?

I'm not sure about this, but of all the threads on here and all the types of tractors that everyone owns, has anybody had anything similar happen to their front axles like you have?

Eddie

 

[Diamondpilot]

No problems here but Rob has admitted many times he is hard on the old Kama. He uses that thing like a dozer. Nothing wrong with that Rob, its yours and you can do as you want. My guess is if you gave Rob a brick he could find a way to tear it up. LOL!!!

Love your work Rob. Not knocking you one bit. Its neat that you get 100% out of your machines and then can fix them. You never ***** or complain about it breaking. It always starts with a good background story how you broke it and how you are now going to fix it.

Chris

 

[3RRL]

Rob,

Is this the same axle that you rebuilt last year?

I'm not sure about this, but of all the threads on here and all the types of tractors that everyone owns, has anybody had anything similar happen to their front axles like you have?

Eddie

Hi Eddie,
I don't know but I'd guess someone has had some kind of axle failure before ... I dunno?
Your question about the same axle as last year ... it was not the axle itself last year. If you remember, it was the the small bevel gears on the axle and front drive that stripped. I replaced them. This failure was a cracked casting. The gears I replaced are inside it. The casting cracked where a sleeve on one fits into a bearing on the other casting.

I might off base, but I think I know what you're getting at though.
And that's OK with me if that's the case ... (correct me if I'm wrong).
I know you're not a fan of Chinese tractors and question their reliability. I seem to have bad luck breaking things that most others don't. I'm pretty sure I use mine the same as other brands and perhaps shouldn't have some of these failures. Maybe it's because it's an inferior machine? But then again, maybe I use mine a little differently too exactly for the same reason? It's not like I'm worried about breaking an expensive tractor. There are a lot of things I do with mine that I should really have a bulldozer for, but I don't, so I'm a little hard on the machine. I think though, that if I crashed into a boulder with any brand machine (same size) there is a good possibility that their casting would break too.
I just bought a brand new 2008 Silverado 2500HD earlier this year. Guess what, Loretta accidentally backed up into a huge Oak and we had to replace the bumper and rear quarter panel because they were crushed. I paid over $40,000 bucks for that truck. I think a Ford, Dodge or a cheap Chinese truck would do the same, don't you?

Sorry in advance if I'm off base Eddie. LOL ... Maybe I read too much in your reply and perhaps you were suggesting I'm just a crummy tractor operator.

 

[Reg]

Nice job, nice process documentation.

Man o' man, can't bear to think of the mess I would have made of that.
Spatter all over the mill's table wouldn't have been the worst of it (-:

 

[rtdiggr]

As always Rob nice job, like someone else said you don't complain something broke and you fix it. it is nice to have a "little skill" to replace that at a dealer would probable be over $1000.

Shane

 

[shvl73]

Oh man! I'm sorry to hear about the truck! I'll bet Loretta was upset.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Eddie,
I don't know but I'd guess someone has had some kind of axle failure before ... I dunno?
Your question about the same axle as last year ... it was not the axle itself last year. If you remember, it was the the small bevel gears on the axle and front drive that stripped. I replaced them. This failure was a cracked casting. The gears I replaced are inside it. The casting cracked where a sleeve on one fits into a bearing on the other casting.

I might off base, but I think I know what you're getting at though.
And that's OK with me if that's the case ... (correct me if I'm wrong).
I know you're not a fan of Chinese tractors and question their reliability. I seem to have bad luck breaking things that most others don't. I'm pretty sure I use mine the same as other brands and perhaps shouldn't have some of these failures. Maybe it's because it's an inferior machine? But then again, maybe I use mine a little differently too exactly for the same reason? It's not like I'm worried about breaking an expensive tractor. There are a lot of things I do with mine that I should really have a bulldozer for, but I don't, so I'm a little hard on the machine. I think though, that if I crashed into a boulder with any brand machine (same size) there is a good possibility that their casting would break too.
I just bought a brand new 2008 Silverado 2500HD earlier this year. Guess what, Loretta accidentally backed up into a huge Oak and we had to replace the bumper and rear quarter panel because they were crushed. I paid over $40,000 bucks for that truck. I think a Ford, Dodge or a cheap Chinese truck would do the same, don't you?

Sorry in advance if I'm off base Eddie. LOL ... Maybe I read too much in your reply and perhaps you were suggesting I'm just a crummy tractor operator.

Hi Rob,

I wasn't implying anything about Chinese tractors, and especially about your skills as an operator in my previous post. I was thinking that there must be something wrong with that axle to keep giving you problems. Whether it's a Chinese thing and their quality control, or not, it does seem odd that you taking it apart again.

I can see where you use your tractor quite a bit, probably more then most of us, but I don't belive for one second that you abuse it, or use it for anything then it wasn't intended for.

Would it be worthwhile looking into another front axle to replace the damaged one? I know that you have the skill to rebuild it better then new, and your repair will outlive the rest of the axle. I just hate to see you rebuild it one piece at a time when front axles are pretty basic and rarely give anybody any problems.

Either way, I enjoy seeing your repairs and following your progress.

Eddie

 

[IH3444]

That is one sweet fix, and repair Rob.

 

[Ronbo]

When I sow that Rob had broke something else, Iwas excited because I knew he was going to fix it better than new and we were going to be able to watch.

Thanks Rob

Ron

 

[Red55]

Rob-
Being out in California I am surprised that some "director" hasn't contacted you on doing a series. Basically cause I remember when the "Old Yankee Workshop" started and a few years later Norm was amazed at how a show that was supposed to last only a few seasons just kept on going. The producers figured out that people who have "zero" woodworking skills love to watch Norm build furniture from scratch. People with all levels of mechanical skill enjoy watching your repairs. Reading your threads is the best of both worlds Lots of fun and the reader doesn't even break a sweat! Thanks for sharing the documentation has got to take as much time as the repair itself. -Ed