mower at bottom of new river, any problem?

[johnrex62]

This morning I discovered my rotary mower was at the bottom of a newly formed river. We got nearly 7 inches of rain in a couple hours and have flash flooding at levels not seen by anyone in the last 50-100 years. As luck would have it, I was using my rake last and the mower was off my tractor overnight for the first time in two years.

Anything to be overly worried about? I have not been able to inspect it yet, what should I expect to find?

This is what I saw at 9am. The ripple in the surface about 3/4 of the way to the left edge, in front of the small stand of tall weeds inbetween the trees, is about where the mower sits.


This is how it looked 3 hours later.



It is on "dry" land now, but I am not sure how much, if any, water penetrated the gearbox.

[jpm1]

Well thats one way to wash it . . .on the serious side, drain the gear box and put new gear oil in andd grease the daylights out of it. that will drive out any water in the spindles or wheels . . .John

[Furu]

Bad luck. Drain it refill run for 30 min drain and refill again then drain earlier than next schedule states by 50%.

[Soundguy]

it is likely a vented gearbox.. and you can bet water got in it.but.. that is not the worysome part. the silt is the worrysome part.

take plug out.. drain emulsified oil out. if by some odd chance only oil comes out and no water.. you are gold.. I suspect it got wate r in it.

now.. go ahead and use a garden hose sprayer and just hose the heck of it out with it tilted over sot he water can rinse the silt out.

now add in a drug store pint of 90% rubbing alcohol and some atf.. spin her up on the pto for 30 seconds.... this will slosh it.

drain.. drip dry.. fill with your gear oil of choice and go.

i'd take the telescoping drive shaft apart.. celan.. relube, and grease the u joints.. and clean the pto yoke in diesel and then lube it.

next.. disassemble rear wheel spindle and clean spindle shaft and bore.. re-lube. disassemble and clean rear wheel bushing or bearing if you are lucky enough to have a sealed bearing... clean and repack.. or relube bushing after cleaning ( removes silt / grit ) ..grease all fittings till new grease comes out.


after that.. besides a lil surface rust on blades that will get beat off on the first mow.. you will be fine.

i've salvaged entire tractors that were under water from katrina. basically same deal.. take apart.. celan out silt.. lube.. reassemble...

[MHarryE]

Any word on how it came out? I've seen others under water with no water getting in the gearbox, but that depends on the vent.

[leonz]

I Absolutely hate it when implements play submarine
or get stuck in the muck, bad enough going truck fishing
in mud when the trailer gets you stuck.


First, drain gearbox, refill; be sure vent is not plugged if it has one.

Second, grease universal joints until old grease is purged.

Third, be double sure that you grease the spline grease
fittings on the PTO shaft there will be at least one of them
on the female end.

IF your mower has aslip clutch you need to remove it and
disassemble it to wash any dirt and silt out of the parts
using peroxide and or alcohol and reassemble it and be
sure to adjust it again.

If you have a rear tail wheel the issue is being sure the old grease
is purged out of the cup and cone wheel bearing and be sure the swivel
bushing is sufficiently purged of old grease and silt.

[Alien]

I'd be more worried about your trailer wheel bearings. They will need checking/repacked.

[Soundguy]

yes they will! if brakes.. I'd clean them up too...

[allen in texas]

This morning I discovered my rotary mower was at the bottom of a newly formed river. We got nearly 7 inches of rain in a couple hours and have flash flooding at levels not seen by anyone in the last 50-100 years. As luck would have it, I was using my rake last and the mower was off my tractor overnight for the first time in two years.

Anything to be overly worried about? I have not been able to inspect it yet, what should I expect to find?

This is what I saw at 9am. The ripple in the surface about 3/4 of the way to the left edge, in front of the small stand of tall weeds inbetween the trees, is about where the mower sits.


This is how it looked 3 hours later.



It is on "dry" land now, but I am not sure how much, if any, water penetrated the gearbox.

All seriousness aside, would you mind shipping me, oh I don't know, 6 inches or so of the rain you got.

[boakley]

it is likely a vented gearbox.. and you can bet water got in it.but.. that is not the worysome part. the silt is the worrysome part.

take plug out.. drain emulsified oil out. if by some odd chance only oil comes out and no water.. you are gold.. I suspect it got wate r in it.

now.. go ahead and use a garden hose sprayer and just hose the heck of it out with it tilted over sot he water can rinse the silt out.

now add in a drug store pint of 90% rubbing alcohol and some atf.. spin her up on the pto for 30 seconds.... this will slosh it.

drain.. drip dry.. fill with your gear oil of choice and go.

i'd take the telescoping drive shaft apart.. celan.. relube, and grease the u joints.. and clean the pto yoke in diesel and then lube it.

next.. disassemble rear wheel spindle and clean spindle shaft and bore.. re-lube. disassemble and clean rear wheel bushing or bearing if you are lucky enough to have a sealed bearing... clean and repack.. or relube bushing after cleaning ( removes silt / grit ) ..grease all fittings till new grease comes out.


after that.. besides a lil surface rust on blades that will get beat off on the first mow.. you will be fine.

i've salvaged entire tractors that were under water from katrina. basically same deal.. take apart.. celan out silt.. lube.. reassemble...

great advice... I live in an area of swamps where people / friends swamp/drown their atv's on a weekly basis as we ride the swamps all the time.

Only diff in advice is if gear box took in oil flushing with clean water as your water in the pic's is clearly not clean. We use diesal fuel in the gear boxes, differentials, engines of atv's after they are swamped etc... to get rid of water. 3 - 5 flush fills with diesel all that is needed to get out all the water and it only take a 5 - 10 seconds of running time on a gear box to circulated the diseal enough to help get the water out. No need to run for 5-10 minutes or anything like that. Diesel works great and is cheap compared to gear lube which is too thick or iso which is too thin to suspend solids like sand.

good luck. Easily repairable with a grease gun, some elbow energy, and diesel.