1811's turn in the shop

[zippy1]

What I ended up doing John on my 1872. Raised the tractor up on it's back tires with my hoist, then ground off the pins, and knock em' out. The hole I run a step up drill in it to clean up the hole.
Then I cut a new pins to length and replaced em', welded em' in, and was good to go.
Your mileage my differ.

[john hall]

Originally Posted by jaynjeep

John,
The rockshaft pins on my early 1782 looked just that bad... the rockshaft didn't want to cooperate so I had to regroup... Wound up taking some time but I just hoisted the tractor up and layed under it with a wire welder... built the pins up a little at a time and with some careful grinding I got the pins back round again.. had to drill one hairpin clip hole back out because I got too close with the welder.. Took some time but turned out nice and I didn't have to remove the rockshaft!

Looking good... keep us posted!!

Originally Posted by zippy1

What I ended up doing John on my 1872. Raised the tractor up on it's back tires with my hoist, then ground off the pins, and knock em' out. The hole I run a step up drill in it to clean up the hole.
Then I cut a new pins to length and replaced em', welded em' in, and was good to go.
Your mileage my differ.

Yeah, fixing the pins in the tractor may be the best idea. If I can't get the rockshaft out, I'll probably do Zippys method and remove the pins and weld in new ones. I can't weld well enough to build them up with a stick welder in the machine.

I knocked out the roll pins pretty easy--made a 2 ft long piloted punch.
When I tried knocking out the rockshaft, I realized 2 things quickly:
A) Man is that thing a good fit!
B) There isn't anything solid to hold back while hammering.

I put a big C-clamp over the frame to stiffen things up. Still no go. I siliconed some plastic bag over the bottom of the roll pin holes so I could fill them full of PB-Blaster. Probably let it soak a couple days while I rebuild and reinstall the carb. I may rearrange where the Cadet is parked so I can put something big and heavy against the frame so when I hit the pin, all the force is on the pin, not lost on a wiggling chassis. I wish I had a forklift, then I'd come right over the foot rest until it touches the frame. Thinking I may do the same with the scrape blade on one of the farm tractors.

Got to wondering when the rockshaft assembly got changed to this overgrown 1 pc unit--seems it happened during the 82 series--there is a serial number break in the 782 and 982 parts books.

[Sam Mac]

Have fun, trying to remove the rock shaft will teach you to hate. Honestly I'd run it with out the spirol pins and maybe you'll get lucky and it will break free. Other wise it's welder time.

[john hall]

Originally Posted by Sam Mac

Have fun, trying to remove the rock shaft will teach you to hate. Honestly I'd run it with out the spirol pins and maybe you'll get lucky and it will break free. Other wise it's welder time.

Sounds like what the Deere dealer had a customer do trying to get the rear wheels on the tractor to move. They loosened everything up and told the guy to drive it. After a week of heavy tillage the wheels finally broke loose so they could be adjusted.
So If I leave the pins out, you gonna remember that so when I ask in 5 years why the heck my lift is not picking anything up what the problem is. Heck I'd forget it before time to mow THIS year. To tell the truth, I ain't gonna swing the hammer too long on this one--I've already got in my head a couple ways to reinstall replacements in the machine.

[olds45512]

I took the rockshaft out of my 1811 and it took about 2hrs of beating, I would drive it as far as it would go with the air hammer and then pound it back in and I kept working it like that until it finally came out, I probably used a whole can of PB blaster in the process. Looks like I might have to do it again to the 1211 since it's froze and won't allow the plow to float, I've been trying to get it to free up without taking it apart but I have been unsuccessful.

[darkminion_17]

I bolted a piece of flat stock using both holes to the lift arm for the plow, about 3' long,3/16 thick, after knocking the pins out, pb blasting and couple blocks of wood placed to hold the deck arms from moving, I finally got the inside to move, little at a time till I was able to dive the long pin out.
Your smilage may vary

I like Todds method better,but you do want to break it free at least for the float factor.

[jaynjeep]

If I had it to do all over I would probably go with Zippy's method of grinding the welds off and making new pins... It would probably be faster than the way I did it!

I think those rockshafts were made to be assembled once and NEVER taken back apart!!

You are correct... getting the other side up against something solid is probably the only way you may get it apart!

Good luck with whichever way you do it!!

[john hall]

Two minutes total hammering time, even before today, and the rockshaft pin was out!! I swear to God that was all. Like I said before, you could tell nothing was solid when I hit it. I added the giant C-Clamp yesterday to hold the frame together but it wasn't enough. Decided what I needed was something I couldn't move with a hammer--a farm tractor. Before I started on the Cadet this afternoon we put the scrape blade on the back of dad's 454 IH (about 45 hp)--weatherman is calling for snow. I managed to squeeze it crossways in the shop then moved the 1811 parallel to the blade--really close. Put a piece of 2" tubing between the Cadet and the scrape blade. Hit the rockshaft a couple licks with a 2lb hammer and could tell it had moved just a bit. I was using a piece of barstock to drive with, so knowing how bad I swing a hammer I gripped the heck out of it with visegrips to get my hand out of the way. Several more good hits and then it seemingly jumped a 1/4" and changed sound--it was like knocking a ball over the fence, you knew you had it. From then on it was just steady hammering. I was quite happy watching the parts fall on the floor! I would have took more pics but my phone battery went dead. Enough with the rockshaft for today. I pulled the carb out of soak and put it back together and installed it and the muffler. We were really late for supper so it was time to call it a day.

[zippy1]

Persistence, determination, what ever it's called, good work John.

[Sam Mac]

That was a creative solution to the problem. Well done.