Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | I started checking over our 1770 planter yesterday. It is a CCS but has the standard 1.6 boxes. The drive to the disk is the spring loaded finger style that Deere has used for most of their planters through the years. This is the drive where the fingers move as you remove a box and should spring back straight out when released.
I found that 9 out of 24 would not spring back. The others were sticky but loosened up when sprayed with some lubricant and worked back and forth. I disassembled the 9 and cleaned out the old grease which was very thick. I believe the grease was thick because the unit is not sealed very well and dirt eventually can work its way in. The spring hooks on all those units were broken.
It is my practice to walk along and feel if these ears have popped back out after I reinstall the boxes. This has worked fine but I decided to "do it right" and replace the springs and reload with grease. The units come apart quite easily by removing two Phillips screws. I used a parts washer and various brushes to get the cavity cleaned up for the repair. I am now ready to go to Deere and try to buy just the springs.
After looking over the housings I do not notice a fair amount of wear in the pivot point in the pot metal housings. I'm curious if I should replace the entire assembly or just try to get by with new springs. The units have worked fine but there is apparently some misalignment as witnessed by a fair amount of wear on the fingers themselves indicating some relative movement.
Any thoughts? |
Deere Planter unit drive assembly
