Agri Metal Leaf Blower Conversion

[bunkydad]

I started on the conversion from a front mounted to a rear PTO powered blower. Here's a few pictures :

 

[bunkydad]

I am having a lot of trouble getting the front bearing off the fan assembly. I tried PB blaster. Any ideas?

 

[pmsmechanic]

Here is what I would do. I don't know if your trying to save the bearing or not but to me it's cheap so it's not worth my time to save it. Take the seals out and remove the cage around the balls. With a punch move all the balls so that they are touching each other. This should give you enough room to move the shaft to one side and remove the ball bearings. Once that is done then you can easily pull the shaft out of the bearing housing. Quick and dirty way to remove the bearing center from the shaft is to lay it on an anvil and beat on the bearing center with the largest hammer you have. (NB wear eye protection and for the same reason you don't want an audience) If you do it right the center will crack and then it's easy to remove. If that seems to be a bit to brutal then just take a grinder and grind a grove through the bearing center until it's weak enough to remove. If everything goes good I can have a bearing like this apart in less than 5 minutes. You could also use a cutting torch and cut the balls out with that but I like to save the torch to use as a last resort.

 

[bunkydad]

I'll try that. The other side took a little time but I finally got it loosened up. I plan on replacing both bearings during the reassembly. Is there a good place to buy them?

 

[pmsmechanic]

I know of a few good local suppliers but we live about 2400 miles apart so that's not going to do you much good. Take the number off the good bearing and start phoning local businesses out of the yellow pages. Try googling the number. I've found the cheapest prices for bearings on the internet.

 

[Raw Dodge]

i hope you have better luck with that agri metal blower than we've had with ours,its a piece of garbage..3 impellers in 10 yrs and it only works maybe 100 hrs a year...last one they finally upgraded with weak parts but failed to tell me id need to special order bearings from them because they have to mill 2 sides of the 4 bolts flange down in order to fit.So instead of being down 2 weeks during leaf season it was down over 3 due to customs,and shipping from canada to NY i have the model 300+ ,hopefully the upgraded impeller fixed it now.

 

[bunkydad]

I don't know much about the blower yet. I'm still trying to straighten out the metal housing and get the bearings replace. I hope to have it put back together this weekend. Then I have to figure out how to convert it to PTO powered.

I know someone on the forum has done it on an Olathe blower so I'll use his posts to point me in the right direction.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/185378-converting-front-mount-olathe-leaf.html

I got the blower for $50 and a two hour drive. Figured I couldn't go wrong for that kind of investment. I get too involved and forget to take pics as I go. Once I get it straightened out, my next step is making the 3 point hitch hookup.

 

[Raw Dodge]

Yours looks better than mine,and yes I'd bought it too for 50 bucks! Mine is a PTO drive and I'm sure you can fab a much better setup than the one on my agri metal..its terrible simple set screws on 2 pillow block bearings are inadequate for holding the shaft in place and it walks around as the blower runs up and down independent of the tractor under power..the slip yoke is perfect its just under a 30hp load constantly...if you need any pictures let me know.

 

[bunkydad]

Any pictures you could send would be greatly appreciated. I'm very interested in the PTO and belt setup as that seems like it might take the most work. Thank you

 

[Raw Dodge]

I'll go grab them now just keep in mind these pictures will show you how not to build it....this is a very poor design I do not recommend you build yours this way.i'll go grab some pictures and load them up in the next hour or two.

 

[Raw Dodge]

Here are some pictures of my old tired blower..its in need of an entire rebuild except for the impeller because i just replaced it ..this design is terrible, do not use it unless you modify the lower shaft bearing setup and the adjustment system, its terrible...I paid 600 for this blower 20yrs ago used ,it doesn't owe me anytime, but the impellers snap clean off on them due to a poor design.

 

[Raw Dodge]

Here is the last impeller that snapped off on me 2 years ago...the main shaft was too small for the size of the belts and tension spring.You couldn't fit a larger mainshaft without larger bearings,but the design limited the bearing size,so Agrimetal milled down 2 sides of a larger ID series bearing and it works now,hopefully this will be the last impeller for a while.

 

[bunkydad]

Thank you very much. The photos help me out a lot. I'll try to figure out a better way to mount the unit and get the pulleys lined up. Thank you again.

 

[bunkydad]

I used a site on the internet to calculate pulley size and rpm. I think the max speed is 2100 so the calculations come just under that. I welcome any comments.

 

[Raw Dodge]

Your welcome.. Anything you do will be an improvement.. If the attachment did not move independently of the tractor while under load I could see that it might hold up. This is the third lower shaft and set of bearings, not because they wore out because the set screws constantly loosen up and wear out the main shaft.. I can't believe it is considered normal maintenance to have tighten these set screws every two hours... I've tried red loctite they don't back off but it still loosens up enough to allow the shaft to start walking..

 

[pmsmechanic]

Your welcome.. Anything you do will be an improvement.. If the attachment did not move independently of the tractor while under load I could see that it might hold up. This is the third lower shaft and set of bearings, not because they wore out because the set screws constantly loosen up and wear out the main shaft.. I can't believe it is considered normal maintenance to have tighten these set screws every two hours... I've tried red loctite they don't back off but it still loosens up enough to allow the shaft to start walking..

Several question come to mind. It almost sounds like you have a real vibration problem if the set screws are coming loose that fast. Secondly are you tightening the lock collars opposite the direction of rotation. That way the bearings will self tighten. Hopefully your are using bearings with lock collars as bearings with just set screws on the inner race will never stay tight in this application. Thirdly is your pto shaft binding in any way? Is the pto shaft well lubricated so that it can easily slip longer and shorter under load?

 

[Raw Dodge]

This thing never had lock collars on it from day 1.They would definitely help.I will get a set of bearings with. them as its time to put a new shaft in it again.Never thought of that option.thank you...And yes I can't keep the shaft located properly, so i resort to using spacers which helps for a short time. There is some vibration, but its not excessive, i run the engine at 2500 once its gets fully warmed up,and if I could keep the shaft located and rebuild the belt tensioner mounts and pivot that's another weak link,it flexes way too much I may have a reliable blower. The only other problem is operator error people like to leave the tractor in 4 wheel drive and back up into stumps and roots with it, in 4 wheel drive it will hurt the blower,bending it.I wish i could disable the 4wd for the leaf season.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Here's another idea. I've had good results with a product called JB-Weld. It's a two part epoxy that acid etches it's self to the metal. You smear a thin layer where the bearing goes on the shaft and slide the bearing over that and then lock the bearing on with the collar. In 24 hours it's completely set and ready to use. I'm thinking that if you used collared bearings and JB-Weld that shaft will stay put.

Operator error... I'd be looking at either disabling the switch if it's electrically controlled or removing the mechanical connection that controls the four wheel drive.

 

[Raw Dodge]

JB weld would likely set up before I had it in place...Its an old 1910 Ford, I only thing electric is the starter,glow plugs, alternator and lights.. Not even a shutoff solienod, throw the fuel lever to shut it,move it back up so it gets enough fuel to light off..

I'd have to.remove the transmission cover and drive out the roll pin on the shift fork and remove it..too much work..unfortunately.

 

[bunkydad]

I straightened out some of the metal and reinforced some of the welds. I added some reinforcement to the bottom of the frame and reassembled it for fit-up. I'm waiting for the replacement bearings then I can put it back together and work on the pulley setup. I welded on the mounts for the front guide wheels.