Steering Lever Weld-on Repair End

[wwattson]

A while back I told mentioned that I had an idea for repairing the broken off end of the steering lever of my 1010. Finally the amazing result of months of intense engineering work and extraordinary machining work can be revealed.

In this first picture is the basic idea; that's right, a piece of steel witha hole in it. Not just any hole but a hole with a keyway that fits the steering shaft of a 1010.



And now the finished prototype. A piece of steel with a hole drilled in it, a keyway, a pair of bevels milled on the front for welding, a slot cut in it to permit tightening on the steering shaft and another tapped hole for the tightening bolt.



I know what you're thinking; this guy is some sort of genius or something (probably leaning more toward the 'or something').

This really isn't necessarily for everybody. Like Lavoy has mentioned in the past, a heavy setscrew collar welded to the end of a broken steering lever will work. I mostly did this design to produce a repair that looked as close to the original lever end as practical. I am going to leave the edges square until it is welded in place to permit grinding it to match the shape of the lever.

If there is some interest in these repair ends and Lavoy is game, I'd be willing to make some up for sale through Lavoy. I'll post some more pictures when I've got it welded on and ground to shape.

[JD440ICD2006]

Bill, With some time, I believe you could turn out the complete crawler in new parts.
Keep up the good work and you cannot post enough picutures for me.

[wwattson]

I'm just hoping it doesn't come to that but at the rate Deere is dropping parts, it may get there.

[wwattson]

Here's what the final result looks like. The lever on the top is the opposite side lever that I repaired in an earlier post. The bottom is the lever with the repair end welded on and ground to rough shape. Note that I made the back corner thicker than the original.



I tried a few different radii for this bottom corner and settled on the one shown. Deere put the keyway in about the worse possible spot from a strength standpoint. From the drawings in the parts book, it looks like the later 1010 levers were made with more material around the bottom corner probably due to field failure history on the early design.

[Ray III]

The original part was cast iron, with a steel replacement you need not worry about strength. Looks good.

[wwattson]

The steering levers are actually cast steel Ray. It makes it a ton easier to weld.

[stmftr395]

Bill; Thanks for posting your project. Its good to see what others have done so that a person knows what possible. Mark.

[Ray III]

Really? The levers on my 420 are cast iron, at least I think they are.

[wwattson]

Yup, they are cast steel on my 1010. If you dig around on the site you'll find a post where Lavoy said they were cast steel. I welded the repair end onto the steering lever and it sure wasn't cast iron.

Lavoy also posted his test for steel vs iron using a grinder. I had to shape the end to create a proper weld vee and you could tell from the sparks that it was steel.

[Tigerhaze]

This is the discussion thread that Bill is referring to about sparks:

http://www.jdcrawlers.com/messageboard/ ... cast+steel

[real550A]

wwatson-
Do you think it a good idea to weld/build up that corner on a
machine while it's still in good shape to avoid breaking in that
spot? Seems like it would save a big repair later on.
p.s. Your repair is a thing of beauty! Thanks! Mike

[wwattson]

That's sort of a tough call. The way I broke the one that wasn't already broken was trying to get it off with a broken bolt stuck in it. The way the thing is made, it seems unlikely that you would break it just using it but likely to break it if you have any trouble removing it or if the bolt broke while you were using it. Lavoy has seen many more of these than I so might have a better opinion on what actually breaks them. Just seems like you might end up with the problem you are trying to avoid if you remove it to do the weld buildup.

One thing that would have avoided the whole problem is if Deere had oriented the keyway so that it faced forward into the beefy metal at the based of the lever rather than into the thinnest part of the casting like they did. Most cast metals don't do well with tension and fatigue so it's only a matter of time. Making the replacement end out of 1018 avoids the problem.

Bill

[Lavoy]

I think one of the main problems on the 1010's is the corrosion caused by the battery being right above the levers. I have seen some of these levers so rusty, they just about fall apart.
Lavoy

[Eric.MacLeod]

one of my levers has been welded onto the shaft, because of this the right hand lever hits the left hand lever, do you think i could heat this and bend it or am i asking for trouble? thanks..Eric

[wwattson]

Eric,

I think so long as you get it nice and cherry red and try not to make up the entire amount of twist in a short length but rather along the whole length at the bottom of the lever, you should be fine. The problem comes in trying to bend it with no heat. At cherry red the metal takes on an almost "taffy" like property and it looses a lot of the brittleness that would cause it to crack or break at room temperature. Just take your time with it and make sure the metal is heated through and you should be fine.

As always, I really don't know anything and if anybody else feels I'm giving bad advice, don't worry about hurting my feelings by correcting this post.

Bill