This is (or rather: was) the main bearing of the shaft that drives the harvester's grass pick-up and transport system. It literally burned/grinded itself away. Working on these old Krone harvesters is not a pleasant job. Much to my surprise, it all came apart quite easily - had not expected that given that this thing is >20 years old and the bearing has never been replaced before. Now off to find a new one and then put the whole thing back together again.
I did not take a picture of the whole thing, but if you Google for Krone 3500 you'll see a gazillion of them. The picture I posted is how it looked after we took the covers off, so we hadn't really begun yet. This is how it came off the field! It was running so hot that the grass almost caught fire and it had to be dosed with water..
Lack of lube...eventually the grease dries out of a liftime lubed bearing. It is amazing they last as long as they do. Looks ike your going to have to use the fire wrench to split that old bearing center. I have found that most of the time these jobs are not as bad as they look. Dandy Dave!
