Thank you for this wonderful tutorial! We were given a lawn sweeper that was otherwise going to the dump. The owner said it was pretty much useless. This video fixed the issue!
Hey, thanks. My neighbor was getting rid of his sweeper and I snagged it at the curb. Same issue you addressed in the video. Easy fix and a free sweeper!!!
Mine has the same problem. A sears 44". When I ordered the part, sears part direct said to replace it yearly! I was only able to identify the problem through your video Andy. You saved me from spending $300 on more junk. I think they are all crap.
Thank you very much for the video. I just bought a new model (though they look somewhat the same) with a dethatcher in the front. I am currently putting the dethatched together to attach it to the sweeper. I put the sweeper together as well neither of them prove to be too hard to do. I'm glad to know about the potential problem with the sweeper later on. Really good to know information. I'm glad you were able to figure it out for not only you but all the rest of us as well. Thank you thank you thank you for sharing!
Thanks Andy for a great video, just wanted to share with you and your subscribers that I used a 1/8 in DREMEL #9903 from Home Depot ( $22.00 here in Ottawa Canada) to repair mine as I don't have a welder, took about 30 min to complete the whole job. Machine works awesome now. Probably could repeat this procedure another 5-6 times.
Nice repair, The one way drive also allows the wheels to act as if they have a differential when cornering so that one wheel can turn faster than the other.
I was disappointed to find out those gears are considered consumables, thank you for your fix, Brinly has the replacements for cheap but they don't ship to Canada, and there is only one reseller here, I have ordered a have to be safe but it's great to see your idea pan out very well for you,
Good to see how things work and how to fix them. They do make replacement gears and wheels for most sweepers but if you weld, save some $$!! The reason the gears and parts wear out prematurely for most if basically because they are pulling them too fast. A 4 wheeler is too fast. If you go slower, the sweeper lasts longer and does a much better job.
Hi Andy great video nicely explained the problem and the fix, appreciate the effort you went to to overcome what seems like a common problem,thanks very much from Australia
I like this kind of fix.while i enjoy seeing FedEx, UPS or Amazon show up in my driveway with parts,i cant stand the wait.if i have the tools to rig something up and get to use my equipment today,then that's my preferred method!thanks for sharing this info!
I actually worked at brinly making these. From start to finish. The only thing we outsourced was the gears pins and wheels. Everything else was made in house. From pressing to welding.
as alternative to welding, you could likely just take a dremel to 'square' the shoulder back up- the little bit of metal removed shouldnt hurt anything- I'd venture to guess you could redo every couple years even.
I have a Craftsman from the late 80's. I paid around $300 for it. I noticed the brushes are thinner and the products today look to be made zs cheap possible. The hampers eventually rot and tear near the top on either sides from the stress of heavy loads. My grass has think broad stems that hold the water from the first sping growths. My land is next 2 large farms. The grass may need cutting every 4 days in the early part of the season which settles down as the summer continues if it is a normal season, but you can never rely on it. The sun and several wet days when I left it outside overnight plays havoc on the delicate designs 7:42
Biggest issue with these is the wheels skid across the yard if they don’t have enough traction; ie a wet yard. Raising the wheel level helps. A good starting point is when you’re on blacktop that the rear of the basket is 5-7 inches off the ground. You can take the wheels off and lube the shafts to help as well and obviously make sure nothing like a rope is caught in the brushes. I did all that and still had issues with my crappy worn plastic wheels skidding across the yard especially on longer grass or like I said before if it’s slightly damp or wet. The healthier and thicker the lawn the more it usually skids. Since you can’t replace the wheels with different tread I am thinking of installing a bunch of screws in the tires and aerate my yard at the same time. Anyone else have any helpful suggestions to keep it from skidding so much?
I cut the sidewalls out of a couple of 10-inch tyres and then stretch the tread over the original wheel. Secure the tread to the wheel using some self-tapping screws in the tread wells. Could also add some weights to the front but I suspect that will increase wear on the wheel bushes.
FYI - in case you don't want to fix the gear yourself, you can get this part reasonably priced at the Brinly website. You might also want to use a dry lube because it is a very dusty environment even with the dust cover. I use McLube but there are many others that are basically Teflon with a very volatile carrier that evaporates almost immediately
Yup..that’s exactly what mine is doing. Mine is still within 90 days though so I may return it, though it was a bitch to put it all together. It got an agri fab from Lowes. Should I call agri fab and see if they’ll just replace the gears for me or return the whole thing? Honestly I only used it 4 times before it started doing this, but I’m thinking I was beating on it by going too fast and forcing it to pick up everything by setting it too low..
Truth is the metals are cheap, the plastics are cheap, the construction is cheap. Make it properly and it would last 50 years. One pin and one small cog make the whole useless. Spend another $10 in cost of manufacture and it would be great.
