Woods M5 gear box repairs

[rongrzywacz]

Has anyone ever worked on the gear box for a woods m5 dixie cutter bush hog. Someone gave me a used mower. The deck is in decent shape, but after i added gear oil to the gear box most of it leaked out. When i opened the gear box one of the gears is worn.
Any ideas on how hard it is to change the bottom seals and bearings on this. Are the parts reasonably priced?
How much for a top gear? Or would i be better off buying a new gear box.
Thanks for any help
Ron G.

 

[RickB]

Many Woods rotary cutters, and I believe this includes the M5, use the blade bar to set the preload on the downshaft bearings. This feature is, IMHO one of the top 5 dumbest agricultural engineering decisions of all time. If you can get the blade bar off without torching it into pieces, seal R&R isn't too bad. Disassembling the rest of the box to change the downshaft bearings is straightforward after the blade bar is off. Bearings & seals are not too expensive. If you are considering buying a gear or two, I'd price all the parts first then decide if you want to make that investment or throw it over a bank somewhere. Be sure to include a shim kit for the blade bar when pricing parts. This will get you all the small stuff you need, as well as an instruction sheet for setting up the bearings and bar. You can always fill the box with grease and see how long that stays in if you don't have lots of mowing to do. Woods operator's manuals are online and the M5 manual contains a parts breakdown as well as a description of the blade bar install. Woods Equipment Company

 

[rongrzywacz]

How hard is it getting the blade bar off? Any tricks to it?

 

[JerryG]

How hard is it getting the blade bar off? Any tricks to it?

The down loadable manual shows how to get it off.