Helping my neighbor with his 147cc again...UPDATE

[BigBill]

My neighbors 147 drive shaft crapped out again. This tractor has the danco loader (FEL) on it. We towed it to the barn and the left axle seems to be on an angle now too. The engine ran just long enough to raise the bucket so we could move it. I couldn't get it to free wheel.
Now i have three things to repair. I'm thinking the "C" clip let go on the axle maybe??

[BigBill]

Here we go;

After a closer inspection i noticed the axle broke in two pieces. The bearing in the axle housing wore out because of the low oil level. Luckily i just pic'd up a whole tranny from a standard cub cadet for $5. It had the axle housing plus i had the extra disc brake axle on the shelf. I dropped the rear of the FEL subframe by taking out all of the bolts except for the front two bolts so it would let the tranny hinge down enough to swap out the axle housings. I got it all back together so the tranny with the broken axle is repaired.

Now the inspection of the drive shaft is next to see if the pin wore out or the drive shaft split too. I'm tthinking with the extra force it needed to turn the axle with no bearing left plus using the FEL and having a low oil level didn't help the drive shaft much.

The first time a lawn mower shop guy installed the drive shaft i fabricated. Without thinking what caused the problem in the first place. I'm not sure if he checked the tranny oil or not.
BigBill

These are bullet proof machines if we just check the oils......

I always say we need to check and change the oils on a regular basis(engine) and grease and check the tranny oil often.

[BigBill]

Its like working in the R&D test lab and doing life testing on old and new products. We need to find the root cause of the problem and not just repair it. I think the bad axle bearing/low oil level did the damage on the drive shaft by increasing the load.

I learned this on the two stroke dirtbikes too when the pistons went. What really caused the piston to blow in the first place? Bad crank bearings/crank seals can cause an air leak and the engine to run lean thus making the piston dicintergrate. There is no short cuts in doiing the right repairs because down the road it will bite you, and you know where......

[dhermesc]

I'm surprised there aren't any hydro problems with the low oil and all the metal that has to be floating around in that rear end after eating an axle shaft and a bearing.

[BigBill]

This machine is one abused tractor. The oil never gets checked or even changed. All his tractors are like this, they run them until they break. It just goes to show us how tough these little cub cadets really are.

Suggestion; Check your engine oil everytime you gas up. I check it everytime i start to run it too just to besafe.

Check the oil in your tranny often too. Not only are the parts expensive its a lot of work to repair it too.

[BigBill]

I also repaired the front spindles because they were bend from the FEL too. Thats a sign that its been over worked too.

It surely pays off to have the parts inhouse to repair these tractors. I buy parts and parts tractors all the time.

[lonnyb]

If you are running dual wheels on the 147 with a FEL there is added stress to the axle when going over uneven ground, like when the out side tire is rideing up on something and the inside tire aint touching nothing but air.
Run the outside tire with less air preasure to help lessen the stress, or find a size smaller tire which can be a real nightmare to do.

[BigBill]

He has the 26"-1200-12 turf tires on it with IH wheel spacers.

[lonnyb]

Is he useing the wheel spacers to widen the width of the rear wheels? If so that will put a lot of extra stress on the axles and that is not good, will caused alxes to snap.