On Nov 18, 2013, at 10:34 PM, CZ Unit <cz alembic crystel com> wrote:
Finally got the parts for my Elec-trak powered sweeper on Friday, and
spent a good chunk of Saturday putting them in.
I'm glad I ordered new bolts for the wheel spindles, because they are an
odd size and thread. Well worth the money.
I'm glad I bought a new spindle as well; one of them was badly rusted, so
I just replaced it.
The new bearings are nice; the rod now spins without vibrating much, and
the brushes are a lot more smooth. Bought some new brush clips as well;
it's nice to get all of them on there.
Overall though I can see why the bearings failed: They are under a lot of
stress, it's a lot of mass to spin, and they are not sealed bearings so
they will get leaves, dirt, and crud in there eventually.
It's a lot quieter (got a new master link for the chain) especially when
you put oil in the oil port for the pulley/gear shift. Makes some noise,
but not nearly as bad. And yet.
It stinks at picking up leaves. The big problem is if you hit a lot of
leaves; if you have the metal guard on the motor/chain part, then leaves
and debris get picked up by the spinning chain and become deposited in the
gear teeth on the top pulley. They stretch the chain till it falls off,
then you have to take the whole thing apart. Running it without the guard
keeps this from happening a lot, but man that is a lot of stuff that could
catch fingers and such.
I think it's designed for grass catchings; I have used it on that and it
works well. But for serious leaf work I'll stick with my old Craftsman gas
tractor+dual bagger option with 55 gallon drum liner bags. I can fill two
of them in a few minutes with chewed up leaves, then I dump them in the
back pile and keep going...
Just thought I would report in. Worth it, but not for leaf work.
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