JD Rotary Mower Driveshaft Question

[schole]

Just picked up a lightly used JD 513 rotary mower.

Great price....no driveshaft to the tractor.

The clutch (??) and the half of the drive attached to the mower are there. The other half -- part going to the tractor -- is not.

Can I buy 1/2 a drive-shaft? Can this 1/2 be manufactured? We used to weld up the old square PTO shafts on the farm, but this one has a fancy triangular shape to it....Italian made shaft (?****olini?? or something like that).

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Shawn

 

[beenthere]

Have you checked with the Deere dealer and found out that the tractor end is not available as a Deere part without buying the entire shaft? Seems to me that the half shaft would be a separate part that you can order and have in a day or so.
That's good that you have the clutch.

I have the 513 and like it. I did some remodeling of the rear skirts to beef them up, because I hog up a lot of brush by backing into it. The 513 steel skirts are not made for pushing on brush, stumps, rocks and dirt. I welded 1 1/4" square tubing along the lower edge on the angled sides and the rear skirt panels.

 

[schole]

Thanks so much for your response.

I ended up at the dealer. They said that half the shaft can no longer be purchased. We priced out the individual components to build our own half. It turned out to be more expensive than purchasing a whole 'standard' driveshaft -- ie. without the clutch. So, I bought a whole new shaft, took the half which mated with the 1/2 shaft attached to my mower. After, exchanging the plastic guards, it worked like a dream ($176 Cdn taxes in).

I like your thoughts on beefing up the rear of the 513. I hogged for 4-5 hours yesterday after getting the PTO hooked up and freeing up the clutch (rusted a bit). Very impressed with the performance on the bush trails especially. Hit a very heavy chunks of steel hidden in the pasture -- loud noise, but no visible damage. Phew! Great attachment for anything up to and including green brush the size of your fingers...seemed to complain when I drove over larger, dry chuncks of wood.

Do you sharpen your blades?

Thanks again,

Shawn