Gannon scarfier retaining clip issues

[Fallon]

I've got an old Gannon box blade I acquired a little while ago. It needed some work & was missing the scarfiers, but it definitely beat my old King Kutter box blade once I got it mostly back in shape.

Here recently I've found a couple of the scarfiers loose because the retaining clip popped out. I found the first one by accident, but I'm now down a clip. You can see the tooth with the missing clip sitting 8" lower than the rest. Thankfully the whole scarfier can't fall out when it retracted upside down. You can see the clip on the end a fair bit catywompus. Even fiddling with pliers it's hard to get them straight with all the play. Even if you do, they tend to twist or tilt promptly on their own.

As this seems to be happening frequently, is it likely because of the Ebay scarfiers & clips I got? The holes for the scarfiers being old & worn?

Are there better clips or something instead of the clips? Should I bother welding a flange around the holes to make things tighter? Any suggestions or anything I'm missing?

 

[BukitCase]

You've got the clips in wrong; they go with the "springy part" side to side - if you rotate 'em and there is STILL enough slop for the scarifiers to move enough to dis-engage the slots (in the scarifier, that is), then you'd need to build up the END of the slot til the scarifier's FULL width just slips through the slot.

I have the 7' hydraulic scarifier version; I tried using Stoody hard face rod several years ago (to tighten up the slots), man what a PITA - it's so short a run, that by the time you get the arc started it's time to STOP.

Maybe next time I'll spring for a small roll of WIRE hardface (If I can find a co-signer for the loan )

HTH... Steve

 

[Fallon]

Thanks for the reply. Somehow it never showed in my feed though. Hunted this thread down to post a follow up & found a reply I never saw...

Was wandering around Estes Park tonight & they were doing a bunch of street work. Of course I went to drool on the machines while the wife window shopped. Sure enough the JD industrial tractor had a Gannon on the back with the clips in sideways rather than front to back.

 

[maverick302]

It has been stated they are in sideways, but if you right them and they still don't work:

My clips were worn to the point that they wouldn't hold the scarifiers reliably. When I lost one, I shopped for new ones. Between the ridiculous price for new ones and the little wear I saw in the holes, I just made new ones, slightly wider. They fit tightly and were pretty easy to make.