Moving deck cam follower shaft

[brentman1]

Just replaced the moving deck cam follower shaft with a broken bolt that had safety collar on it, hence no damage. God only knows how long it has been running broke. Most of the time with no collars, you have bent detector mounting plate, busted 1-1 cover, or worse. Just thought i would remind everyone, if you don,t either have collars or one of the newer style supports, make it a priority! You can,t afford to overlook this, it is the best insurance you can buy for your pinsetters.

[PJ]

Those shafts need to be checked more often.

[Stripperbolt]

Man, I can't agree more. Like you, we've come across several the past few years with the bolt busted but we didn't know. Would come across it when checking other items or whatever. Don't know the cost of the collar, but it is a worthwhile investment.

[House]

couple things to add:

if the hole thru the plate is bent, its a project that needs to be addressed sooner than later. people mistaken the collar as a "fix", where in reality is a sense of security. also inspect the shaft for pitting or grooves.

even if the plate isnt bent, the hole can still be egged-out where the MD cam follower shaft rests in. going thru this area is very important to find things like that, and again, needs to be addressed soon with a plate replacement.

just my two cents

[Carl D]

if the hole thru the plate is bent, its a project that needs to be addressed sooner than later. people mistaken the collar as a "fix", where in reality is a sense of security. also inspect the shaft for pitting or grooves.

If the plate is bent, I've found that this happens almost immediately when the bolt breaks. The collar is pretty much useless in this situation since it isn't flat up against the plate. You can see the bent plate in the picture.

[nighthawk]

Just another area to be sure you keep it lubed.Lube the bronze bushings.In the past when one did break i noticed the shaft where the bolt broke off was twisted,like it was too dry and maybe bound up hense...breakage.I always lubed them up at least 4x a year and funny thing...didn't have others that broke off in ages. Hmmm. The old breakages were never clean cut,always twisted.
Get a new shaft and slide it in the old shaft bushing,see if there is ANY wobble,most times there will be meaning...wear and running too dry.If it's worn down it's gonna wobble like and create more wear/breakage from it's moving around.

[Carl D]

I discovered the main reason for these bolts breaking is caused by the 3 countersunk plate bolts coming loose, especially the one at the bottom next to the scissor/moving deck latch/flag. This causes the plate and the plate end of the shaft to 'bounce' at 180 degrees while the bolt end of the shaft doesn't move (because it's attached to the gearbox) and this eventually breaks the bolt.

[wepauls]

A good way to tell if bolt is brocken is when deck starts to set pins wobbles a little
First thing to look at

[RipOwens]

The collars do deter bolt breakage however even though I use them I have found without them you pretty much know imediatly that you have a problem but with the clamp sometimes they can run awhile before its caught. Which does the most damage ?? sometimes I think its the one with the clamp...

[Kanga (James)]

Rip, the collar won't reduce the likelihood of the bolt breaking, its only there to keep the cam follower tight to the plate when the bolt does break.

Thanks to the collars it's one of those things that's easily sighted during regular maintenance. They've saved me twice so far; it must be the cheapest insurance product for the machine.

[8230Nub]

Hiyas, sorry about the necro posting.

Just had one of these bolts break on me, but positive I've removed the shaft the difficult way. Removed the shotgun from the gbox, wound machine forward to get the rake follower assy out of my way and slid it out, yet to reassemble, but curious as to if there have been an easier way?

[PJ]

That is the way I do it.

[Carl D]

I've always had the machine at 270 degrees, setting new pins. Undo the link/shotgun from the rake cam follower (no need to take it right out), push the rake cam follower forward then take the shaft out (after taking the deck cables off the pulleys, of course).

[PJ]

270 setting new pins is a must, only place to remove cables.

[Steve Stafford (JBEES)]

I also do it at 270 setting new pins. Move rake cam follower out of the way and slide shaft out.

Also as Kanga stated...the collar will do nothing to prevent the bolt from breaking...just keeps the shaft in place once the bolt does break. The tighter to the plate...the better...when you install the collar.