Looking for a Kioti NX Series front axle housing
- Thread starter MinnesotaEric
- Start date
TractorTYMe
Veteran Member
Wow, Eric....that's some major fixing taking place. How many hours on your Kioti now? I've seen a few of your plowing videos on the toobe.
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MinnesotaEric
Super Member
I believe I'm right at 807 hours right now. But I'm having more stupid problems than anything. For example: it was a hot, sunny day when I pulled the axle, and systematically tore it down to determine what was wrong with it. At the time the left axle bevel gear and bearing fell effortlessly right out. I didn't think a thing about it (other than noting that the bevel bear shows more wear than I would like to see).
Roll forward to yesterday and I go to start assembling the rest of the axle, and the bevel gear bearing refused to pop in.
Fine, pop the snap ring out, emory cloth, clean it up, and still a no go.
Fine, pop the bearing and bevel gear into the freezer, rinse and repeat. I got it in about a third of the way before abandoning the attempt. But that try left witness marks on the axle housing, so out came the snap ring, and I hit it with more emory cloth.
Now I'm freezing again, got my duck-bill attachment out with my portable-power, and if this doesn't work, the entire housing is going into my oven to 200°F while the bearing gets the freezer treatment again.
Remember, this bearing fell out!
Why is this hard? LOL
Anyway, I'm guessing that while the bearing feels good, the bearing fell out when its outer race was ever so slightly "egged out" just from looking at the dumb way the bearing is supported in the outer axle housing and now, several months later, that same bearing has "de-egged" and returned to round.
Roll forward to yesterday and I go to start assembling the rest of the axle, and the bevel gear bearing refused to pop in.
Fine, pop the snap ring out, emory cloth, clean it up, and still a no go.
Fine, pop the bearing and bevel gear into the freezer, rinse and repeat. I got it in about a third of the way before abandoning the attempt. But that try left witness marks on the axle housing, so out came the snap ring, and I hit it with more emory cloth.
Now I'm freezing again, got my duck-bill attachment out with my portable-power, and if this doesn't work, the entire housing is going into my oven to 200°F while the bearing gets the freezer treatment again.
Remember, this bearing fell out!
Why is this hard? LOL
Anyway, I'm guessing that while the bearing feels good, the bearing fell out when its outer race was ever so slightly "egged out" just from looking at the dumb way the bearing is supported in the outer axle housing and now, several months later, that same bearing has "de-egged" and returned to round.
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MinnesotaEric
Super Member
Eventually, my friend, Brian, realized that with the bearing started, a slide hammer could pound it the rest of the way in. Why I didn't think of this is beyond me. One of those couldn't see the forest for all of the trees problems, I guess. Anyway, assembly is happening.
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MinnesotaEric
Super Member
The stupid bevel gears popped out while trying to install them, so I had to slide hammer them back into place. Why the axle's bevel gear bearings can fall out so easily, but then require force to go back in when the bearing is bearly an interference fit is beyond me. Anyway, for posterity's sake, here is how it is actually done.
It occurred to me that I should paint the new center axle housing before bolting it on. I'm leaving the bevel gears, bevel gear shafts, and portal hubs off until I pop the axle on to keep this thing as light as possible. Going to recruit "Other Eric" to come over and help so we can get this done faster.
Anyway, rattle-can black.
It occurred to me that I should paint the new center axle housing before bolting it on. I'm leaving the bevel gears, bevel gear shafts, and portal hubs off until I pop the axle on to keep this thing as light as possible. Going to recruit "Other Eric" to come over and help so we can get this done faster.
Anyway, rattle-can black.
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MinnesotaEric
Super Member
Ended up making my own center pivot o-rings which are just a little oversized so those need to wear in a bit before I can set the axle pivot tension. I also still need to tighten up the feed lines to the steering ram, mount the front tires, check the toe, tighten down the outer tie-rod ends, install the front pilot shaft, add some trans-hydro fluid, and fire the stupid machine up.
I now know firsthand why the Bobcat version of this tractor uses a different front axle.
I now know firsthand why the Bobcat version of this tractor uses a different front axle.
TractorTYMe
Veteran Member
Quite the project Eric, but it looks like you got it done.
OP
MinnesotaEric
Super Member
Toward the end of yesterday I went to install the prop shaft. Pulling it out was easy, but because four months have rolled by since I pulled it out, I couldn't remember which way the prop shaft went in and while I thought the prop shaft went in one particular way, I consulted the service manual.
And again, in the parts diagram definitely shows the snap ring side of the drive shaft toward the front.
