Gotta take advantage of the "rain delay"

[Runs With Scissors]

I was doing some work outside when a storm crept up on me.

This seems like an apropriate time to straighten those stabilizer bars I bent.

For those that don't recall. I got side tracked putting my BH77 on a few months ago.

Well, when I returned, I forgot to take off those stabilizer bars for the 3 point so they were just hanging down.

Finally 2 months later, I was taking "Stonewall" off and found them all bent up as pictured below.

So its off to the press to try and straighten these out a little.


Here is a "before" pic of one of them.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I decide that tackling the "easy one" should take precedence, just because it is always nicer to start off with a win.

So it's off to the press.

Aside: I can't tell which was the "best" mod to the press? The "air jack" or the "height crank"

I'm leaning towards the "height crank". I remember having a hell of a time taking things "on and off", then lifting the cross member with one hand while pulling and then reinstalling the pins.....kind of a PITA.

Now its just "crank up a little, remove pins, then put pins up or down and gently set back down using crank....simple and easy....

Anyhow, I just tried to get the point of the "finger" to split the apex of the bend and 'goosed" the air, little by little.

The hardest part is guessing how much "spring back" there is, but it was relatively easy.

I was amazed at how 'responsive' the air pedal was. Basically "One tap, would get you One Smidge" (1/16 to 1/32'ish)

then after a few more "taps"

the results are "pretty OK"

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Now for the starboard side which is kinda, sorta FUBAR'd

I decide to attack from the "outermost" bend, then attack the more difficult 'innermost' bend.

Unlike the port side, this bend requires a couple of "repositions" of the brake finger to get it straight'ish.

Not too shabby.

Now for the more complicated "innermost' bend.

I set it up hoping that that I can bend it without "squinching" that C shaped piece.

Damn........I have to reposition and get a little closer to the C part. I did not want to have to do that.

It's a win/lose type of situation.

I do get the bend out (mostly), but the "C part" gets a little "squinching" too, as you can see in the next picture.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Now that little piece held in by the pin going through the "C part" is "tight".

I'm gonna have to "loosen" it up a smidge......But what can I use to get in that little space to spread those legs apart??????

Hmmmmmm???????

Then looking through the tool box, I see it!!!!!

My brand spanking new "caliper tool"!!!!!

And yes,.... I know,.... I know....."the right tool for the right job".........."thats abusing your tools"......blah, blah, blah.......

Sometimes you just gotta sh!t done, and someone has to 'take one for the team"....and in this case it is the 'caliper tools" turn to "take one".

I decide to use the "2 tits" on the back of the tool to try and avoid stressing out/bending the "caliper tool"

Then I have to get the vise involved as a '3rd hand" in order to be able to "crank on her" a bit.

She is not "perfect", but this ain't no "flight control rod" on a 747 neither....its a "loosey goosey" stabilizer bar on a L2501, so I am calling it a win.

Here she is "expanded"

and her she is "closed"

And trust me, the write up took WAY longer than the actual repair did...

The End....

 

[DustyRusty]

You didn't put the paint on. It isn't finished until it is painted.

 

[D2Cat]

I can't picture how they got so bent up hanging down and able to pivot if hit or hooked on something?

 

[jaxs]

Now that you have experience I wish mine were there to help you polish your technique.
A guy had 8 lift arms on Facebook for more than a year that he was only willing to sell as a package. Early on I tried negotiating price down to justify making the trip and buying 6 more than I needed but he wouldn't budge. After 8 months I hit him up again but he wouldn't take a dime less. Out of the blue couple weeks ago he sent a message saying he would take what I had offered over a year ago. I figured it was only right I follow through so I made the hour and half drive to find all the arms bent. He even told me how he bent them by using row crop arms on his industrial tractor,hanging one corner of box blade while backing up. From the way they were turned in picture the bends didn't show. I should have asked how many people he let come after them without telling them they are bent but I paid him and left. Not a great amount of money and I had planed using the spares for welding projects ( sub-frame for back-hoe for instance). Had I intended using them all or been a business planning to resale them I might have tried straightening one out on his head.

 

[Fordtech86]

I can't picture how they got so bent up hanging down and able to pivot if hit or hooked on something?

have you just “met” @Runs With Scissors?

 

[drumminj]

have you just “met” @Runs With Scissors?

Probably similar to how the 'kickstand' for my landscape rake got bent up. Apparently forgot to 'retract' it after mounting the rake on the tractor one day. Never heard or felt anything, but when I went to swap it out for something else, I realized it was all bent up....surely been dragging on the ground and hit something...?

Bracket was also bent which wasn't a simple fix. Trashed the kickstand and still need to figure out a new solution (for now I just prop it up on some 6x6s when I unmount it).

 

[Fordtech86]

Probably similar to how the 'kickstand' for my landscape rake got bent up. Apparently forgot to 'retract' it after mounting the rake on the tractor one day. Never heard or felt anything, but when I went to swap it out for something else, I realized it was all bent up....surely been dragging on the ground and hit something...?

Bracket was also bent which wasn't a simple fix. Trashed the kickstand and still need to figure out a new solution (for now I just prop it up on some 6x6s when I unmount it).

I have certainly never ripped the stand off my tiller before, and definitely not more the once I always put it up before tilling, never seen it on the ground on my second pass

I have also no experience with straightening the shafts for the gauge wheels on the landscape rake

 

[DustyRusty]

3/4" black iron pipe inside of a 1" black iron pipe welded to the landscape rake. Drop the inner pipe and insert a in into the hole you drill at the height that you want the rake to be when at rest. Then one more hole when you lift it to its maximum height when you are using the rake. No need to make it fancy, but if you really want to, you can put a 3"x3" square shoe at the bottom of the 3/4" pipe. Some orange paint will make it look like it was factory-installed.

 

[Chanceywd]

I can't picture how they got so bent up hanging down and able to pivot if hit or hooked on something?

I wondered that, I thought maybe they were on there when he buried it that time and they got horsed then.

Bill

 

[drumminj]

3/4" black iron pipe inside of a 1" black iron pipe welded to the landscape rake. Drop the inner pipe and insert a in into the hole you drill at the height that you want the rake to be when at rest. Then one more hole when you lift it to its maximum height when you are using the rake. No need to make it fancy, but if you really want to, you can put a 3"x3" square shoe at the bottom of the 3/4" pipe. Some orange paint will make it look like it was factory-installed.

Sounds easy enough, just need to learn how to weld

(I do in fact own a welder, though....should probably make time to learn how to use it. How hard can it be???)

 

[chim]

Stuff can get "modified" in the blink of an eye. Until I did a redesign of the mounting for the gage wheels on my larger deck, there were more than enough bent caster yokes. It was worth the time to cobble up something to make them fairly straight again. Some 1" thick plate and several channel irons welded onto it at different elevations and a bottle jack worked.

 

[jaxs]

It requires a special gift to get the goody completely out of stuff. I once went to an auction at a state penitentiary and saw several tractors that had been broken into and welded back together.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I can't picture how they got so bent up hanging down and able to pivot if hit or hooked on something?

Neither can I, but I must have hit a rock or log or something.

Thats all I can figure.