Fixing up one of the 520's

[Kelly 1,029]

Well I picked up this clean 520 earlier this year, and it has just sat, till the other night I started to tinker with it, and get it ready for snowblower duty, I bought it with a wiring issue, the PO changed the fuse box, and did a poor job, I still need to dig deeper in to that, but with a hot wire jumped to the pos lead on the fuse box it runs and every thing works, I wanted to try the trans out before putting to much work in to it, so with it running I played with the engine runs great, but would not idle down very far figured I would deal with that later, I also knew the idler pulley was shot for the drive belt, so I pulled a good one off my parts 520, and pulled the belt guard off, well when in there, I took a look around at everything, I seen why the idle did not go very low the cable housing was broke, so back to the parts tractor, did I say I love having my own junk yard of tractors well with all that fixed, off around the yard, runs good drives nice, but steers tight one way but not the other, so I started looking and never figured I would see what I did, still can not figure it out, look at the pictures see what you think I see no new welds, no bent spots, no new paint, all the factory powder coat looks nice and not even chipped, here is the pics.

The steering gear is straight up, looks off in pic but is centered.

The gear is still centered, I did not move it, but as you can see the front part of the steering is far from centered, as I said I see NO damage in any way to the shaft.

The tie rods are on one side ran all the way in, on the other side all the way out so it steers, but not very good, I have other lower steering shafts for the gear reduction, but you have to pull the engine to change it can't figure out how or why, it looks like it came factory this way, but how??? it only has 400 hours on it.

sorry for the long post.

[littleredrider 409]

I noticed something similar to that on the 1045 and 1055. There is a role pin for the shaft that holds that gear in place, could be really worn or broke and wedged in place.

[Kelly 1,029]

Starting in 65 on most of the tractors they welded the shafts all together, I've seen what your talking about on the early tractors but this has big beefy factory looking welds, with the powder coat still intact.

[Raider12 13]

Any chance this was welding in the wrong position for the factory? :thumbs2:

[littleredrider 409]

I never looked at my 520 under there....

Are the tie rods centered?? That one looks like it's out more. But even so I don't think it would make off that much.

[C-Series14 15]

Kelly, I have the same problem on a swept forward axle and shaft I put on my loader tractor. With the fan centered, the front is off to one side also, but not as much as yours! So, it steers one way all the way and the other is short.

[Kelly 1,029]

I have 3 more gear reduction set ups I looked at them all, they are all square or centered, just hard to believe the factory shipped it like this, I bought it from the orig. owner, he never said anything about it, I will be fixing or changing it.

[312Hydro 474]

Maybe the steering was fabricated on a Monday morning or Friday near quitting time :thumbs2:

[smoreau 658]

The tie rods on my 96 520 I got from you are the same way, wheel is off and they are froze up, I plan on taking them off and freeing them up soon. On yours there has to be some thing binding. try taking off the tie rods to eliminate the spindles.

[shorts 182]

has it got the correct tierods, are the on the rite sides? does the swept axle or reduction steering use different parts and someone maybee changed one out with ite wrong part

It almost looks like someome adjusted the tierods to center the steeringwheel instead of adjusting the column and shaft gears

[Kelly 1,029]

It's all in the lower steering shaft, the fan gear should be straight up/centered, and the part the tie rods bolt to should be straight down/centered, as I said I looked at all 3 other sets I have they are centered, this is WAY off, I'm sure it was welded together wrong at the factory, still can't believe it passed quality control, must have been a monday.

Scott, the steering just turns farther one way than the other not tight as in hard to turn.

[buckrancher 2,679]

Kelly

looks either welded wrong or twisted lenght wise

Brian

[Raider12 13]

Kelly

looks either welded wrong or twisted lenght wise

Brian

If someone was going a bit fast and hit something solid, it may have twisted the shaft lenght wise? But that would ahve taken a good hit to do so. I would have hated to be on it at the time. :thumbs2:

[Kelly 1,029]

If it was twisted, it would have popped the powder coating, to have twisted that much.

[mr.pipes 4]

That's kind of crazy. Someone had to adjust the tie-rods to straighten the wheels out at some point. Did they come from the factory ready to roll? I'm trying to remember from the 315-8 video how complete they were leaving the factory. Maybe it was so far down the assembly line when it was noticed they said f*#k it and sent it out.

[perry 82]

is this the tractor that the loader was on from factory ?. maybe it was like that for clearance reasons , or maybe when you pull the engine you will see the twist. but i guess it could have been welded like that.

[Kelly 1,029]

No this was not the tractor with the loader, I may be pulling the engine to get at it soon, when I get time, time wish I had more of it, getting dark now at 7pm.

[dennist 139]

This had to be welded from the factory like this. It has nothing to due with the tie rods being adjusted wrong or it would pull the fan off center and it is not. That is a huge mistake in my opinion. It bites that you have to remove the engine to replace it. Most consumers probably would never notice that they had the bum steering and just think the steering was poor on the 520's.

[SAM58 30]

Factory Defect...

Looks like one I seem that the steering wheel & shaft had been removed and reinstalled in the wrong position.

But this one, I have to agree that it looks like it was welded crooked.

The guy that did it must have been on a bad hangover one monday morning.

:banghead:

[C-Series14 15]

I agree with Kelly and the others on the bad welding job. You have to visualize it as if it were laying on a flat surface. The plate in the front would have the bottom edge flat on the table and the fan on the other end would be centered for equal rotation left and right. Kelly's is twice as bad as mine!!! I might take mine out and fix it this winter...got to pull the engine to do it!

[AMC RULES 37,127]

Out of curiosity Kelly, what year is this 520?

[Kelly 1,029]

It's a late 1995, I'm going to pull it this weekend, I hope, we have lots going on.

[jusjeepn 59]

Definately looks factory. Luckily it's an Onan. It only takes about 20 min to remove the engine. It will take longer to remove the shaft and repair it than it will to remove and reinstall the engine. That includes hooking everything back up and starting it! 2 hours tops!!

[kj4kicks 151]

I've seen two others like that Kelly. Factory defects. Cut the welds on the front tie rod plate and re-center it.

[COMMANDO6 20]

I've seen two others like that Kelly.

:D