Heads up to any Deere Tiller Owners

nmu98 · Oct 6, 2008

I bought a Deere 673 Tiller at the beginning of the season to replace a Frontier model I was going to store at a different location. When I brought it home from my dealer, he told me it had a manual chain adjuster and the manual said to check it after 500 hours. we talked about how to check it without taking off the cover and he said it was easy... Blah.. blah...

I have a very good dealer.. but..

So I assumed it was adjusted correctly

. I used it for the season, maybe 30-40 hours. while i was cleaning it up to be put away for the season, i noticed the oil in the sight glass was dark. Since i was using a lot of water to get the dirt off the under side, I thought I would change the oil incase I got water in it.... It was never dark before, so As I pulled off the cover, the oil came out, pretty dark, with no water, and some normal chain metal wear.

To my suprise, the chain tensioner was not even close to the chain. In fact, there was absolutly no way, even if the chan was completely tight on the gears that the tightener would have touched. I adjusted the tightener 3 inches in to factory specs, and there is a huge difference in how the tiller runs.

Prior tot he adjustment, I could move the tines about 3-4 inches. I thought it was PTO slop. It was not, it was the chain slop. There is very little movement in the tines before the PTO shaft moves. Check them!

My Frontier has a very poorly designed spring auto tightener.... But at least you know there is there and working...

KB9UDE · Oct 6, 2008

Thanks for the info. I will have to check my 665 tiller out. Are you using the 673 on your 4720 cab?? I bought my 665 with a 3320 but have now upgraded to the 4120. Thinking of moving up to the 673.

John

nmu98 · Oct 6, 2008

I use it mostly behind the 3720. I would think the 665 would still leave tire tracks behind the 4120... The 673 has been a great tiller, even with this delivery mishap....

KB9UDE · Oct 6, 2008

Yes there is some tracks left but for my applications it doesn't matter.

John

bowslam · Apr 14, 2010

I just came across these posts while doing a Google seach on the 673 tiller. I wish I would have read it back in '08 when it was posted!! I had almost the same exact problem just last Fall. I bought a 673 rototiller in April 2008. Having never used a tiller before I thought the extreme vibration was normal. It vibrated loose the tine bolts several times. Then last Fall, a buddy of mine had run it. Pulled back into the barn and noticed oil everywhere. Turns out it had vibrated loose the hardware on the gear box, the oil had run out, and actually one of the plates got so loose that the gasket kinked. I changed all the gaskets this winter and that's when I found that the chain tightener had never been tightened on mine either. There was a groove in the chain cover from the sloppy chain. Tightened mine properly too and it does run like a charm now. BUT, i have noticed that the jam nut and tightener bolt can still vibrate and move. So, what I did & would suggest other users do, is to mark the frame as well as a corresponding spot on the nut with a paint pen mark --- so you can easily see if/when anything moves. Then its just a simple tweak with a wrench to get it back to the proper setting. For all the money that Deere puts on their implements, its amazing that these kinds of things aren't triple-checked. My dealer would take no responsibility whatsoever....

nmu98 · Apr 14, 2010

I have had no issues with mine since I adjusted it properly, and I do not get any vibrations out of mine... You might have something else wrong if its vibrating... especially enough to drop tines.....

bowslam · Apr 14, 2010

Maybe I wasn't clear .... mine is perfect as well SINCE the adjustment was made to the loose, sloppy chain.

bowslam · Apr 14, 2010

I actually think the implement was never set-up or gone over properly before delivery. I think not only the chain tension was off, but the tine bolts very likely were loose too. No problem with them since I loc-tighted and snugged them with my impact wrench!

beenthere · Apr 14, 2010

Could you (anybody? ) post some info on tightening the chain, please?

I just bought a used tiller and was going over it today, and noticed a nut with a thin lock-nut (that was loose) on the inside of the chain/oil reservoir. Appears to be positioned for some kind of chain tightener (block, pad ??) as it is not in line with the cover bolts.

Maybe just coincidence that I ran across your reference to a chain adjustment.

Appreciate a pic of what your adjuster looks like.