# Lost a cotter pin!



## MFreund (May 2, 2008)

I put my 72" MMM back on my 4310 after some very hard loader work. I made a few passes and went to lift up the deck and it did not lift. I thought what the heck so I pushed the lever down. I then felt the floor raise up under my left heel and said oh s**t. I drove to the garage and climbed under it. The pin that connects the hyd cyl to the rock shaft had fallen out. I found the pin on top of the deck with no cotter pin. Problem found!! I asked myself what caused the floor to rise up? The hyd cyl had pushed the 1 1/4 dia rock shaft about 3/4" forward and sheared the bolt on the rear floor board mount off and broke the top two out of the transmission/axle casting. Looks like I will be busy this afternoon! I took the floor board off and got a good look and that seemed to be all the damage. I took a left handed drill bit and the sheared bolt backed out almost instantly. The floor board casting was streached about half a bolt hole, so I took the trusty die grinder and made the hole longer and when I bolted it back up the top two bolts seemed to tighten up even though half of the bolt holes were broke out! I took JB Weld and put the top halves of the castings back on after tightening as much as I dared. Tractor fixed, now on the the rock shaft. When I took the rock shaft off I noticed the left side was missing the bushing, when someone installed the mid PTO they put the bushing cap on backward and that allowed the bushing to "walk" out. RTFM I was not lucky enough to find it. I have a great neighbor who recycles concrete and thought "I wonder how big his hydraulic press is". The answer is big enough, 20 ton press is big enough to straighten a 1 1/2" steel rockshaft. So far the repairs are holding and I only have $27.50 for two new bushings. Any other ideas for repair on the casting other than JB weld? The moral: When a 2 cent cotter pin falls out it causes a million $ headache!!!


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