John Deere KBA disc harrow shaft and bad bearing?

[pmarkel]

Can anyone help clear up how the gang shafts are assembled on a KBA? I'm looking at one online that the listing says needs a bearing. The seller sent me some additional pictures, one of which shows a very short gang shaft/axle that he says is not broken. Every other disc I have worked on has a gang bolt that goes all the way through the gang. Wondering if this looks fixable?

 

[matthies]

The shaft is broken, the two halves bolted around the bell/spool is your bearing, just steel on steel, no balls or rollers.

 

[pmarkel]

The shaft is broken, the two halves bolted around the bell/spool is your bearing, just steel on steel, no balls or rollers.

Ok so the shaft is broken? I just couldn't see how that would go back together like such but the seller said no it's not a single straight through axle. Seemed fishy to me

 

[560Dennis]

does shaft sleeve rotation in casting bearings? I think the disc cut through the shaft,get shaft go disc ing .

 

[pmarkel]

does shaft sleeve rotation in casting bearings? I think the disc cut through the shaft,get shaft go disc ing .

Yeah shouldn't be too bad to replace but I don't know if it's worth it at the price. He wants $400 for disk and the blades don't look great. So those are essentially just sleeve bearings that take ample amounts of gun grease right?

 

[Loosehandle]

Ok so the shaft is broken? I just couldn't see how that would go back together like such but the seller said no it's not a single straight through axle. Seemed fishy to me

Take that gang all apart, bevel shaft ends well, clamp it together straight and weld it.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Since3 you are looking for a disk I would look at newer disks with the replaceable bearings so they could be replaced when worn out since these are pretty close to non fixable anymore. as you would need to be able to pour a new bearing or weld up the old one depending on the material the bearing is made of.

 

[pmarkel]

Since3 you are looking for a disk I would look at newer disks with the replaceable bearings so they could be replaced when worn out since these are pretty close to non fixable anymore. as you would need to be able to pour a new bearing or weld up the old one depending on the material the bearing is made of.

Yeah it seemed to me the KBAs had a bad reputation that way whereas I should still be able to get bearings for something like an Aw or RW or Oliver 251, etc? If it was in ok shape it probably would last me a while as I just plan to leave it at a 15 field I rent some miles from home

 

[560Dennis]

Yeah shouldn't be too bad to replace but I don't know if it's worth it at the price. He wants $400 for disk and the blades don't look great. So those are essentially just sleeve bearings that take ample amounts of gun grease right?

We’ll do a quick cost budget for shafts and discs and see what you got going there.
I go one , tongue was support's were welded up . they seem to dive into the ground in soft soils .a lot of pressure there around the tongue, so take a good look .
I like the disc other wise does a good job for us .

 

[Tx Jim]

Yeah it seemed to me the KBAs had a bad reputation that way whereas I should still be able to get bearings for something like an Aw or RW or Oliver 251, etc? If it was in ok shape it probably would last me a while as I just plan to leave it at a 15 field I rent some miles from home

This is the first time I remember seeing/hearing that JD KBA's had any more problems breaking disk shafts any more frequent than any other JD disk harrows. The white-iron bearings could be very worn & still be functional. Just liberally grease the grease fittings on the bearing halves & go till the soil. If it that was my disk harrow I get a competent welder to V the break on the disk shaft & then weld the disk shaft back together

 

[pmarkel]

This is the first time I remember seeing/hearing that JD KBA's had any more problems breaking disk shafts any more frequent than any other JD disk harrows. The white-iron bearings could be very worn & still be functional. Just liberally grease the grease fittings on the bearing halves & go till the soil. If it that was my disk harrow I get a competent welder to V the break on the disk shaft & then weld the disk shaft back together

Well that's encouraging enough. I do have a welder fabricator locally who does a great job

 

[Scott 730]

I would be more concerned with the condition of the blades than what it would take to repair that shaft. From what can be seen of the blades in the first picture they look like all the good is used up in them.

 

[Texasmark]

The shaft is broken, the two halves bolted around the bell/spool is your bearing, just steel on steel, no balls or rollers.

But the bearing has a grease zerk on the back side and you need to keep it full of grease so that the bearing has something to slide on....agree the axle is broken.

 

[caterpillar guy]

We have a disc similar to that with the nonliftable gangs and they were pretty light so didn't cut into much even on loose dirt. Plowed ground they would work a bit better. Ours has nearly new blades on it all the way around. Probably still have the black paint on them near the center. We got a bigger disc about that time. If it had a transport on it I would pull it behind the chisel plow just to knock the ridges down so it was not so rough for the first pass afterwards. It does work pretty good for something like pulling behind the chisel plow. I have used our 470 for that when I wanted the transport capability. Those Stiegers don't even know it is back there. You would be a long time getting any dirt if you try to work up stubble with it unless it is real wet.

 

[Tx Jim]

I would be more concerned with the condition of the blades than what it would take to repair that shaft. From what can be seen of the blades in the first picture they look like all the good is used up in them.

JD KBA is a light duty disk harrow & even with very good disks it will not move soil very aggressively unless soil is very sandy or loose. I would need to see condition of remainder of the disks before I would have a desire to replace them. Replacing all disk harrow disks is very labor intensive. BTDT

 

[560Dennis]

Keep the photos coming , like to see progress on your disc ,helps me i Got one

 

[Scott 730]

Replacing all disk harrow disks is very labor intensive. BTDT

Yup. Me too.