John Deere 4410 Draft Arm Break

[UpNorthDuck]

Good afternoon,

One of the rear draft arms on my 4410 tractor broke right across the attachment point for the lifting arm. It was a clean break. The tractor is 16 years old. I priced out a replacement and it was around $250 bucks. Ouch! I decided to take it to my local welding shop instead. They welded it up for $100 bucks and it looked great. Unfortunately, after about 10 minutes of discing, it failed in the exact same spot.

I took it back and discussed it with the shop and they were going to try it again with some higher tensile strength rods and reinforce it with some steel on the bottom. There isn't room for reinforcement on the sides or top. I am not expecting to be charged...

I'm a newbie welder, but it seems like this original weld didn't get adequate penetration. Thoughts about this?

Do you think this can be fixed with stronger rods and reinforcement? Or should I just buy a new one?

[M J D]

It definitely wasnt grooved out enough to get good penatration. If I did that repair I would have tacked it together, gouged almost halfway thru on one side , then welded. Then I would gouge down to the weld from the other side and welded it. Not sure but I imagine that T-1 steel would be used in that application , so a 80-90,000 tensile electrode with some preheat should have been used .

[Mike Westbrook]

Buy a new one if you would get full weld then you still have to have the hole bored and after using the proper rods and process then the machine shop bill because no drill bit will touch it and it was originally a one piece forging it will never be the same just my thoughts

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[Steve Shimanek]

Former JD mechanic here, I agree with getting another arm, save yourself the grief.

[kilmartinmichael21]

They should have grooved it out then then they should have run a root pass with er70s or some 70 series welding electrode(that just represents the tensile strength of the weld). Now it's likely going to break again even if they weld it properly, you can ask them to price the cost if making one if you think that might be cheaper than buying the john Deere one, or try making it yourself.

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[kilmartinmichael21]

They should have grooved it out then then they should have run a root pass with er70s or some 70 series welding electrode(that just represents the tensile strength of the weld). Now it's likely going to break again even if they weld it properly, you can ask them to price the cost if making one if you think that might be cheaper than buying the john Deere one, or try making it yourself.

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Also do note that these parts do usually only last for so long, fatigue will eventually get to it, and has you see it will always fail in that spot as it is the weakest point in the entire linkage.

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[Mike Westbrook]

250 is honestly cheap for that part on that size machine it's amazing that the weld shop just did a burn and turn on that without any thoughts of forged hardness bevel weld interpass temp or normalizing the weld after hot glue and muffler tape may have had similar results lol it's only gotta lift like 1800 lbs or so

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[farmersammm]

From the look of the "groove" (sad excuse for a groove),, it wasn't a full penetration weld...……….like it woulda mattered anyhow

Those arms are heat treated. And, God Only Knows what alloy they are. THEY ARE NOT WELD FRIENDLY. Gotta buy a new one, and they should credit ya the labor for the welding on the purchase price. Buncha F'n morons to even attempt to weld it, let alone to have the F'n gall to charge ya for it.

[Mike Westbrook]

Yeah that's a cayote and roadrunner kinda weld pretty sad I wish I had there waybelows to charge for it

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[soutthpaw]

And now the part is going to cost you $350 after paying for a failed repair on top of a new part.

[CrookedRoads]

You can get new lift arms online for about $75 bucks for a little tractor like that, most of them are just forged steel and they weld really nice. I have fixed a bunch of them and also installed new ball ends on many as well.

[UpNorthDuck]

I took the arm back to the shop and talked to the lady at the front desk. We chatted for a bit and she let slip that the guys in back didn’t think it would work! I told them that if they thought that, they shouldn’t have done the work. I suggested they try again at no charge. They re- welded it and it’s in use now. Snow plowing with my back blade should put it to the test. The lady at the desk said they welded it from the inside out. Not sure 🤔 what that means.

[mla2ofus]

I took the arm back to the shop and talked to the lady at the front desk. We chatted for a bit and she let slip that the guys in back didn’t think it would work! I told them that if they thought that, they shouldn’t have done the work. I suggested they try again at no charge. They re- welded it and it’s in use now. Snow plowing with my back blade should put it to the test. The lady at the desk said they welded it from the inside out. Not sure �� what that means.

I think she was blowing some of that welder smoke up your a$$!!
Mike

[BD1]

I think she was blowing some of that welder smoke up your a$$!!
Mike

I think she means they welded the inside and outside which makes sense. They should have done that initially.


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[G-ManBart]

The 4410 is a fairly small tractor (under 3K lbs without the loader) and only lifts around 2K with the 3pt, so it's not likely they used any exotic steel on the lift arms. Plenty of similar lift arms have been repaired over the years without problem....new ball ends welded on, quick attachment hooks welded on, etc.

They don't really fail that often, so I suspect that one had a flaw. Lots of tractors from the 40s and 50s still have original lift arms after all these years.

[scsmith42]

A friend of mine successfully welded a lift arm on my New Holland 55 hp tractor. He v’d it out completely, pre-heated and made multiple passes with 7018.

No problems in 7 years of hard tractor work.

[Bls repair]

Cut square piece of similar stock. Drill same size hole in new piece . Line up hole , mark arm where new piece lines up . Cut arm and v both pieces then weld

[455dan]

Good afternoon,

One of the rear draft arms on my 4410 tractor broke right across the attachment point for the lifting arm. It was a clean break. The tractor is 16 years old. I priced out a replacement and it was around $250 bucks. Ouch! I decided to take it to my local welding shop instead. They welded it up for $100 bucks and it looked great. Unfortunately, after about 10 minutes of discing, it failed in the exact same spot.

I took it back and discussed it with the shop and they were going to try it again with some higher tensile strength rods and reinforce it with some steel on the bottom. There isn't room for reinforcement on the sides or top. I am not expecting to be charged...

I'm a newbie welder, but it seems like this original weld didn't get adequate penetration. Thoughts about this?

Do you think this can be fixed with stronger rods and reinforcement? Or should I just buy a new one?

Nice penetration...

Must have had the new guy with a 110 volt HF welder do the work.

Hopefully the 2nd try was a better effort.