Got the chipper tore apart the other day, bearings actually came off very easily which was a good surprise. Then we found this wear on the engine side of the shaft, which was a bad surprise.
Shouldn't be a bad fix. The drive shaft is only $600 and the guy at Bandit has been super helpful and gave us a lot of pointers on how to detach it from the wheel. I'm really starting to get curious on how many hours this machine has now. The meter was broken when we bought it 4 years ago so we have no clue. We always kept it well greased and the bearing we pulled off that side was still moving very freely so I'm guessing we've been running with that damage the whole time we've owned it. Either way, we're gonna fix it now that we have it apart. By the time we're done with this machine there will be more new parts than old, not much left to fix or replace.