Toro Troubles

[Tony48]

Good afternoon,

I'm new to the forum and looking for some help in finding a Toro part.

I've got an old Toro Brush cutter Mod. # 51909. I've had it for almost 20 years but haven't used it very much, just light string trimming. Recently the flexible shaft broke. I went to the Toro site and found the part #180406 listed as unavailable no alternate part was listed. I called a number of dealers and outlets and got the same story. So I buy a top of the line product from a supposedly good company and now I've got to toss it because the company can't supply me with a small part.

Can anyone help me find something that will work on this thing?

 

[bertsmobile1]

prior to the USA - Australia "free" trade agreement parts had to be available for 10 years from the date of sale.
Now it is only 5 and the junk from China merchants are lobbying hard to get it reduced to 2 years.
Welcome to the real world of criminal thieves wearing suits.
However because of the said same cheapness, the after market companies found a hole making parts that the mainstream makers can no longer afford to keep in stock.
So you need to find yourself a mar & par small engine workshop that is indepndant so stocks & uses aftermarket parts.
Take your trimmer with you. Because the replacement parts are catalogued by length and end type plus wire lay if it has a flexiable drive shaft.
My catalogue has around 60 trimmer shafts .
Usually franchise agreements prevents a dealer using aftermarket parts so a shop that only does repairs is your best choice.

 

[Rivets]

as Bert said, you need to find a repair shop, but that can be a dealer. They may us anyones parts if the part needed is no longer available. Best to find the oldest repair guy you can, as they have done more retrofits than twenty of the young techs out there today. That being said, you need to rethink your attitude toward Toro. You are out in la-la land if you think companies should have parts available for twenty year old units. How many of those units you think are still out there. That's like saying a car company should have new parts available for all the vehicles they made for the last forty years. You can now start hating me.

 

[bertsmobile1]

What people who are not in transport or logistics fail to understand is just how bloody expensive running warehouses full of old parts are and the cost of getting them to the end customer.
The last warehouse I delivered from had a cost per pallet space $ 3.50 / week which is simply the fixed cost of running the warehouse divided by 22,000 pallet spaces
Solid trimmer shafts will need to be in a stillage that take 1.5 pallet spaces, or $ 5.25 per week ( $ 237 / year ) add another $2.00 week for the pallet hire and the same for the stillage (plus the cost of terminating the storeman who did not put them on a company pallet & stillage in the first place ) and it gets very expensive if you don't shift a lot of them every year.
When Lucas closed down their Sydney warehouse back in the 90's we were offered all of the BSA parts at book value.
This value included warehousing costs that got added to the parts annually.
Thus a 50p capacitor that had been sitting in the warehouse since 1954 was $ 12.00. At that time brand new ones from Tiwan were $ 1.20 retail.
Apart from government subsidies and an arifically low exchange rate the next big reason why HF . Lowes & Wally can sell you a whole engine for less than Kohler can supply a carb is the do not have to add the cost of maintaining an inventory of old parts & distributing them. In fact most of the time they can no even supply parts for current models.
That is why products from companies like JD are that bit more expensive.
They do keep warehouses full of obsolete parts just in case some one comes in with a 20 year old impliment they want fixed.
You bought a trimmer from a quality manufacturer and it has given you 20 years of faithful service.
You have got good value out of it.
Divide the cost price by the number of years and it ends up being peanuts. $ 5/ year ?
Yet 95% of the population will be happy to buy a $ 100 junk trimmer that might last 2 years and think they are getting good value ( they just don't teach math in school any more ).
I have 12 cubic meters ( 3 old vans ) full of broken trimmers that I pirate for parts.
However the average time spent finding the bits I want would be around 1/2 day.
Big stores can not afford that sort of overhead when they can just sell you a new trimmer in 20 minutes and make a $ 40 profit on it.

 

[Pumper54]

Try here: https://www.mowpart.com/181817-toro-shaft-flexible-drive.html

About 5 minutes of internet searching.

Tom

 

[Tony48]

Wow! Thanks a lot Tom. I searched for several hours and came up with nothing

 

[Pumper54]

Google can be your friend. I just used the make/model number in a general search and then searched the make/part number. Like several have said, search out the oldest mower shop in the area or a mower junk yard and see if they might have the part. You might have to buy a junk machine/tool to get the part you need but who knows they have be parting out one and have the part you need on hand.

LOL I just double checked their website and they are about 3 hours north of me, up by Dallas. That's a day trip around here.

Tom

 

[Tony48]

Tom, I never dreamed that there was a trimmer junkyard. I know sites like this can help you find a lot of parts. I own a nice Cob cadet 129, built in 1971 before that I had an original built in the early 60's. Parts are all over the place because we love these old machines and I'm sure that there are a lot of old established lawn equipment repair shops that have the part sitting on a shelf gathering dust but it's sites and people like you that put the people looking and the people selling together. Thanks again