NH rake gearbox

My New Holland 258 roll bar rake quit working last. I need to get it fixed pretty soon. I'll be cutting hay before you know it.

I could hear the gears slipping. As you can see, this shaft that holds the star has some back and forth movement. I believe it needs to be inside the gearbox more. I can pull it in some by hand, but it slops back outward.



I don't believe the hub the star bolts to comes off, but I'm not certain. I think this gear has to come off to get the shaft out of the gearbox. I'm not sure what holds the gear on, no visible signs of a lock ring. Maybe I can drive the shaft out from the inside.



Bearing in large hole on the right is totally shot. Bearing in the smaller hole on left seems ok, but I think I'll replace it as well.



I'm not sure if replacing all three bearings will tighten things up enough to keep the gears from slipping or not. The gears look rough and have visible wear on them, but I hope they are good enough.



I think the dealer said the gears were available, but they would have to order them. I need a diagram to see how that shaft comes a part. I believe there will need to be shims behind that one gear so it will engage the other gear deeper. I just like the see what you all think, thanks.

Thanks Joe, I was going to have the dealer print me a diagram when I got parts. According to the diagram on that site, I was wrong. the gear stays on the shaft and the hub must come off. I didn't see the nut and washer on mine. It must be behind the star plate that the bars attach to. That's not good, if that gear is to bad, I will need to buy the shaft/gear together.

20 20 hindsight, says a little lube might have gone a long way in saving that mess. It looks to me like that one gear is beyond use.
 Maybe, with all new bearings, some gear lube, and a lot of luck, you could rake another 20 acres with it.

I rebuilt a neighbor's and it took all bearings, seal and a speedy sleeve on the shaft. It looks like water and no oil caused your problem, my neighbor had the same but not as bad. I got the parts cheapest on Ebay. That one gear looks pretty bad.

JC(WI) wrote: Tbone, because the seal on the bottom on the input shaft is used to hold all the oil in and once it starts leaking, it don't stop.... till the case is empty... and nobody checks it cuzz... they has hay to make an no time to check.   I rebuilt my rake's gearbox some 25 years ago and I welded up all the teeth, infact , had to rebuild at least 3 that were totally gone. Then took the grinder and ground the welds back down to size and used a new Nicolson Black diamond file with a jig welded on the back side to give a 'final' fit to the tooth. Had to grind some off the file on the back side edge to fit down in the groove between the teeth.  The strap/jig ran on the back side of the tooth where it was not worn to help make the correct angle. worked good until the three missing needed to be formed. Then I shaved a piece of wood to fit between two good teeth to check as I filed the backside of the 'new' tooth then filed the the front side and progressed that way, one tooth at a time for those three. and of course, had to test fit them before putting in the gear box.  After I had the gears done, I got new bearings and seals.  Then I drilled the gear box and tapped it for grease fittings between lower seal and bearing, between the bearing on the output shaft and one through the case at the top for upper bearing. greased it and filled with oil too  ... and you will not find another gearbox with fittings on it like this unless somebody else has done it too... nor the big universal joint either.

I packed mine full of corn head grease been working fine.Could add a little gear oil to thin a bit but still not run out.

Did mine, about 10 years ago. just did the 2 bearings, and the shaft to the reel.  Bad news is, you have to take the LH spider off, that means all bearings that are rusted onto it, need to be R&R'd, too.  I blindly forged ahead, with mine, when the new parts arrived, the gear is a press fit, to the shaft, bearings went in smoothly, had already drilled it fer grease fittings, so they was installed prior to the arrival of parts.  All in a sweat, I assembled everything, cause I gots hay on the ground, and bad weather looming.  Pumped in a couple tubes of grease, hopped on the tractor, and headed to the field, 1/2 mile away.  Had it in gear, and seemed to be running good, pulled into the field, thinking I had this licked, if I just had enough time afore the storms arrived!  Much to my dismay, it raked for about a hundred feet, and quit!  

See if this link works.  You have to call and order, but they took check last time I ordered a whole new bar for our 256 a couple years back now.  Very reasonable on prices, and some of their parts are actually an improved design over OEM.  

All disassembled, old bearings and races out, empty housing all cleaned up inside and out waiting on new parts. All old bearings fell apart when removed, even the one I thought was still good.



I'm still uncertain about using this shaft/gear. I didn't clean it up completely, but it looks better than I originally thought. You can still see it has some wear.

If you replace one gear, you really should replace both. unmatched will make them wear unevenly and wear out faster. 

The original cause of the problem is the plug with a cotter pin sticking out of the plug which you can see in the picture!!!  Throw it away, it funnels rain into the gearbox!!!  Instead get a hydrophobic vent pipeplug(from McMaster, etc. has a filter that allows air but not water)!!!  And thanks to the id___ at NH for designing this!!!!  Then fill with corn head grease.

The plug with the cotter pin is not mine. Someone else posted that picture.

I thought the plate already had a vent hole. I always assumed this hole was factory. It's perfectly round. I figured it wasn't punched all the way thru intentionally, so the little flap of steel would serve as a rain guard. I never really paid much attention to it before. On closer inspection, I think something else might have done it. Does anyone else have this hole in yours?





I may need to peck it down and put a little weld inside it.