3PH finish mower gearbox

[Lockport]

Gatorblades. I had one on a Snapper, a pair on a Kubota LT, adopted triples on a Kubota BX with reduction adapters and finally found ones that nearly matched the size needed for this cutter. Of the hundred (+/-) Gatorblades that Oregon puts out for a variety of decks, they all have the cutting edge on the same side. If you've never used a Gatorblade, do yourself a favour.

This gearbox is reversible and that's what it will take to make this finish mower cut a proper lawn. I hope to have the only properly functioning Bobcat 3FM72 in existence.

 

[hawkeye08]

Keep us posted, takes lots of photos and make sure you do a proper write up so others can follow it...

 

[Lockport]

Update: There is an oil cap at the back and an oil seal at the front at the base of the spline that cover the bearings. They both have to come out to access the snap rings at each end. My dealer has informed me that there are none in Bobcat's N.A. network and they will have to be ordered at a cost of $85CA and $45CA respectively. Considering a typical oil cap or seal is about $10 or less on eBay, I'm finding this markup to be the abhorrent. Unfortunately, without removing them and rendering the cutter unusable until replaced, I've no other means to determine their exact O.D., I.D, thickness and lip design. I did manage to get a depiction of the gearbox parts diagram and list but it's very poor and getting it was like pulling teeth.

 

[powerscol]

Have you tried Kioti. They are the twin to Bobcat. Also Rino made the loaders for Bobcat, so they may have made the finish mower. If Kioti offered a finish mower on their tractors, I'll bet the parts match. Hope this helps.

 

[Lockport]

These are my new seals. $150CA

In the next couple of days I intend to find the time to pull the original seals from the cutter's gearbox, remove the snap rings behind them and bang out the spindle. Hopefully there will not be any complications flipping the gear over and moving it to the rear side. Will keep y'all posted.

 

[Lockport]

Sorry, no pictures. At the end of the day, street removing the decks, I removed the three snap rings. Then hammered inward from the rear, to free the shaft from its housing, while seperation of the gear is aided by the casement. Everything reversed to reassemble. The inner shim from the forward facing side was reinstalled behind the gear at the rear of the casement. I'm concerned that it is compromising the tolerances as the meshing is now much more audible than before and the box seems to be hotter. That being said, I couldn't help but notice that typically on cutter's the blade bolt has reversed threads. So does this cutter, but I've just reversed the rotation to a typical cutter and bolt rotation is now synchronously with the blade rotation of typical cutters.

 

[Lockport]

I've found what appeared to be identical seals at avxseals.com and they charged $11.02 for both. That's a far cry from the the $110 Bobcat charged me. I'm going to drain out the oil, remove the end cap and the rear snap ring. There are three shims behind it and I'm hoping that by removing two of them the shaft will reseat itself with just slightly less pressure against the facing bevel gear and the audible meshing of the gears will subside. Along with the heat it is generating. If that fails, I'll need to take the entire mechanism apart and find a thinner shim to go over the spline behind the gear that faces the rear most bearing.

That being said, the reward is in the cut produced by the Gatorblades