Tilting a rear box blade

[glsche]

New to TBN and this is my first post. I have a JD 3032e with a BB2060 box blade. Tilting the box blade with the hex adjustment shaft on the left side of the 3-pt hitch is very difficult requiring the use of a large crescent wrench and lots of muscle. This is true whether the blade is on the ground or off. I greased the threads and tried greasing the adjustment shaft using the grease fitting on the shaft (maybe too much) and had to unscrew the plastic cap on the opposite side of the grease fitting to relieve the pressure.....most of the grease I put in came squirting out. Oooops....live & learn....this is my first CUT. Once that mess was cleaned up I put the plastic screw cap back on and tried adjusting it again. Better, but still requires the use of the large crescent wrench. I've seen videos of guys adjusting the tilt by-hand only...no tools. Is something not right with my adjustment rod, etc or am I doing something wrong? The tractor is a 2010 with only 200 hours. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[GREEN FROG]

I have found that if you raise and lower your 3 pt while applying pressure to the turn buckle you will find a spot where it is easy to turn. After a few turns it gets difficult so just raise/lower agin and find that sweet spot again.

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[94BULLITT]

I have found that if you raise and lower your 3 pt while applying pressure to the turn buckle you will find a spot where it is easy to turn. After a few turns it gets difficult so just raise/lower agin and find that sweet spot again.

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That is the trick and the same works for the toplink too.

 

[oosik]

By the way, Welcome to TBN. The difficulty in turning the top or bottom links also relates directly to the weight of the implement attached. The box blade, being quite heavy, can cause the turn buckles to bind up fairly tight. Green Frog has the answer.

 

[bandaidmd]

Like the others said there's a spot where its "relaxed" .
Lower the implement to where it just touches the ground and watch your lift arms just past that point you will have some free play, you can also tell your at the right spot by wiggling the lift arm. When it not under tension it easy to more around on the pins. And if you adjustable link is on the left and your lift lever is on the right like you decribe its a two person job or a bunch of walking back and forth. On my kubotas the adj link and hydros are on the right and reachable while standing behind the tractor (actually that only applies to one of my kubotas the other has a hyd side link)

 

[glsche]

Thanks to all of you that replied so quickly. I'll try finding the sweet-spot by raising/lower the 3pt hitch. BTW - I misspoke....the turnbuckle (thanks for clarifying what that hex-shaped adjustable shaft is called) and the lift lever are both on the right side of the tractor so making adjustments to both should be pretty easy. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

glsche

 

[glsche]

Bandaidmd - I love your "it's OK to say Merry Christmas to me" plate!!! Dito. And Happy Easter to you as well!

 

[mfreund]

Hydraulic top link is what you need. Makes using a box blade a joy.

 

[C4Ranch]

Even better with hydraulic side link and hydraulic rippers!

 

[glsche]

I tried taking the stress off the side link by just slightly lowering the bb to the ground but that still didn't make adjusting the turnbuckle any easier. When I have a few minutes I think I'll try removing the bb from the 3pt hitch, disconnecting the side link from the drawbar and see if the turnbuckle still is difficult to turn. If so, I'll completely unthread it from the side link, clean and degrease and reassemble. Good thing this kind of "investigative maintenance" is enjoyable!

 

[glsche]

Incidentially, can someone tell me how do I post a picture in my profile?

 

[94BULLITT]

Incidentially, can someone tell me how do I post a picture in my profile?

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[glsche]

Thanks Roger!

 

[joshuabardwell]

If you pay attention to the turnbuckle, you can usually find a place where it is visibly loose/wobbly. Just a smidge. This is where the handle will be easy to turn. Depending on whether you are raising or lowering the side with the turnbuckle on it, there may always be weight on that side, in which case it will never loosen up.

 

[glsche]

Dear jioshuavardwel. Thanks for the response. I know exactly what you describe.....I lowered the bb just to that point where I saw the turnbuckles on the tilt adjustment shaft slacken. I thought "perfect....now I should be able to adjust the shaft by-hand". I grabbed it and to my dismay, it was still really tight while the entire shaft and turnbuckles were loose against the upper/lower control arms. It would turn but only by using a large crescent wrench on it. Weird. I so think there's something going on with the threaded connection. It doesn't appear to be bent or otherwise damaged in any way so perhaps the threads are filled with dirt, etc. When I get a chance I'm going to remove the bb, remove the threaded adjustment shaft from the control arms and completely unscrew the entire adjustment shaft, check the threads, clean all the threads, reassemble and maybe that will fix it! I'll keep you posted.

 

[dieselcrawler]

My turnbuckle turns easy but I still dont care for it... I plan to modify that section with a gearbox style adjuster from an old MF 135 or Ford 3000 type lower link. It would need shortened to fit, and I would make it replace the entire section from the lift arm to the lower link so as to allow the original to be reinstalled, unchanged. But that style does not require tools to unlock and adjust, and also has more leverage so you dont have to be so centered in that lose "sweetspot".

 

[JRobyn]

My Kubota has a crank, which I assume is a little pinion and rack, on the right side arm. Even though there is some gear torque multiplication, it's also difficult to turn. Even when well-greased and there is little weight on the arm. It does sound to me like you have some crud in yours making it unusually tough to turn, so I bet the disassembly/clean will be very beneficial. BTW, "Fluid Film" is a very good lube for this application - relatively "dry" so it does not attract new dirt and stays in place (but pricey).

- Jay

 

[glsche]

Thanks. I'll check it out.

 

[JerryG]

If you are still trying to shorten the link, you still have to much grease in it. Take that plug out again. Set it as short as you will use it then put the plug back in.

 

[glsche]

Success! I completely disassembled the adjustment arm, removed all the grease using a long, narrow piece of rag soaked in WD40 that I twisted through the disassembled adjustment arm and then rotated around the rag multiple times (using a few different rags) until the inside threads were finally cleaned. I toothbrush also worked well. I cleaned all the crud off the bolt threads then applied a LIGHT coat of grease and reassembled. I also found a burr on one of the threads and lightly filed it down using the cut-off wheel on a Dremel tool (that worked really well). Now the adjustment shaft can be rotated with one hand and I can put my large Cresent wrench back in the drawer! Thanks much to all who responded with their ideas.