How to remove Gleaner L3 clean grain elevator boot

This is about the clean grain auger that runs under the shoe. I'm pretty sure it's bent, as when you turn the shaft, it scraped along part of the trough. Also, if you shake the auger side to side, it will bang against the trough. However, rotate the shaft 1/4 turn and it will no longer hit. That's why I think it may be bent.

I've got everything about tore apart to get the shaft out, but I'm about 1/4" away from getting the boot at the bottom of the clean grain elevator off. How do you remove that? I unbolted all the bolts that hold the boot on the elevator and tried to tilt the boot forward, but I'm still having issues getting it off. Any advice appreciated, as I'd like to get everything figured out tomorrow. Thanks!

Edited by CrestonM - 22 May 2017 at 7:44pm

MACK wrote: Use a little more force.    MACK

We've tried prying, bending, hitting the edges with a punch, etc, and we have the right side almost low enough to clear the elevator housing, but the left has barely moved, being on that tube.
Even so, once it clears the elevator, the wood divider still sticks down another couple inches, so that's clearly not going to work.
Do I need to loosen something at the top of the elevator and try to push up on it some, or what?
Thanks!

I'm thinking a worthwhile farmer mod would be to make a removeable plate on the right side of the boot that's a bit bigger than the auger's diameter...save a lot of headache.

Edited by CrestonM - 22 May 2017 at 9:26pm

Drill out the rivets on the outer wall and remove it instead of the whole boot. Replace rivets with 1/4" bolts and lock nuts.

Ok Doc, I got that off and the auger out. Now, I'm looking at the auger trying to figure out why the auger scrapes the forward side of the auger trough when you spin the auger quickly. You can turn it slow all day long with no problems, but when you give it a quick whirl with your hand, it makes a terrible banging noise. The shaft isn't broke or anything, and if it was bent, wouldn't it hit the trough no matter how fast or slow you turn it? I'm totally confused!
Granddad and I tried moving the right bearing housing up and to the rear, in hopes that would raise the auger up so it would no longer hit, but even moving it 1/4" didn't help at all.
Any advice now? Thanks!
Also, one side of the fighting all the way across the length of the auger, except for about 1' on each end is kinda eat up from where it's been banging the trough. There are some pretty large burrs there. And I know it hits the forward side of the trough because I can see the auger marks every few inches on the trough where the flighting hits it every revolution.

Edited by CrestonM - 23 May 2017 at 2:06pm

DrAllis wrote: Roll the auger on a flat concrete surface and see if it's bent. (roll it fast and slow)

Yep, we tried that. We couldn't see anything, so we put the shaft back in and spun it with a tri-square held against it. We could hear the shaft scraping, missing, and scraping over and over, so it has to be bent a tiny amount, it's just near impossible to see. Also, the faster you spin the shaft, the more wobble the shaft ends have. When you spin it fast in the combine, you can clearly see it's wobbling, but not when you turn it slow.

I'm not sure what to think...it's behaving kinda like a governor....when it turns slow, not much happens, but as it speeds up, the auger must bend out some to scrape the trough....
We tried moving the whole auger up to raise it further off the trough, and that didn't work. We tried grinding some off the flighting, and that didn't work. My uncles said heck with it, so we put everything back together. I still think it needs a new shaft. Bearings are good, btw.
Thanks

Creston, we had that shaft break two havests ago, just inboard of the chain. The shaft, flighting ass. is available through AGCO, and I rebuilt the boot myself. I don't remember having that much trouble getting the boot off but our shaft was broke. Don't feel like the lone ranger here, even the new ones have to be tended also. We had a main shaft bearing and housing explode last year, had to remove the return  just to get to it. At least its not 100 degrees for you, yet.

Leon B MO wrote: Creston, we had that shaft break two havests ago, just inboard of the chain. The shaft, flighting ass. is available through AGCO, and I rebuilt the boot myself. I don't remember having that much trouble getting the boot off but our shaft was broke. Don't feel like the lone ranger here, even the new ones have to be tended also. We had a main shaft bearing and housing explode last year, had to remove the return  just to get to it. At least its not 100 degrees for you, yet. Good luck Leon B MO

Yep! It was 70 degrees today, and I'm glad it's not 100 yet!
I'm thinking a new shaft would fix the problem, but my uncles aren't ready to do that yet.

Could a heavy load on the auger cause this? One year it threw the chain driving the auger, and before we noticed it grain was spilling out of the inspection hole behind the fan, so there was quite a bit of grain on that auger then.

SteveM C/IL wrote: next time you have the shaft out.put a brg on each end and set them on blocks.Then you will see how bad off center it really is.

We put it in the combine and took the sieves out to look straight down on it. Doesn't seem too far off.

GM Guy wrote: CrestonM wrote: Yep! It was 70 degrees today, and I'm glad it's not 100 yet! I'm thinking a new shaft would fix the problem, but my uncles aren't ready to do that yet. Could a heavy load on the auger cause this? One year it threw the chain driving the auger, and before we noticed it grain was spilling out of the inspection hole behind the fan, so there was quite a bit of grain on that auger then. Rubbing is definitely not normal, I would say its tweaked. Have you verified proper slip clutch operation? I am afraid the clutch has essentially been bypassed by overtightening, and rather than slip, it threw the chain. Not after twisting the auger slightly. If a new one is out of budget, I would call and see what Mike's Equipment, Buhler KS has for good used. make sure and inspect your bin fill auger, if its wore out it puts added stress on the system.

Bingo