smells_so_good - 2:49 am on Sep 8, 2006 (gmt 0)

I have one of these traveling lawn sprinklers [lrnelson.com], and I love it! By far the biggest complaint is with the gearbox, and that's the problem I'm having. But I'm a fix-it kinda guy and I want to fix this thing, not go buy a replacement that's almost guaranteed to break.

The sprinkler arms fit into a Tee. That Tee then screws into a sleeve which drops into the gearbox. The worm gear is the bottom part of this sleeve, so as the arms turn (thrust), the worm gear turns, and the wheels turn. Another brass sleeve fits inside the (nylon?) sleeve and fastens the arms to the gearbox.

It's very easy to want to pick this sprinkler up by the Tee that holds the arms. DON'T DO IT! The sleeve broke, right at the top of the worm gear. I suspect that most of the reports about stripped gears on this unit can be traced back to a broken worm gear. Now the arms turn, but I'm watering the same spot all day long. The rest of my yard hates me for that and insists on pushing up dandelions.

As far as I can tell this sleeve and gear is made from some sort of nylon? I have tried a 2-part epoxy. It failed to hold. I have tried Red Hot Blue Glue (for PVC/ABS tubing). It failed to hold. I have tried Superglue. It holds, but only for a short while (days to weeks). What in the world can I use to weld this stuff back together. I promise, once it's repaired I will never pick the unit up by the arms again.