1460 combine - broken drive axle

[sblunier]

1978 1460 decided to break the left front drive axle the other night as I was making a left turn and parking it. Went down hard and in the process spun the rear end around and snapped off the left rear spindle. Heck of a ride in the cab.......

Called out the tire service to get is jacked up and then went to work replacing the final drive and spindle. Chris E. was down to help haul corn and we ended up completing the repair in one day and were back in the field picking by 7:30 Monday night.

Of course it shucked the clean grain elevator/grain tank cross shaft this morning and we were broke down again......corn harvest has been more fixin' than farmin' this year!!!! Good thing cutting the plow day bean fields went off without a hitch!!!! ....And really good thing it didn't break the axle when I was roading it 12 miles to the field!

 

[sblunier]

Dang pic rotation......

 

[sblunier]

 

[digger]

Well that JUST SUCKS Man!

 

[sblunier]

What really sucks is working your a$$ off to fix it, getting it done, then the next morning breaking down again after shelling 500 BU!!!!......hard to make headway like that!!!! But at least the old girl is back on her feet....only a few years newer than your 1466 and with the same 436cid IH....but this one has 4400 hours on it, at probably 225hp!

 

[sblunier]

Chris and I celebrating the install of the new final drive......we were getting a bit punchy by then!!!!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Steve, bummer. I bet the ride was "fun"...

 

[bbranstetter]

That's a whole bunch of not fun there. Glad you guys were able to get it fixed.

 

[nqueensland]

Not a fun job in the shop, even less of a fun job in the field! Great work getting that fixed in such a short time! You'll always have the kink in the access cover to remind you of that fun job.

 

[nbodin]

There's been quite a few that have done that. Usually they have huge grain tank extensions on them. Just remember that some guys have brand new machines that break down...
Just an observation.- shouldn't the rear shaker pan be above the add on chaff spreader? Those combines are great old machines. We are running a 1460 and a 1480 yet.

 

[kshultz]

Dang! Glad you are OK.

 

[sblunier]

Nate,

Usually the seals start to leak and the bearings go bad...then, crunch. This one just broke the splined drive axle right behind the hub.....pop, crash.

Amen on the new machines....and they are $$$$ to fix, we can work on this one easy enough and it's a good old horse.

This model is a 1978, early one with manual hydraulics and cable control header. It has the updated cleaning fan and some other updates. 4400 hrs so its tired. Anyway, the early 1460s didn't have shaker pans after the sieves, just a pan that dropped trash over the axle. The spreader whips take it right off the pan, works good.

They are eating machines for their age and truly one of IH's best developments! Everyone else is trying to be this good!

 

[nbodin]

Steve- Had a neighbor that has green underwear. They bought a JD rotary (or whatever BS name they give it) a few years ago. Was bragging how they could combine later when soybeans got tough and how there wasn't as much dust in front of the machine. I just told him that JD should have just copied IH's idea back in the 70's so they would not have had to wait till now to get a combine that would get more work done in a day. Yes, I know there was patents for the rotary back then. He didn't have much to say then....

 

[nqueensland]

We ran a 1460 for 12 harvests, was a great combine for us. Main problem was our soybeans always had pods in them, could never get them clean unless conditions were perfect. Great combines, amazing how advanced they were back on the late 70’s!

 

[sblunier]

Threshing beans was never an issue on ours, but every field is different....

I do love the JD "rediscovery" of the "STS single tine separation " rotary.....

 

[nbodin]

Here is a pic of our old 1480 combining oats this summer

 

[dfrisk]

NATE - My father-in-law was a manufacturing Engineering Manager at Deere Harvester. About the second weekend after IH axial flow combine production started a couple railroad cars loaded with new red combines spent the weekend at Harvester. My F-in-law told me the following week his expert opinion was the upper rotor bearing would be short lived and an absolute PITA to replace. He said ALL Mother Deere's engineers went over them from one end to the other.

They actually kept their old design because it was way more profitable for them. You really don't have to work much overtime at Harvester to make $100,000 per year. No wonder those big green combines cost half a Million Bucks! As An old frequent poster here used to say, STS stood for Straight Thru Seeder.

 

[sblunier]

Nate, Sharp old 1480...

Denny,

Funny they questioned the rear rotor bearing of all things.....

The conventional design must have been VERY profitable for them (and IH's patents really sewed up tight), because they really sold their cylinder machines for a LONG time......until they could sart building rotaries......then all of a sudden "STS"....All the while the Axial Flow mahcines were chugging along wondering what the big deal was!!!

 

[dfrisk]

Yes, that top back rotor bearing is what I call a "Lifetime part", lasts the life of the machine except if you have to remove it for another reason.
Too many moving parts in a conventional combine. Guess that makes for lots of repair part sales. My Brother-in-law has single handedly cleaned out every combine salvage yard of every final drive for green 6620 combines and every 20x26 drive wheel. He's had the bolt circle break out of several wheels when combining. When the downhill wheel breaks and the grain tank is almost full you think your going over onto the side.

A lot of the old 1460 & 1480 combines are just plain wearing out, the sheet metal is wearing through in places difficult to repair.

The Axial Flow combine is solely responsible for taking IH from 4th or 5th place in combine sales to a very close 2nd place
I worked at IH East Moline for 6 weeks in Jan. & Feb. 1977, still making the conventional machines, 315, 615, 715, 815, 915. Think they were building 22 a day! I worked on the BIG shear line, behind an 8 ft Cincinnati shear catching and stacking parts. Some of the jobs paid Pennys per Thousand at the first operation, but a 6-7 foot long by 5 inch wide strip might be 200 pcs or more. I made it out of there and back to Farmall with all my fingers and hands intact.

 

[sblunier]

Shelled 5800 bu today......very dry corn (picking #2 corn right out of the field).....old girl chugged right along between 3 and 3.5 mph in over 200 bu corn. Can't complain too much.

1979 IH grain truck did good too, a side from its 8 gallons per mile fuel economy....