Gravely 40" wing mower restoration

[3930dave]

I had a wonderful conversation with Richard of Richard's Lawn something, in Spencer WV. Tiny little place, fun to look it up on Google Maps:
Google Maps


the bad news is the special keyway spindles are 150 list and they sell them for 135. I'm sure fair for what they pay for them. And worse the originals are replaced with non greasable varieties. I want a zerk...and Richard said he drills the housings and inserts them. Good. Though I wonder about the physics of pressurizing a sealed bearing with a grease gun. Thoughts anyone on that?...

Richard told me in decades of dealing with just Gravely equipment, not one person had called in asking about parts for a wing mower.
Cool...I have two. Not like I'm going to sell them for riches but neat that they are somewhat rare.
And then he said to forget about buying new mower spindles, he could most likely rebuild what I have, the spindles come apart. Maybe....

I decided the first thing I was going to do was check the spindles on the other mower. If they are all locked up, I'm ordering three new spindles and having three rebuilt. Unfortunately the new stuff is just drop shipped from Gravely; was kind of hoping Richard had some insider info on something that would cross reference. And be a lot cheaper, like 80 a spindle. But apparently they don't exist; maybe that keyway issue; but he would know. I told my closest gearhead buddy, a genuine Gravely nut with all kinds of mowers, tillers , snowblowers, etc, some of which he has repowered, about my call and his reaction was great:

Seriously! You talked to Richard Juffs? That's like meeting Shakespeare
at a Barnes & Nobles.* I've dealt with the firm before, for gaskets and
casters for a snowblower. They don't mind getting their hands dirty with
used equipment and parts. Excellent reputation among the Yahoo Gravely
group.

Esp. in this age of it being difficult to get anybody to answer a phone, it would be a treat to talk to somebody of that caliber. He's probably forgotten more about Gravely equipment than many people will ever know.

I'd never seen a Gravely wing mower before yours, so I figured they were rare in Canada, but sounds like they were scarce period. It struck me as a fun project to do in general, but I suspect that you wouldn't have trouble finding a Gravely aficionado as a buyer if you wanted to sell.

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

Dave, what was even more "small world" about this was that Richard bought all of David Lightkep's Gravely parts inventory, the largest and oldest Gravely dealer in the area I grew up in PA North of Philadelphia. Richard was having a hard time pronouncing Lightkep's name and i did not make the connection until later. I bought my 8199G and both these wing mowers from Lightkep. All very used and in the wing mower's case, pretty abused. No market for these things other than for Gravely guys due to the unique mounting setup.

I looked at the original photos and realized the main hitch has to be extended a full setting, the wing mower overlaps the garden tractor's mower way too far. Sure does seem to be at an odd cutting angle, on a slant...and why such a big output chute. Look where the third spindle is and look how much further out the sheet metal comes.
First, why three spindles for only a 40 inch mower and second was the extra large output chute designed to better disperse the grass?
I'll have to ask Richard that. Lightkep retired, his sons run the business but clearly found the old Gravely parts unprofitable, not called for, something. So Richard bought the whole lot. Good, shows he's invested in his business.

 

[3930dave]

Dave, what was even more "small world" about this was that Richard bought all of David Lightkep's Gravely parts inventory, the largest and oldest Gravely dealer in the area I grew up in PA North of Philadelphia. Richard was having a hard time pronouncing Lightkep's name and i did not make the connection until later. I bought my 8199G and both these wing mowers from Lightkep. All very used and in the wing mower's case, pretty abused. No market for these things other than for Gravely guys due to the unique mounting setup.

I looked at the original photos and realized the main hitch has to be extended a full setting, the wing mower overlaps the garden tractor's mower way too far. Sure does seem to be at an odd cutting angle, on a slant...and why such a big output chute. Look where the third spindle is and look how much further out the sheet metal comes.
First, why three spindles for only a 40 inch mower and second was the extra large output chute designed to better disperse the grass?
I'll have to ask Richard that. Lightkep retired, his sons run the business but clearly found the old Gravely parts unprofitable, not called for, something. So Richard bought the whole lot. Good, shows he's invested in his business.

