Lely fertilizer spinner repair

[Jed Barney]

Hi folks.
Last year my fert spinner developed a problem with its bearings on one side. Its the old twin drum spreader with gear box's and direct drive shafts. Im trying to get one end gearbox off to replace the bearings but struggling. I cant seem to seperate the agitator from the disc and from the gearbox. I cant see any grub screws or bolts to free it off the shaft. Ive unbolted the whole drive train in order to get the end gearbox off and loose, but just cant seperate it all from the hopper. Any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. Jed

 

[John 1594]

Sounds like its a centerliner, those agitators were the bain of my springtime till i see the light and sold it for an amazone.

Basically, the agitator disc passes through a hole in the bottom of the hopper, and rotates inside. They are secured to the disc with a bayonet fitting, so in theory you simply twist the agitator against its normal rotation, and lift it off, allowing the discs, shafts and center drive box lo be lowered and removed

What usually happens is nobody botheres to periodically remove and clean the agitators, so they sieze to the shaft, making removal impossible

First time i removed ours i had to break the thin agitator disc off of its cast iron bayonet coupling, then lower the discs and heat the remains of the agitator up to free it off, then weld the disc back on. If your luck you may get a small torch in underneath it to heat it up, but even then you have no way off applyying leverage to the stub to twist it free, Its a pig of a job to be honest, took me a day to get both ours off, make sure you smother them in copper slip and remove them every time you wash the spreader out, then they are no bother.

 

[Jed Barney]

Thanks for that. I'll have another go tomorrow.