Gravely 40" wing mower restoration

[daugen]

After more than five years waiting for me to get to them, this winter I start renovating the pair of Gravely wing mowers I bought a long time ago. One has a Honda 340 engine, the other a Kawasaki, both the premium engines of their day. Both work, but having sat all this time, I need to start from scratch. Drain the fuel, replace the fuel lines, tires for sure. One was flat and with split sides yesterday; out came the trusty farm jack. Stole one from the other mower just to get it into the barn. Almost impossible to move unless connected to Gravely rider; pulls at odd angle and caster wheels are easy to jam in wrong direction.
but if you do it "the right way", it works easily.

Did some study time online, not sure if I want to replace with pneumatic or flat free tires, but think I'll stick with pneumatic for better shock absorption.
And for sure, when they are restored and put away until next use, I'm going to raise them up off their tires. Those cheap little Chinese tires sure don't last, which seems to be all you can buy for this, you know, 8 bucks for the tire and 20 bucks with wheel. Somehow I don't think Michelin is going to get into this market...

I will go over the unit thoroughly, might replace some belts, see what shape they are in. My oil sticker says Mobil 1, 10/30, Sept 2011. Been a while since I've worked on this...
So this engine has sat unloved for at least three years. Will pull the plug and put a teaspoon of oil, maybe spray some WD40 in there, to lube the cylinder walls while I pull the cord slowly.
The two units I have were not treated well. Lots of welding done, some at my original request by selling dealer, who was happy to get them out of his boneyard in the back.
The decks need a lot of weld grinding, some new welding, and a nice paint job. Maybe a spindle if I feel wobble. My memory is I paid 3-400 apiece for these after they were fixed up to some degree.

Ultimately I have always wanted to make a custom mowing rig with these two units. Gravely never sold it that way, only pulling from the left side. I'd like to set one up on each side in the rear, for a 130 inch total cut, really net about ten feet. With 8 acres of very flat lawn, this could actually do something worthwhile instead of just looking cool...
But first I will renovate each unit, the Honda one first. The vertical shaft 340cc engine is the biggest they make in a single and Honda has made this engine for a very long time,
and still makes the same one, an 850 dollar engine. Pretty sure this one will run just fine, did when I put it away.

Ball hitch on this unit is pretty unique. Originally there was a vertical pin coming out of the rider hitch. Need to replace my screwdriver, ahem, with something a little sturdier.

My understanding is there aren't many of these wing mowers floating around. Like most good Gravely equipment, I will tend to them while I own them and then pass them along to the next
generations to use. Gravely pretty much defines what is NOT throw-away...

When I get this one torn apart, I'll take more pics. First thing is to jack it up on blocks to get the wheels off and make it easy to work on while sitting on a rolling seat.
Barn is too cold today, later this week around Christmas it should warm up a bit.
time to crank up the propane heater, turn on the tunes, and start wrenching.

 

[toppop52]

After more than five years waiting for me to get to them, this winter I start renovating the pair of Gravely wing mowers I bought a long time ago. One has a Honda 340 engine, the other a Kawasaki, both the premium engines of their day. Both work, but having sat all this time, I need to start from scratch. Drain the fuel, replace the fuel lines, tires for sure. One was flat and with split sides yesterday; out came the trusty farm jack. Stole one from the other mower just to get it into the barn. Almost impossible to move unless connected to Gravely rider; pulls at odd angle and caster wheels are easy to jam in wrong direction.
but if you do it "the right way", it works easily.

Did some study time online, not sure if I want to replace with pneumatic or flat free tires, but think I'll stick with pneumatic for better shock absorption.
And for sure, when they are restored and put away until next use, I'm going to raise them up off their tires. Those cheap little Chinese tires sure don't last, which seems to be all you can buy for this, you know, 8 bucks for the tire and 20 bucks with wheel. Somehow I don't think Michelin is going to get into this market...

