My wood hauler goes...........KABOOM!

[quads]

I took my wood hauler ATV for a ride in the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday for the Whooping Crane Festival. As I was returning to the truck at the end of the day, I noticed an odd vibration. Unloading it from the truck back at home, I looked it all over and couldn't really find anything out of the ordinary, so I chalked it up to my imagination.

Sunday I headed out into the woods to work on a custom order. (pine firewood by special order only):

Everything seemed normal. I filled the trailer and was preparing to go back home:

I didn't make it very far when I heard a loud CRUNCH from the transmission and everything came to a halt. ATV wouldn't budge, except in neutral it would roll. Even in neutral though, the engine would lug when the belt engaged and would not rev up. So, called my daughter who got my older ATV that I use on the farm and she pulled me, the wood hauler ATV, and the load of wood back home:

I loaded my delivery truck up and delivered the order to my customer at one of the county parks:

On Monday I tore the ATV apart to see if I could find the problem. I was afraid that something had failed in the transmission itself, and after viewing an online parts list, I was even more afraid of some of the prices of those parts! Fortunately the problem wasn't that deep. After 4000 miles, mostly pulling loads of firewood, the bolt fell out of the shaft for the driven clutch (the bigger disc on the right) and wedged itself between the bottom of the pulley and the clutch cover, which locked everything up. Price of the new bolt = 25 cents (for real)! Time to take everything apart to get to it and then put it all back together = all day:

These next two pictures roughly show the amount of parts removal required to get to the 25 cent bolt. This is before:

And this is after, except in this picture I haven't yet removed the 16 bolts holding the clutch cover:

Today I will be back out there cutting again!

 

[Danno77]

turned out better than I would have expected.

 

[HittinSteel]

Nice pics and glad it was an inexpensive fix. Imagine the labor at the shop if you didn't do it yourself!

Gotta ask a question though, who special orders pine and why?

 

[zzr7ky]

Congratulations!! Hopefully you added a wee bit o' Locktite to keep that sucker in place!

I'm having a heck of a time getting at the knives on a brush chopper I'm working on now. The drum is seized to the 1" diameter shaft. I'm soaking and heat cycling it. My 16YO sez: To bad Chuck Norris isn't around, perhaps he could just give it a stern look and loosen it up!

ATB,
Mike

 

[ROBERT F]

$72.00 an hour. that was the going rate when I worked at a cycle shop. That would have billed as a 2.5 hour repair, and initial inspection would have been min. 3/4 hour. we usually "refunded" inspection fee with repair. good job on the repair, and nice to see the jeep in action after the repairs! We should rename you ---Archibald, a man of many talents-tarzan fiskars. PS: who else besides maybe Zapny would have ever taken the time to document and share this ordeal with such great photos!! I look forward to you posts always!

 

[golfandwoodnut]

nice job, by the way, how do you guys get the pictures with text between them, everytime I try they just get put at the bottom small. There must be a trick to that too.

 

[Danno77]

nice job, by the way, how do you guys get the pictures with text between them, everytime I try they just get put at the bottom small. There must be a trick to that too.

instead of adding the pictures as an attachment you can get a photobucket.com account or some other online hosting service. Then you just insert the picture's url between the [ img ] [ /img ] tags.

 

[quads]

turned out better than I would have expected.

You said it! Way better than I expected too! I don't normally get lucky, I can usually figure it's going to be the worst case scenario, but this time I guess I did have some luck. Although, if I was truly lucky I wouldn't have problems to begin with!

 

[Danno77]

turned out better than I would have expected.

You said it! Way better than I expected too! I don't normally get lucky, I can usually figure it's going to be the worst case scenario, but this time I guess I did have some luck. Although, if I was truly lucky I wouldn't have problems to begin with!

I hear ya, Quads, usually when something goes wrong and there are two options like "broken bolt Vs. catastrophic transmission failure" then I usually end up with "catastrophic transmission failure that also induced catastrophic engine failure that ended up damaging the frame and catching the vehicle on fire" or at least that's how it feels sometimes, lol...

 

[quads]

Nice pics and glad it was an inexpensive fix. Imagine the labor at the shop if you didn't do it yourself!

Gotta ask a question though, who special orders pine and why?

I normally never cut pine, letting it rot in the woods. No reason to mess with it with all the oak laying around. The standing pine is saved to sell for pulp and lumber. But, I have two regular customers that ask for it. This guy actually lives in a camper all year long in the park and uses it for his campfire. He said he prefers pine over oak for burning in his firepit. He calls me when he needs some and I go out and cut up a few dead-falls for him.

 

[Danno77]

pine is good for firepits. It burns hot and fast, so you don't have a smoldering fire all night.

 

[quads]

Congratulations!! Hopefully you added a wee bit o' Locktite to keep that sucker in place!

I'm having a heck of a time getting at the knives on a brush chopper I'm working on now. The drum is seized to the 1" diameter shaft. I'm soaking and heat cycling it. My 16YO sez: To bad Chuck Norris isn't around, perhaps he could just give it a stern look and loosen it up!

ATB,
Mike

I did indeed use Loctite on it! It had blue on it to begin with. I almost used red, but then thought better of it in case I ever have to take it apart again. I used lots of blue.

Good luck getting that drum off the shaft! Soaking and heat would be all I could think of too. Keep at it and it should eventually give up. A few raps with the hammer now and then couldn't hurt either.

