U-Joint on NH256 Rake

[mml373]

How can the U-Joint on an old New Holland 256 rake be removed? I can get the driveshaft off the U-joint but am not having luck getting the U-joint off the wheel. I've removed the pin that holds it to the wheel. What am I not doing, or doing wrong? Do I just need to pop a crowbar between the wheel and U-joint and work around a couple times to get things free?

 

[Mac AR]

Should come off easy unless end of shaft is mushroomed. Try some penetrating oil on it, and twist it on the shaft. It ought to slide off fairly easily. Unless you're talking about the axle u-joints, in which case there is a trick to getting that axle off.

Mac

 

[mml373]

Should come off easy unless end of shaft is mushroomed. Try some penetrating oil on it, and twist it on the shaft. It ought to slide off fairly easily. Unless you're talking about the axle u-joints, in which case there is a trick to getting that axle off.

Mac

Thank you... I'll give this a try. I can twist it some but haven't really put much effort into that, yet.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Yup, it should just come right off. Both of mine are so worn they flop around and would fall off if not for the pin.

Pretty sure it's designed to be easily removable in the field so you can disconnect the shaft and tie it up if you're towing the rake a long distance.

 

[flying belgian]

How can the U-Joint on an old New Holland 256 rake be removed? I can get the driveshaft off the U-joint but am not having luck getting the U-joint off the wheel. I've removed the pin that holds it to the wheel. What am I not doing, or doing wrong? Do I just need to pop a crowbar between the wheel and U-joint and work around a couple times to get things free?

I would guess the pin hole is kinda wollowed out with edges sticking up. Get aggressive with it. Then when you get it off file those edges smooth on the axle.

 

[mml373]

I would guess the pin hole is kinda wollowed out with edges sticking up. Get aggressive with it. Then when you get it off file those edges smooth on the axle.

Thank you (and everyone else). I got a block of wood and a hammer and went after it. Got it to come off, along with the axle and also was able to get the assembly off where the dog is on that side. Cleaned everything out (50 years of gunk in there), cleaned it all, put a light coat of grease on things (for now) and things work nicely now. Engages and disengages like it should. I'll do the other side next Saturday.

I had trouble getting everything back together because of difficulties lining up the holes for the u-joint and axle to run the pin through. I couldn't get things lined up. Lowering/raising each side of the rake, I was able to get everything to go back in nicely...now if I'd known to do that before taking everything apart I wouldn't have a destroyed bolt that holds the u-joint to the driveshaft. Thread damage was enough to prevent it from taking the nuts on the other side, so I'll have to grab another bolt. I'm also going to order a new cable, and 18 new tine assemblies.

I figure I'll run it next season, then maybe try to disassembled and repaint the machine so it'll have some protection on that old metal.

Appreciate everyone's help. On edit: this is among the first pieces of hay equipment I've owned--new to ag--and the first time I have ever tried to do any work on anything more than bicycles and lawn equipment. Learning a ton! Thanks again.

 

[flying belgian]

Thank you (and everyone else). I got a block of wood and a hammer and went after it. Got it to come off, along with the axle and also was able to get the assembly off where the dog is on that side. Cleaned everything out (50 years of gunk in there), cleaned it all, put a light coat of grease on things (for now) and things work nicely now. Engages and disengages like it should. I'll do the other side next Saturday.

I had trouble getting everything back together because of difficulties lining up the holes for the u-joint and axle to run the pin through. I couldn't get things lined up. Lowering/raising each side of the rake, I was able to get everything to go back in nicely...now if I'd known to do that before taking everything apart I wouldn't have a destroyed bolt that holds the u-joint to the driveshaft. Thread damage was enough to prevent it from taking the nuts on the other side, so I'll have to grab another bolt. I'm also going to order a new cable, and 18 new tine assemblies.

I figure I'll run it next season, then maybe try to disassembled and repaint the machine so it'll have some protection on that old metal.

Appreciate everyone's help. On edit: this is among the first pieces of hay equipment I've owned--new to ag--and the first time I have ever tried to do any work on anything more than bicycles and lawn equipment. Learning a ton! Thanks again.

Here's one Grandson an I fixed and painted one winter. Bought it for $200 Stuck 600 in it and sold it for $2000. Model 55

Can't find the pics.

 

[mml373]

Here's one Grandson an I fixed and painted one winter. Bought it for $200 Stuck 600 in it and sold it for $2000. Model 55

Can't find the pics.

Not bad!

 

[mml373]

Took the right wheel off today...had to destroy the pin holding the wheel onto the axle, along with the cotter pin and pin holding the right side dog in. I have no idea how cotter pins get reversed but it was impossible to coerce out nicely. What should have been a 20 minute job to clean and inspect took an hour or more, so I think annual maintenance is going to be a thing, now, so that hopefully there won't be much wasting of time trying to get things apart in future years.

Dog spring was broken..so that's an easy fix. Not sure how much grease is recommended inside the hub assembly for these dogs but I am a fan of less grease, more often. Looks like there's a zerk for inside the hub/axle but I'm not sure grease makes it to the dog. Looks like it would require copious amounts of grease to fill that space, which would perhaps inhibit movement of the dogs, so I'm just putting a "reasonable" amount of tractor grease in there on the dog and around the inside of the hub where it engages. Should make annual maintenance faster, and should be sufficient lubrication of these parts, for my needs. (Fingers crossed).

 

[Mac AR]

Glad you got it figured out and going your way. Cotter pins, to me at least, are considered disposable. Especially given that I can get a big assortment of them for cheap at the local parts store. Heck, I have made small ones out of wire in a pinch. Several of those are still going strong, one I can think of in particular holds the throttle linkage together on my Farmall 300!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly confident that the dogs shouldn't be greased at all. Again, I may be wrong, but I know that on things like clutch-lift plows and drills the open clutches are generally left dry so the grease won't catch dirt and get built up inside the wheel. I would go sparingly with the grease where the dogs pivot and none at all on the inside of the wheel where they catch. YMMV, of course.

