Where to get a top link lock nut?

[tallyho8]

Does anyone know where I can get a top link lock nut? My top link keeps unscrewing while I am mowing with my flail mower making it cut the grass too short. I have had 3 top links and what I presume is the lock nut is bent and frozen on all of them where I can not turn it.

In the photo, is this a lock nut?

 

[Willl]

In the photo, is this a lock nut?

Yup, it's the exact same locknut I have on mine.

I don't use mine, usually requires a tool to adjust it that isn't directly available at the required moment. So I just leave it loose.

I use a small bunji instead.

 

[wushaw]

Can you not just replace that thing with a standard nut and then use a wrench to tighten.

 

[aczlan]

I would take the normally threaded end to a hardware or tractor store and get a regular nut for it. if you wanted to get fancy you could weld a piece of metal on as a handle.
many toplinks come with just a nut to lock them, however that requires a wrench to let you move it (although a 10" crescent wrench in the toolbox on the tractor has worked well for me)

Aaron Z

 

[Skyco]

Can you not just replace that thing with a standard nut and then use a wrench to tighten.

Yup- that is the way my OEM Kubota toplink is....

 

[tallyho8]

I will try finding a regular large nut. I was thinking it might be a different thread since it is so large but I guess it is standard thread.

 

[kenmac]

you may have to go to a specialty nut/ bolt house for that large of a nut. You could then weld some tabs on the flat parts of the nut & tighten by hand . sort of like a jam nut

 

[638]

What most people don't understand is that you can't take the top link apart to replace the lock nut. When kubota puts their top link together, they install a roll pin through the grease fitting hole or they dimple the threads so that the top link cannot be unscrewed too far. The only way that I know to defeat their process (for lack of a better word) is to cut the body of the top link in two and drive out the roll pin, or dress up the dimpled threads and then reweld the body (outer tube) back together. I don't know about other manufacturers top links, and how theirs are put together.

ron

 

[Willl]

All the ones I've messed with you could drive the pin all the way through. Pretty simple stuff.

 

[638]

Not the Kubota one I worked on.

ron

 

[kenmac]

I don't have a kubota top link. Mine till un-screw all the way apart. The 1 I have is just like tally's & they don't have grease fittings. I think they are china brand

 

[GreenMtns]

Unscrew the end and take it to a Fasnal Store. They can get just about anything, Metric, reverse thread and almost any size. If it is not in stock they can get if from a nearby store or have it shipped in. You can also check them on line to see if they have what you are looking for and they will ship it to you if you don't have a store nearby. Then, as others have suggested have a handle welded on so you won't have to use a wrench. They don't have to be real tight to work well.

 

[Sully2]

What most people don't understand is that you can't take the top link apart to replace the lock nut. When kubota puts their top link together, they install a roll pin through the grease fitting hole or they dimple the threads so that the top link cannot be unscrewed too far. The only way that I know to defeat their process (for lack of a better word) is to cut the body of the top link in two and drive out the roll pin, or dress up the dimpled threads and then reweld the body (outer tube) back together. I don't know about other manufacturers top links, and how theirs are put together.

ron

Wanna bet? Thats the same story Kubota told me when I bent the rod end of my OEM top link...and they said a factory NEW top link was more than $200 I took it to an old guy I know with every prehistoric piece of farm "stuff" ever made ( At least his place sure looks like it!!) and we put it in his HUGE bench vise...ran a steel bar thru the rod end and unscrewed it as pretty as you please. He then got his hammer out and we went to his anvil and he beat on the bend threaded end and kept working on it till the nut could be run all the way home.

I paid him back with a 12 pack of Miller Lite!

 

[Sully2]

I don't have a kubota top link. Mine till un-screw all the way apart. The 1 I have is just like tally's & they don't have grease fittings. I think they are china brand

I have 4 of those china links..they work good and are dirt cheap. About once a year I unscrew the ends and SLOP the grease to them. Rest of the time when in use I hit them with some 10W-30 oil

 

[tallyho8]

I went to a Fastenal store a few days ago and got one. The top links on all 3 of my tractors unscrew all the way.
Thanks for your replies.