I had initially thought the snap ring went toward the rear and the roll pin side toward the front because of clearance, after RFMing, Okay, says I, snap ring toward front, roll pin toward the rear (there is no roll pin for the snap ring side but the front and rear couplers are identical) and since I never pulled the prop shaft out of the slip covers, in it went (even as I considered there wasn't a lot of room to pull the roll pin out). Which was fine until I went to locate the slip covers. The rear slip cover easily slipped into place but the front slip cover refused to fit. Since it is getting colder, I initially thought I was fighting a hard o-ring and so maximum force techniques trying to install in the cold night air including using a hair dryer to warm up the "cold" o-ring were tried. Nothing worked.
In the midst of frustration, a friend called inviting me over to a "neighborhood" (we're all rural) bonfire. While there I started wondering if somebody had flipped the prop shaft around in the slip covers while the tractor had been torn apart and when I got home I reached out to Threepoint and asked him if he could shutterbug some photos of his prop shaft's slip covers.
Dutifully Threepoint sent over a bunch of photos but they initially looked different than my slip covers because his are properly installed and mine where collapsed because I couldn't fit the forward facing slip cover. Even so at this point, I decided to pull the prop shaft and test fit each coupler on it own as well as each slip cover to confirm what fits where before trying to install everything again as an assembly.
While pulling the prop shaft it was immediately obvious, shop manual be damned, that the snap ring goes toward the rear and the roll pin goes toward the front. I knew this because the roll pin, using the proper sized roll pin punch to drive it out, smacked into the bottom rear of the engine's oil pan leading to more hassle to prevent damage—which is to say that mechanical drama ensued.
Eventually I got the prop shaft out, test fit the individual components and came to the following conclusion:
Despite the service manual saying otherwise, because my prop shaft was installed (but I could not fit the forward slip cover), when I went to remove the entire assembly (which was a pain in the hassle) I realized the shaft had to be in backward despite the service manual's photos.
The service manual should just say: Snap ring toward rear, roll pin toward front, male cover toward front, female cover toward rear.
I initially thought what happened is two photos in the shop manual got transposed with each other—that or I cannot read—but the exploded parts diagram also shows it backward.
And again, in the parts diagram definitely shows the snap ring side of the drive shaft toward the front.
I had initially thought the snap ring went toward the rear and the roll pin side toward the front because of clearance, after RFMing, Okay, says I, snap ring toward front, roll pin toward the rear (there is no roll pin for the snap ring side but the front and rear couplers are identical) and since I never pulled the prop shaft out of the slip covers, in it went (even as I considered there wasn't a lot of room to pull the roll pin out). Which was fine until I went to locate the slip covers. The rear slip cover easily slipped into place but the front slip cover refused to fit. Since it is getting colder, I initially thought I was fighting a hard o-ring and so maximum force techniques trying to install in the cold night air including using a hair dryer to warm up the "cold" o-ring were tried. Nothing worked.
In the midst of frustration, a friend called inviting me over to a "neighborhood" (we're all rural) bonfire. While there I started wondering if somebody had flipped the prop shaft around in the slip covers while the tractor had been torn apart and when I got home I reached out to Threepoint and asked him if he could shutterbug some photos of his prop shaft's slip covers.
Dutifully Threepoint sent over a bunch of photos but they initially looked different than my slip covers because his are properly installed and mine where collapsed because I couldn't fit the forward facing slip cover. Even so at this point, I decided to pull the prop shaft and test fit each coupler on it own as well as each slip cover to confirm what fits where before trying to install everything again as an assembly.
While pulling the prop shaft it was immediately obvious, shop manual be damned, that the snap ring goes toward the rear and the roll pin goes toward the front. I knew this because the roll pin, using the proper sized roll pin punch to drive it out, smacked into the bottom rear of the engine's oil pan leading to more hassle to prevent damage—which is to say that mechanical drama ensued.
Eventually I got the prop shaft out, test fit the individual components and came to the following conclusion:
Despite the service manual saying otherwise, because my prop shaft was installed (but I could not fit the forward slip cover), when I went to remove the entire assembly (which was a pain in the hassle) I realized the shaft had to be in backward despite the service manual's photos.
The service manual should just say: Snap ring toward rear, roll pin toward front, male cover toward front, female cover toward rear.
I initially thought what happened is two photos in the shop manual got transposed with each other—that or I cannot read—but the exploded parts diagram also shows it backward.
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Threepoint
Veteran Member
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Ha! Well done, Eric. Wonder how many Kioti techs have had to puzzle through this same conundrum due to the glitch in the shop manual. 
OP
MinnesotaEric
Super Member
Here is a quick two-minute-long video with the result.