Mac

 

[mml373]

Glad you got it figured out and going your way. Cotter pins, to me at least, are considered disposable. Especially given that I can get a big assortment of them for cheap at the local parts store. Heck, I have made small ones out of wire in a pinch. Several of those are still going strong, one I can think of in particular holds the throttle linkage together on my Farmall 300!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly confident that the dogs shouldn't be greased at all. Again, I may be wrong, but I know that on things like clutch-lift plows and drills the open clutches are generally left dry so the grease won't catch dirt and get built up inside the wheel. I would go sparingly with the grease where the dogs pivot and none at all on the inside of the wheel where they catch. YMMV, of course.

Mac

Thank you for this. I was thinking same...the amount of grease I cleaned out of there was staggering, and it was thick enough that I'm surprised the left dog even worked. I did a very light coating. We'll see how things go this next hay season. A year from now I'll be servicing it all again and will consider just cleaning everything out, as you mentioned.

 

[mml373]

Thank you for this. I was thinking same...the amount of grease I cleaned out of there was staggering, and it was thick enough that I'm surprised the left dog even worked. I did a very light coating. We'll see how things go this next hay season. A year from now I'll be servicing it all again and will consider just cleaning everything out, as you mentioned.

Hey there, folks. Following up...

I am replacing a dog spring and got the rivet that goes through the dog and hub assembly back in but I cannot for the life of me figure out how on God's Green Earth to get that doggone cotter pin bent once it goes into the hole in the rivet. It's behind the hub assembly and there's no way to slide it completely through the hole and then bend things. Not with pliers. Not with screwdriver. Can't go from top, can't go from bottom. Nothing. I wonder if the cotter is too hard a metal--I can't bend it with 2 pliers (can't get a good grip on it anyway because it is small.)

One YouTube video showed the guy pushing the rivet in through the dog from the back side of the hub assembly. That does not work. I am using OEM part numbers and the head of the pin is big enough that it won't let the pin line up straight to go through the hole in the hub assembly.

I must have slept through the class on cotter pin bending...

Part numbers are 48283 for the rivet and 88163 for the cotter pin, per the parts manual for this rake.

Colossal waste of time on a Friday afternoon trying to get this done, so far, and things still aren't back together. Grrrr....

 

[mml373]

Hey there, folks. Following up...

I am replacing a dog spring and got the rivet that goes through the dog and hub assembly back in but I cannot for the life of me figure out how on God's Green Earth to get that doggone cotter pin bent once it goes into the hole in the rivet. It's behind the hub assembly and there's no way to slide it completely through the hole and then bend things. Not with pliers. Not with screwdriver. Can't go from top, can't go from bottom. Nothing. I wonder if the cotter is too hard a metal--I can't bend it with 2 pliers (can't get a good grip on it anyway because it is small.)

One YouTube video showed the guy pushing the rivet in through the dog from the back side of the hub assembly. That does not work. I am using OEM part numbers and the head of the pin is big enough that it won't let the pin line up straight to go through the hole in the hub assembly.

I must have slept through the class on cotter pin bending...

Part numbers are 48283 for the rivet and 88163 for the cotter pin, per the parts manual for this rake.

Colossal waste of time on a Friday afternoon trying to get this done, so far, and things still aren't back together. Grrrr....

I wonder if I can go with a hitch pin instead of a cotter on this particular application. Or just a piece of baling wire. These seem much heavier duty than the cotters I removed and I suspect heat would be required to soften things up & bend them?

 

[Mac AR]

I wonder if I can go with a hitch pin instead of a cotter on this particular application. Or just a piece of baling wire.

I've used a lot of baling wire on stuff like this. I don't think it'll hurt anything.

Mac

 

[rustred]

I wonder if I can go with a hitch pin instead of a cotter on this particular application. Or just a piece of baling wire. These seem much heavier duty than the cotters I removed and I suspect heat would be required to soften things up & bend them?

cotter pins are soft . plus you only bend the longer side a bit, sure makes life easy. plus cut to length with side cutter. and side cutters and cotter pins are like bacon and eggs . makes life easy also. its the only thing i use to pull cotter pins. i see cotter pins wrapped around pins ,.. like really why ? so there is your cotter pin lesson.

 

[MARK ROBKE]

Hey there, folks. Following up...

I am replacing a dog spring and got the rivet that goes through the dog and hub assembly back in but I cannot for the life of me figure out how on God's Green Earth to get that doggone cotter pin bent once it goes into the hole in the rivet. It's behind the hub assembly and there's no way to slide it completely through the hole and then bend things. Not with pliers. Not with screwdriver. Can't go from top, can't go from bottom. Nothing. I wonder if the cotter is too hard a metal--I can't bend it with 2 pliers (can't get a good grip on it anyway because it is small.)

One YouTube video showed the guy pushing the rivet in through the dog from the back side of the hub assembly. That does not work. I am using OEM part numbers and the head of the pin is big enough that it won't let the pin line up straight to go through the hole in the hub assembly.

I must have slept through the class on cotter pin bending...

Part numbers are 48283 for the rivet and 88163 for the cotter pin, per the parts manual for this rake.

Colossal waste of time on a Friday afternoon trying to get this done, so far, and things still aren't back together. Grrrr....

Maybe a hammer and chisel? Mark.

 

[mml373]

Maybe a hammer and chisel? Mark.

Solved that issue. I'm going to take another look when things dry out and see what I can figure out. I started a bend in the pin before inserting into the hole; the issue is mainly one of clearance and finishing the job once the pin's being installed all the way.