 

[quads]

$72.00 an hour. that was the going rate when I worked at a cycle shop. That would have billed as a 2.5 hour repair, and initial inspection would have been min. 3/4 hour. we usually "refunded" inspection fee with repair. good job on the repair, and nice to see the jeep in action after the repairs! We should rename you ---Archibald, a man of many talents-tarzan fiskars. PS: who else besides maybe Zapny would have ever taken the time to document and share this ordeal with such great photos!! I look forward to you posts always!

I have never taken anything to a repair shop or a garage in all my life so far. I do all of my own work. My dad used to have a snowmobile dealership/small engine repair/sporting goods shop back in the 60s and 70s. I learned a lot of my do-it-yourself attitude from him.

And thanks for the compliments on the pictures! Zap is my master!

 

[Flatbedford]

Nice work. Its always nice when it works out that way. Some people might have given up on it and bought a new one. We all know you are not one of those people.

 

[Flatbedford]

Just wondering. Where is the bolt that fell out? I hope it didn't do any damage in there.

 

[thewoodlands]

And I thought you were the only nut on it, good having you back on quads.


zap

 

[quads]

turned out better than I would have expected.

You said it! Way better than I expected too! I don't normally get lucky, I can usually figure it's going to be the worst case scenario, but this time I guess I did have some luck. Although, if I was truly lucky I wouldn't have problems to begin with!

I hear ya, Quads, usually when something goes wrong and there are two options like "broken bolt Vs. catastrophic transmission failure" then I usually end up with "catastrophic transmission failure that also induced catastrophic engine failure that ended up damaging the frame and catching the vehicle on fire" or at least that's how it feels sometimes, lol...

HA HA! That pretty much sums up what I was expecting it to be. (which is why I had already been looking up transmission parts for it)

 

[quads]

Just wondering. Where is the bolt that fell out? I hope it didn't do any damage in there.

Picture #5, closeup of the clutch cover and clutches, the bolt and washer are laying in the cover. I almost reused the old bolt, I have metric dies that I could have cleaned the threads up with, but for 25 cents......

It didn't damage anything. It put kind of a sharp edge on the outside of the driven pulley when it ground it to a halt, but not where it will ever touch the belt.

 

[quads]

And I thought you were the only nut on it, good having you back on quads.


zap

HA! I am the only LOOSE nut on it again now that I have tightened the other one back up!

 

[firefighterjake]

Happy to hear things worked out for you Quads . . . and here I was all ready to go and post something about it being time to trade up and get a newer ATV . . . I obviously spoke . . . or rather was thinking . . . too soon. Nice job on figuring out the problem and getting it fixed.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

nice job, by the way, how do you guys get the pictures with text between them, everytime I try they just get put at the bottom small. There must be a trick to that too.

instead of adding the pictures as an attachment you can get a photobucket.com account or some other online hosting service. Then you just insert the picture's url between the [ img ] [ /img ] tags.

cool, go figure I am a computer guy with my on web sites, so I should have figured that one out.

 

[quads]

Happy to hear things worked out for you Quads . . . and here I was all ready to go and post something about it being time to trade up and get a newer ATV . . . I obviously spoke . . . or rather was thinking . . . too soon. Nice job on figuring out the problem and getting it fixed.

I keep everything until I just cannot squeeze anymore use out of it! Which hopefully will be a long time yet with this ATV since I'm still making payments on it, after three years......

 

[Skier76]

That's a great story quads. I know noises from the ATV can be very "uhhhohhhhhh" and you get ready to open your wallet. Glad to see it was a cheap fix...just took a little time.

My good buddy just picked up a 2005 Sportsman 700. While it is a bit of work to get all the plastic off, once it's removed, everythign is laid out nicely and seems easy to access. I always commend machinery that's engineered in mind with those of us who spin our own wrenches.

 

[firefighterjake]

That's a great story quads. I know noises from the ATV can be very "uhhhohhhhhh" and you get ready to open your wallet. Glad to see it was a cheap fix...just took a little time.

My good buddy just picked up a 2005 Sportsman 700. While it is a bit of work to get all the plastic off, once it's removed, everythign is laid out nicely and seems easy to access. I always commend machinery that's engineered in mind with those of us who spin our own wrenches.

I'm not much of a mechanic, but I hear ya . . . I like my Toyota 4Runner . . . it's been relatively reliable . . . I like it better since my mechanic was able to make a fix without me having to buy a very expensive part . . . the thing I don't like about it though is that changing the oil filter is impossible for me . . . I cannot access the filter . . . unless I was able to extend my arm another 4 inches or so . . . or be a little smaller . . . or a little more bendy.

And then there is the part that failed . . . my rear axle housing . . . with most trucks it would have been a matter of just taking off the rear axle cap and putting a new one on . . . with the 4Runner there is no cap . . . if and when it rusts to the point where it is leaking you have to replace the whole thing . . . or have a mechanic who is pretty handy at coming up with a cheaper fix.

 

[ManiacPD]

Interesting post, thanks for sharing.

I have an '01 400 Sportsman that I use almost exclusively for hauling wood with. The homemade trailer will hold 1/4 cord if I deadpile it or about 1/3 cord if I stack it neatly. For green hardwood on a 5,000lb/cd scale that's around 1,500 lbs + 500 lb trailer = 1 ton total towing weight. I am amazed at how much weight it will move for a belt driven ATV. It has 450 miles and 120 hours so you can compute my average speed when hauling a load. Getting it to stop can be another story sometimes!

I often wonder how people got anything done without ATVs, they did but just a lot slower I guess. They are must-have tool for any landowner.