clyde
Guest
Time goes by. When my highschool aged son and I did it it went really smoothly. He is now out of college and back farming. The complete change took one complete afternoon and then short spurts as we would get a part in etc. If you bought the parts new you would need to use a torch on the axle carrier because one lip angle is changed that supports the pan under the shoe. We lucked out and Abeline Machine sold us every single part that needed to be changed as a kit that was about 1_3 the price of all new parts. This included the axle support that the weights sit on. I would never have bought that one part separately (but a torch would quite easily make it like the newer ones). We drove the combine to a hard flat spot and jacked the rear end up about one inch. Then we put railroad cross ties under the machine crossways so that there was no chance whatever that it could fall. We took off the seives and rails and then took off the weights and bolts holding the axle carrier. We rolled the entire unit out the back and pulled it out of the way. Going back together manhandle the axle carrier into place and then put the axle back on it. The rest was just turning bolts. If you compare the early and late machines side by side you can see there is really not all that much to it. I think the change was well worth it because setting the machine is much easier and capacity can increase. We still use the machine in corn and wheat every year. The year before we did that change we put the cross flow fan update . It took about 1_3 the time the instructions say because we ignored them Instructions say to drive the machine on blocks,dismantle the fan shroud,and drop the old fan out underneath. We unbolted the fan blades in three sections and pulled the shaft right out the side. I hope this helps.