The dive shaft above the auger tube on our 10x 1600 Sukundiak auger that runs from the gearbox to the drive sprockets at the top of the auger appears to be broke about 3 inches from the top sprocket. It happened tonight in the dark and I have not had time to take it apart. There is a red metal shield around it so it is hard to tell what went wrong under the shield. Has anyone had this happen to them and how did you fix it? Does a person have to replace the entire drive shaft or does it come in sections? Does the sprocket at the end mount directly on to the drive shaft or is there some sort of coupler that could have gone bad? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks SouthernSk
Its actually quite common, esp on the 10" augers, but its happened on the 8" as well. The drive shaft is actually pipe from the gearbox to a few inches from the top where a stub shaft is welded on. The welds never break, its the pipe right below where the stub shaft is will twist off. The pipe is a bit light considering the torque on it in a 10" auger, but Meridian wasn't too keen on taking any advice from customers.
Remove the top cover, chain, sprocket and the plastic red cover will slide off. Its not a terrible fix, but you've got 3 options.
1.You can either install a heavier wall pipe and lathe down the stub shaft to fit.
2. Use a collar with a shear bolt/pin.
3. Weld on a collar.
Considering the model number you provided and its age, it went quite a while until it broke. Your probably fine with a collar. The one auger I have with shear bolts seems to always break them at the most inconvenient times no matter the quality, so I'd stay away from shear bolts.
Had the same thing happen this spring. Right full of fertilizer and right at the top of its reach of course. And busy with too many other things.
Very worn out back up auger, so the fix was as simple as possible. I didn't disassemble anything, I cut the shield off either side of the break, split it and took it off.
Ground off the nasty jagged parts sticking out.
Clamped a 6" long angle iron across the break to keep it all lined up, welded the opposite side back together, grind off and move angle iron to opposite side, and weld the shaft together under where the angle iron was, then welded the angle iron along the sides.
Added another angle on the first side of the shaft and welded it as well.
Promised myself I wouldn't grab the shaft with no shield next time I am watching the bin fill to the top...
You're crafty enough you can easily slap on some metal to make the shield whole again during some downtime before harvest. Bad things happen. Takes just one time that you're tired, lose your balance and reach out by instinct, or gust of wind comes along... Or someone else goes up there...
Thanks for all the info. JVW mine broke similar to yours. The auger is full almost to highest reach on top of bin. We have had Sakudiak augers for over 30 years and have never had this happen before. At least I know what I am dealing with. The combine forum has been such a wonderful source of info.
Does anyone know if they use a one length of pipe for the drive shaft from the gear box to the top sprocket or is there several sections of pipe where a guy could just replace the top section?
Mine broke 3 times. They now have a longer stub shaft to put in the top end. I drilled more holes in the pipe and stub for more plug welds and got rid of the electric clutch. Hasn't broke since.
This just happened to me also,same spot on a 8x1600, auger is 4 years old with electric clutch. hum? I have 2 other older 8x1600 with e-kay tightners never ever happened to them, just welded the pipe back together to empty the auger and finish the load, am now thinking that the thin wall pipe can't handle the shock load of the electric clutch.
I like to loosen the belts before engaging the clutch. I think the shock load is hard on them. Our new auger has the soft start clutch so it doesn’t engage as hard.
We did just change the chain because it was starting to bang, then loaded about 10k bu before it let go, but on my other older augers we changed the chain many more times without the pipe ever breaking, will have to checkout a soft start clutch.
The soft-start clutches are garbage, at least the one I had on my Batco conveyor was and I suspect they are all the same. The thing would make a hissing sound and basically dis-engage at random times, great for making a mess! When I phoned about it the Batco service guy had the directions real handy on how to by-pass the soft start, probably happens real frequent. Now it's a normal clutch.
