RVHobson
New member
I have owned a Cub Cadet 5234d for about 6 years. It has done a lot of heavy work; mowing, hauling heavy trailer about 1000 lbs, and landscaping with 48" box blade. I learned that I must always use 4WD doing heavy work to save the rear differential gears.
A seized U-joint in the primary shaft from engine to hydro transmission (Hydro-Gear BDU-21L-400) caused the hydro input shaft to shear off. After repair with new drive shaft (including U-joints) and input shaft, it worked about 100 hrs until recently the input shaft sheared off again. This time the drive shaft had been greased quite regularly, so U-joint should not have been the cause. Has this same thing happened to others?
I suspect the offset alignment of engine output and hydro input causes the U-joints to fatigue the input shaft. Has anyone tried using CV joints instead of U-joints on a primary drive shaft? Are there small CV joints available that can handle 3000+ rpm?
Should I repair it again, or just look for a replacement?
A seized U-joint in the primary shaft from engine to hydro transmission (Hydro-Gear BDU-21L-400) caused the hydro input shaft to shear off. After repair with new drive shaft (including U-joints) and input shaft, it worked about 100 hrs until recently the input shaft sheared off again. This time the drive shaft had been greased quite regularly, so U-joint should not have been the cause. Has this same thing happened to others?
I suspect the offset alignment of engine output and hydro input causes the U-joints to fatigue the input shaft. Has anyone tried using CV joints instead of U-joints on a primary drive shaft? Are there small CV joints available that can handle 3000+ rpm?
Should I repair it again, or just look for a replacement?