Definitely a small world, esp. when it comes to rare equipment.

That deck may have been selected from an existing stamping for a self-propelled mower ? From the pics, it seems about the right size. No chance of that chute plugging, short of trying to cut a hayfield.

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

spent several hours beating on the spindles, they were really messed up from someone stripping bolts, wasn't able to get any of them off, and realized the whole top frame has to come off because the pulleys on the spindles won't clear to come off. More unbolting. Good thing I have a spare to look at to figure out how to put it all back together, though this one is the most damaged.

going to order three new spindles from Richard Luff today and will have these rebuilt, which he does, and use on the other mower.
all of them have lots of play in the bearings, wobbles a bit back and forth. Lot of hours I suppose, but new Gravely non greasable spindles going back in. I thought about having them add a zerk to the spindle, but if they are designed to keep the grease in, I can't imagine it's good to pressurize that seal by trying to push grease out. I guess once you wreck the seal, you just keep pumping grease in.

24 dollars for an oem Honda air filter. Not doing that again...now that I have numbers I can cross reference. Amazon sent the wrong
GX340 filter, apparently Honda made three styles for this engine, which was used on a variety of equipment, in this case a vertical crankshaft.

Once I have the upper assembly off, might need another pair of hands on that or a lift, I'm going to get serious about the welding. Need to pick some heavier reinforcing plate steel and corner steel. The deck has a myriad of cracks in it, I've never seen steel cracked like this, but it will all weld back and with another layer on top should last longer. And hopefully not crack ever again. Two of the supports have to be totally reconstructed but it's all pretty straightforward.

 

[daugen]

pleased with finding hopefully higher quality tires and wheels for the mower, flatproof tires from Harbor Freight. Not cheap at 24 bucks a piece on sale but they were the only ones with zerks. plus their tread is slightly wider.
Now back to beating on the spindles. Buying parts is easy...

 

[3930dave]

pleased with finding hopefully higher quality tires and wheels for the mower, flatproof tires from Harbor Freight. Not cheap at 24 bucks a piece on sale but they were the only ones with zerks. plus their tread is slightly wider.
Now back to beating on the spindles. Buying parts is easy...

Decent wheels/casters are not cheap. I've always liked flat-proof ones for small wheel applications that sit-around a lot - hadn't seen ones with zerks before.

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

a really big day today, helped by two very large firemen working for me, who put vicegrips on totally stripped nuts half their normal size, and just brute forced the spindles off. Yeah. :dance1: Now I can really go to work. We had to take the motor off first, which actually is good so underneath surfaces can be accessed. I have a big cleanup planned for tomorrow, put all the tools back and probably do a little grinding near cracks, plus cut the new metal needed. Then the welder comes. Lot of welding needed, way beyond my training level.
Now a call to Richard Luff to order the spindles. Going to send these three to him for a rebuild.

 

[daugen]

turns out the spindles are not replaceable, have to be rebuilt, not Gravely nor anyone apparently makes a sealed spindle bearing with the pulleys built into the top. So...tomorrow I box up those heavy spindles and ship them off to WVA.
I asked for Timken bearings and they said sure. :thumbsup:

 

[daugen]

stripped it almost all the way down today, got all the jury rigged prior owner repairs off it,
some serious deck damage. Where this support ripped out is the inside edge of the mower too, so it's almost four feet away from the end.
What in the world did they hit?

Yukky job scraping grease off the spindles, got them scraped, degreased mostly, and brought up to the house to get shipped out tomorrow to Richard's Gravely in WVA. He will rebuild them and send them back. after we discuss the additional cost for Timken bearings.
They are very heavy, going to be an unpleasant freight bill.

 

[aczlan]

Will they fit inside of a post office large flat rate box? Lots of tape and $25ish will get it delivered as long as it's under 70lbs.

Aaron Z