Combines R52 broken spindle

Know how you feel we had a l-2 that was natorious for breaking spindles we finally welded longer stops on it and stopped it from turning so short it worked we then bought a R-52 and a few yrs ago we broke the right side spindle off while pulling it into the shed (no head) we then traded it and when the dealer was loading it the left side broke off again no head the one we have now has 4 wd. and when ever the head is not on we use the 4wd. except on the road.sorry I can't give you and good advice but your not alone maybe try not turning all the way against the stops just a thought Bob

Yup. We broke a spindle (can't remember which one) on our old R50 when we hit a frozen gopher mound on headlands. Wasn't turning that fast either. And here's a kicker - about three weeks ago, we pulled our R52 out of the shed. Turning left, uphill a bit, no head, empty grain tank, and broke BOTH spindles. No real reason - she just plopped her arse down like a 4 year old having a hissy fit in a toy store! And boy, those pigs are heavy to jack back up too! To top it off, my dad ordered new spindles the next day out of the parts book and managed to order the spindles for adjustable axle which we don't have. Soooooo, it was a couple days downtime waiting for the wrong parts to arrive, another couple waiting for the correct parts to arrive, and a 15% restocking fee on some high dollar parts. I can tell you one thing though, the spindles for the adjustable axle are a helluva lot heavier than the standard axle. We should have ordered the adjustable axle to go with the spindles and be done with it. Needless to say Gleaner engineers (ATTENTION BOYS!) should make combines with stronger ankles! Tom langan

When you bought the new spindle your dealer should have passed on a little info.There were service releases by Gleaner several years back about this and by now most people should know. When installing and adjusting the rear axle you should first set the toe in to about 1 inch. Then you should adjust the steering cylinder tie rod ends so cylinder bottoms out before cylinder hits turning stop. this prevents putting spindle in a position where it is under a lot of pressure. It wont hurt the cylinder a bit to bottom out. VSTK

When you bought the new spindle your dealer should have passed on a little info.There were service releases by Gleaner several years back about this and by now most people should know. When installing and adjusting the rear axle you should first set the toe in to about 1 inch. Then you should adjust the steering cylinder tie rod ends so cylinder bottoms out before cylinder hits turning stop. this prevents putting spindle in a position where it is under a lot of pressure. It wont hurt the cylinder a bit to bottom out. VSTK

hello my 98 72 broke the rh spindle when dad was taking it out of the shed, it had the pickup header on that was it, that was the first yr we had it, we had a local machine shop make us newer heavery ones that seemed to help. so far my 2002 have not had a problem. Dad's 92 is still origanal, even with the added weight of the c12 in it.

Yes a month ago backed N5 out of shed to do a winter service and turning to left but not on lock down she goes . Right side. Was cracked halfway through for a while as had grease in it half way . Got N6 from salvage but it was different 2 3_4" pin, N5 2 1_4". Installed new one and if any sort of decent harvest will go new left side to . Checking stop out now thanks . peng.

N7's did it too! Snapped off through the spot where the continous weld around the shaft attaches the steering arm. later versions had 3 short interrupted welds to attach this arm. This prevented fatigue crack propogation from the welds and seem to fix the problem. l2 axles just plain broke in half and needed a reinforcing plate under the centre pivot. Got your attention real quick when it happened!

The latest machines we broke spindles on is R50's and they went when harvesting corn at high speed on frozen ground. Some operators broke them on N6s and N7s especially when spindle shaft was welded all the way around. We have axles set out a hole from shipping position on all R62 and 72s so we can set steering to max with no stop screw installed and have had no trouble from any operators. Keep in mind that max steer is limited by length of cylinder so be sure that spindles are not bottoming out against any stop. They should be very close to stop but not touch. We will roll machine ahead and back a bit while holding steering wheel cranked so were sure we're at end of stroke. I sometimes wish these machines had black boxes and then we could tell you when a failure likely started. Your spindle failure could of started years ago when that huge whole was hit with a full hopper. You know what I mean!!!