Rotary Cutter Howse gearbox leak

[lmwashere]

So last year I bought a tractor and finishing mower. My first time for both. When I broke out the mower this spring and began checking it over, I noticed that it has leaked some of the gear oil from around the input shaft. So I figure I will have to replace the seal. My question is this though, in the manual it talks about a fill hole or a dipstick to check the oil level. There is no dipstick on the mower. There is only one hole in the gearbox, it is right on the top and has a valve on it which seems a bit like the weight on the top of a pressure cooker. It doesn't fall off or move around but the principal seems the same. There is a small hole on the inside and while the mower is running it seems to bleed a small amount through there. Should this happen or does that mean it's overfull. More importantly, if it stops does that mean it is low. There doesn't really seem to be any good way to check the fluid level inside as you can only see gears directly below the hole. It was that way new also.

Seems like a fill hole which has no dipstick should be on the side like on the rear end of a car. Maybe I am off base here?

 

[Henri88]

Do you have pics. to show us. I suspect that the valve you see is the pressure release valve. There is a small spring loaded ball bearing inside that release the pressure when the oil gets hot. I suspect that if you have oil coming out it is cause by to much oil in the gear box. Mine has a level plug on the side. I also use 85w140 gear oil. It makes it less prone to leak.

 

[lmwashere]

I will take a picture on the way out today and post it either this afternoon or in the morning. A pressure release valve is what I initially suspected, but then I got nervous that maybe it was a quick way to always make sure that there was oil in there. Dad was a helo pilot in Vietnam and always joked that when the helicopter stopped leaking oil, then you had a problem. You were out of oil...... So I didn't want to assume and the manual didn't say much.

Thanks

 

[lmwashere]

Had a good rain...

 

[stuckmotor]

I think I'd remove the valve and see if it's working. Hopefully, it's partly stopped up and freeing it will stop the seal leak.