I will go over the unit thoroughly, might replace some belts, see what shape they are in. My oil sticker says Mobil 1, 10/30, Sept 2011. Been a while since I've worked on this...
So this engine has sat unloved for at least three years. Will pull the plug and put a teaspoon of oil, maybe spray some WD40 in there, to lube the cylinder walls while I pull the cord slowly.
The two units I have were not treated well. Lots of welding done, some at my original request by selling dealer, who was happy to get them out of his boneyard in the back.
The decks need a lot of weld grinding, some new welding, and a nice paint job. Maybe a spindle if I feel wobble. My memory is I paid 3-400 apiece for these after they were fixed up to some degree.

Ultimately I have always wanted to make a custom mowing rig with these two units. Gravely never sold it that way, only pulling from the left side. I'd like to set one up on each side in the rear, for a 130 inch total cut, really net about ten feet. With 8 acres of very flat lawn, this could actually do something worthwhile instead of just looking cool...
But first I will renovate each unit, the Honda one first. The vertical shaft 340cc engine is the biggest they make in a single and Honda has made this engine for a very long time,
and still makes the same one, an 850 dollar engine. Pretty sure this one will run just fine, did when I put it away.

Ball hitch on this unit is pretty unique. Originally there was a vertical pin coming out of the rider hitch. Need to replace my screwdriver, ahem, with something a little sturdier.

My understanding is there aren't many of these wing mowers floating around. Like most good Gravely equipment, I will tend to them while I own them and then pass them along to the next
generations to use. Gravely pretty much defines what is NOT throw-away...

When I get this one torn apart, I'll take more pics. First thing is to jack it up on blocks to get the wheels off and make it easy to work on while sitting on a rolling seat.
Barn is too cold today, later this week around Christmas it should warm up a bit.
time to crank up the propane heater, turn on the tunes, and start wrenching.

I used a 44" wing mower/tow behind when I was mowing 3.6 acres every week about 20 years ago, towed it behind a standard lawn tractor that was also 44" I think. It was still slow and used a lot of gasoline, then I discovered zero turns and never looked back. But they are cool and still have applications behind a fast garden tractor with a big deck and in wide open spaces. Mine came from Central Tractor and had an 11 H.P. Briggs I/C. I liked that I could start and stop it from the tractor.

 

[daugen]

Swisher sells a lot of these tow behind mowers. Yes, this is not as efficient as a ZT. More like driving a lit bit of history. Because mowing requires high rpm, running two motors
at almost full throttle isn't likely to ever be very efficient. If I ever got all three going at once, probably would sound like a helicopter going by. And I think I'd like to try...

 

[hawkeye08]

Best wishes, I have a bit of Gravely collection myself, 3 riders (ran when parked), many attachments, 1 'ran when parked' 2 wheeler with seat and funkly steering... I had these for mowing lawn, taking care of pasture, etc. I enjoyed them, but it was working me too hard so got the Kubota.. Didn't even start any of the Gravelys this year.. very sad.

 

[daugen]

Hawkeye, no question this is high effort equipment. I need to figure out how to add a hydraulic steering ram to my Gravely, that would help a lot.

something made me rummage around in the bottom of my miscellaneous hitch pin box and ta da there it was, the oem vertical pin for attaching the ball hitch.
I thoroughly cleaned out the ball, flooding all the dirt out first with carb cleaner and then brake cleaner Almost went to oil it but pulled back in time, need to paint it; oiling comes last.
That blue tape doesn't stick well to oil or grease for sure. Slithers all around...

Drained almost all the gasoline out, second bottle was definitely more yellow than the first. First was mostly root beer colored with some red in it, probably the stabil.
It did not smell foul, which was good. Whether the carb float is all gunked up remains to be seen.

Experimenting with a few different wheels and tires.
One of the tires that spec'd ten inches tall was actually ten point five, so not interchangeable tires if I don't want to have to do a bunch of deck leveling. Lucked out and found a 6 inch
flat free wheel at TSC yesterday that looks like it will fit just fine in the small caster wheel position, the one size smaller than the other three.
Actually slightly wider which is good, sounds silly but it needs all the flotation it can get.

