[AT] Yanmar

[Indiana Robinson]

	When I picked up the Yanmar this morning the seller came out quite  embarrassed and 
concerned...  He had driven it to a location near the driveway and while he was 
driving it the steering  started acting funny. I already figured that the steering 
needed work from when I looked at it and had allowed for that. We sat the finish 
mower on my smaller trailer since it needs front end weight on the tractor and the 
ones he had used had been returned to the relative he borrowed them from. I got the 
tractor "herded" home and to the shop to check it out. It ran great going home and 
everything mechanical but the steering works fine. I had noted that nothing but the 
starter on the electrical system worked. The wiring all looks to be in nice shape 
but when I looked for fuses the fuse block has what looks like small bits of wire to 
serve as fuses??? I assume that this stuff is some sort of fusible link like wire? I 
think I will re-fuse everything with blade fuses.

	Now on to the steering problem... I stripped it down and removed the steering 
gearbox and took it apart. The gears look fine. The problem is that the upper and 
lower ball bearings in the gearbox are both bad. Also the upper race mounted at the 
base of the column tube is broken. These bearings run against a round shoulder on 
the steering shaft, one just above and one just below the gear. The gearbox is a re-
circulating ball unit and that part seems OK. All I found of the bearings was some 
loose balls and a pair of really bad cages.
	Does anyone accidentally have any experience with these bearings or the best place 
to start looking for them? The seller mentioned that for what common items (filters, 
belt, starter solenoid etc.) it had needed that he had been able to find at NAPA. I 
wouldn't expect them to have the bearings at all. There is not enough left of those 
cages to find a number on them if they even ever had one. I would suppose that 
gearbox and those bearings might be used in several models???
	It is a nice little tractor and generally in nice condition but I was not on hand 
when it was built or I would have slapped somebody for making it that hard to get on 
and off...     <(^¿^)>   Dang... those engineers must have had small feet...   
<(^¿^)>
	There is still a dealer sticker on it from:
Tom Witvoet & Sons
12501 W. Rte. 17
Herscher, IL 60941
815-426-2308

	I have not had time to check on them yet to see if they still exist. What I assume 
is the serial # is 03944 The model is YM-1500



--
"farmer"

I try to take one day at a time but sometimes several days attack
me at once.   :-) 

Refurbished Shopsmith's
Good used SPT's
http://www.indiana-robinson.0catch.com/


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net