Did break one of those pipes on a Brandt 10-40 with electric clutch about three times, couldn't believe how thin the pipe was. Current Sakundiak 10-39 has been trouble free for many years but just has belt tightener. I guess the old over center belt tightener isn't so bad after all...:biggrin:
My local machine shop is machining a stub shaft a litltle over 2 ft long. Rather than welding I am going to use two quarter inch roll pins at 90 degrees. I will put them in closer to the sprocket so if it breaks I will have lots of stub shaft left to patch it again. The auger has moved over a million bushels and has a electric clutch. I try not to engage it full throttle and full load.
I ended up putting 3 - 1/4 inch roll pins in to take the shock loads created by the electric clutch. A 3/8 roll pin would weakened the shaft to much from the bigger hole so we went with more smaller roll pins. The stub shaft was machined to 1.38 inches and I grooved the one side of the shaft length wise to accommodate the weld in the seamed pipe or drive shaft. The pipe had a inside diameter of 1 3/8 inches.
Has anyone sourced or replaced the bigger of the two sprockets at the end of the auger. My bigger sprocket is starting to get some wear on it. I was wondering if it is a standard weld on sprocket on a common hub?
Not to derail this thread, but we have an old Sakundiak that needs new flighting. Any recommendations on who to get it from? It's an old auger but built better than the newer one we have, many truck drivers have commented on how fast it is, not sure why it's so much faster, but it can keep pace with our 10 inch swing, mind you it's also a little worn, but have replaced the bottom flighting in it.
There is a few or more out there in Saskabush, look in The Book, always some advertising in there. Had these guys saved in my favs on computer for sometime in the past....
Replacing the actual flighting isn't really as simple as one might think, can't be a hurry and you really need some kind of setup so you can pull it tight before you start welding. And never do like a neighbor did once and start welding at each end lol.
And make sure your tube isn't wore as well to the point its not worth fixing.
Its times like this I wish Sakundiak made flighting in sections fully ready to install and join together as ideally if you could get a whole new assembly but can you imagine over 50 feet of flighting being shipped not in its auger tube !. Believe me I found it very frustrating when I did some repair work in my 8 inch as I replaced some feet at the bottom beyond the lower section and as well an upper section and of course the new and old flighting diameter didn't match and that caused major issues for sure but what really went sideways was welding the flighting at the top and it pulled the shaft out of straight, what a disaster that was and tried to get it straighter but once a shaft is inside of a flighting its very difficult to work with and figure out how to even go about straightening it. Without a doubt I turned the auger into a rattling auger when its empty but half the problem was what flighting I used that was not at all correct in its dimensions or at least the way the local welding shop that sold me the flighting said they install it by not stretching the flighting once its on the shaft. It was indeed flighting from Rosetown that has that formed wear edge and just as it sits its too big in diameter to fit the auger correctly and I was kicking myself after for not just ordering flighting from the auger dealer through Sakundiak themselves. But back to what the factory does, unless I am wrong I believe they install the flighting in a jig and they stretch the flighting and that reduces its diameter for one and also the inside edge of the flighting becomes tight against the center shaft so its perfect from end to end. Definitely talk to someone that knows how to do a successful flighting replacement as if its done wrong its a mess and if the tubing is thin it will instantly pop a hole through it as a neighbor had done with his farm king just lately and he said what a waste of time and effort ... bought a new auger and set the old one to the side as backup with its patches on the tubing. So not trying to be a negative Nancy but do some digging before you embark in such a venture as it will save you some frustration in the long run for sure.
When a person welds flighting on it has to be stretched and not over welded. The less weld and heat the better. Slow cooling of the weld or doing it on a hot day out of the wind would be better. When we were welding up trusses and beams for our house in winter we had a dog of a time keeping the metal from bending from the fast cooling when doing it outside. It is amazing how much metal will bend as it cools.
How are you guys starting and stopping these augers? I have been hitting the switch at idle and then throttle up, shutting off hit the switch as I throttle down. The neighbor runs his wide open and hits the switch on or off it doesn't matter. I would think that might cause more shock load that starting at idle. Neither of us have twisted off the shaft though.
712 I start and stop mine like you do trying to keep the shock loads as low as possible.
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