 

[daugen]

worked on wheels today, impressively heavy brass bushings, some fell out, some weren't going anywhere.
Not much play, had been very well greased, so the three main wheels are not a problem. The little caster wheel has had a very
tough life, with about a quarter of the metal missing from the shaft and clearly this area of the mower had hit some immovable objects and
otherwise been a focal point of abuse, as the prior owner had done some handyman fixing. I don't think Gravely used three little wood shims.
If I can I'll try to put it back in the original fashion. This deck needs a lot of welding and repair but all fixable.

mower belt had been changed five years ago, looked new, pretty cruddy under the belt covers but at least no animals in there.
Plug was varnished but clean. Probably didn't need to but replaced it anyway.

both of the brass bushings seem to be missing a washer, rubber or felt, on the bottom bushing, designed to help keep the grease in.
Looks like these wheels have been banged around a bit and have been off, with not everything making it back on.
Now to study the exploded parts diagram to see what's missing.

 

[3930dave]

Neat project daugen, I hadn't seen those before.

Used a Gravely walk-behind sickle bar mower years ago at a utility I worked for one summer. It was going through oil until one of the engineers borrowed it to use at his cottage one weekend - Monday he had a "chat" with the maintenance shop and it got the little bit of TLC it needed. With the sickle bar head all the vibration over the years meant there were various oil seals needing attention. Good as new after that.

We had a sulky to use behind that Gravely - nice for the bigger areas, but also nice to be able to remove it when working on fence lines or other tight spots. Not as "comfy" as the new stuff (no HST, P/S, A/C, microwave, fridge.... :laughing: that is on the new stuff), but like you, I'd definitely consider a Gravely as a worthy restoration project.

Keep the pics coming, please.

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

ask and ye shall receive.
Stripping her down.
Expensive discovery to find two of the three spindles seized solid and the third one a bit crunchy. That sure adds some cost.
My first plan is to call Richard's in W. Va and see what parts they stock.
Decided the sheet steel I have to weld on top of the repair deck for reinforcement isn't thick enough, need to get another sheet the thickness
of the angle iron, which I will likely reinforce the key area with. I can understand smashing into stuff on the end but how the prior owner(s) literally ripped off
the wheel struts inboard, behind the pulling tractor...is a wonder. What did you folks run into?.... Well, all fixable.

 

[daugen]

if you zoom in on the first pic you'll see the left rear wheel mount has been ripped off and replaced with a bolt on frame. Ugly but fully functional.
Quality repair if one could not weld nor was one appearance conscious...at least someone used some serious steel in the bolted repairs.

Need to look at the clone of this to confirm oem appearance.
I have another one of these exactly like this, in better condition, but with a pretty rare Kawasaki single of about 13hp with pressure oiling.
I think this Honda one really had some hours on it. The oily condition around the engine suggests to me some blowby but hey, look at the rest of the thing.
I think that Honda took a licking and kept on ticking. Might need some rings and a head cleanout.
Unit ran and mowed before put away. And engine spun freely. Couple of squirts of wd40 into the cylinder before I turned it over, spun really easily.
But I bet that engine is tired, really tired. Too bad it never had an hour meter.
However, as long as it doesn't smoke, if it starts, puts out 12hp instead of 13, and runs fine, well, so be it.

This isn't going to get done anytime soon but if I wanted that I'd just pay someone to do it.
And that would be so expensive it likely would not get done. Until someone like me is willing to put some sweat equity into it.
And lots and lots of Gravely rattle can red. Lot of primer too...usually use an etching primer, going to be a lot of bare metal here once it is ready
for its first primer coat.

The engine cleaned up nicely, as I expected. Going to take the muffler cover off and make sure there's nothing hiding in there.
Have cooked plenty of mice in my time.
There's also another shroud up front but I can see behind it so unless there's a reason to take it off, it will stay. Will pay particular attention to engine fins inside shroud.
Lot of air blasting, trying to avoid water.

Went through a lot of Purple Power on that engine. Next on the list is opening the drain on the bottom of the carb.
Can't believe it would be anything but dry but also want to see if there's any
gunk showing.

and then a lot of unbolting to get those spindles off. Bet they are rusted on like crazy. Soak them one day and air gun them the next.

 

[daugen]

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.