Elgin Pelican Street Sweeper--Gutter Broom Problem

[digger242j]

And now for something just a little bit out of HEF's mainstream...

A friend of mine has an older Elgin Pelican street sweeper. I believe it's a Model S, although the one attached picture is of an SE, and they look pretty similar. (I found a good picture online, and took a screenshot.) The machine is handy in the development for keeping the neighborhood streets cleaned up, since pretty much every day something is tracking mud onto the pavement.

The gutter broom has ceased to turn under its own power.

We were troubleshooting it the other day, and it seems as if there might be a broken key on the shaft that drives the brooms. If you manually turn the gutter broom, you can see the chain moving, and the sprocket spinning on the shaft. The same shaft drives the main broom, and it turns and functions normally.

The picture shows the assembly at the end of the shaft (the "jackshaft bearing" according to the lubricaton chart). The red line represents the chain that's not working, and the green line represents the one that is. The two sprockets are pretty much side by side on the shaft.

What's not as visible in the picture are the two set screws on the sides, set 90 degrees apart. The two holes facing the camera do not seem to go all the way through the piece. There's a grease fitting in the center hole.

(Before I started composing this post, I sent myself a picture I took of the actual machine. It hasn't arrived yet. Snail email? I'll post it when it gets here.)



Can anybody confirm that there's a key that makes the sprocket turn with the shaft, and can anybody give a clue as to how to disassemble that part and get to the problem? (We called the dealer on Friday, and are still waiting for the service department to call back.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[digger242j]

The other picture has arrived.

I'm curious as to what the part is at 7-8 o'clock, as well as the square looking bit adjacent to the round center, at around 2 o'clock. You can see one of the set screws in this one.

 

[Cmark]

First of all let me say I have absolutely no experience with this machine so I could be way off, but;

The square at two o clock is the end of a key driving the hub.
The part at eight o clock, I am going to take a guess and say it is the end of a shear pin locking the two sprockets together, and it's this that has failed. It may also explain the grease fitting in the end of the shaft, there to lube the fail safe mechanism.

 

[digger242j]

Well, an insightful guess is better than no guess at all, I guess.

That makes sense. We didn't have time to address it at all today. When we do, I'll certainly post the findings.

If the part at 8 o'clock is indeed a shear pin, how do you suppose one would go about retrieving the broken end of it?

 

[Cmark]

If it IS a shear pin, it probably isn't into a blind hole. You may be able to line the holes up and punch it through. Perhaps slip a piece of cardboard underneath to catch the piece?

 

[donlang]

Maybe we can loosen the set screw and remove the outter hub, somehow. If I'd guess, we'll probably find the key broken. Might be a relatively easy fix........we can hope! Thanks for the insight, guys!

 

[digger242j]

Well, if there's a HEF prize for best guess about an Elgin sweeper gutter broom, the winner is.......Cmark!

You nailed it.

We got back into it today, and found it to be almost exactly what you described. It is a shear pin, but rather than joining the two sprockets together, it just joins the gutter broom sprocket to the jackshaft bearing.

All that's required is to remove the 7/16ths bolt that holds the little retaining piece, and yank the broken one out, then, as suggested, use a punch, once the holes are aligned, by feel, to push the broken end out the back, and install the new one.

The best part of the story though, is this--the machine came with a bunch of filters and whatnot stashed in the cab. Looking through all that stuff, we found a dirty plastic bag that has about ten of the shear pins in it, so we got her going without even having to chase down a new one.



(Ignore the filthy thumb and fingers.)

Thanks, Cmark.