Repair Kuhn Mower Cutterbar/Gearbox?

   / Repair Kuhn Mower Cutterbar/Gearbox? #1  

CliffordK

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Joined
Mar 8, 2013
Messages
1,555
Location
Eugene, Oregon
Tractor
Toro D200, Ford 1715, International 884,
I was cleaning my new-ish Kuhn GMD77 mower, and found this.

Leak.jpg

bar.jpg

Apparently there was a ball of twine and barbed wire fence wound around one of the spindles.

This caused a gouge in the back part of the bar.

I think the bearings feel ok, but I'll put the disk back on to see what it feels like.

Anyway, it oozes gear oil a bit. The whole bar is in an oil bath.

As I understand it, welding it in place would be iffy. I could lean it forward to get the oil to settle to the opposite side. Would that be enough?

The proper way to fix it would be to tear the whole thing apart, but I don't think I want to do that now. At least if I don't decide to replace all of the bearings.

Suggestions?
 
   / Repair Kuhn Mower Cutterbar/Gearbox? #2  
G'day tilt the bar and let sit for a couple of days and mig it up if you have one, if not hit it with the arc just have your earth nice and close, it is too far away from the brg to get too much heat for the small weld you have to do.


Jon
 
   / Repair Kuhn Mower Cutterbar/Gearbox? #3  
You do have a good chance of oil contamination so be careful! You might look at putting a patch over the area.
 
   / Repair Kuhn Mower Cutterbar/Gearbox?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
It's not strutural, so the idea was to "patch" it. But, yes, oil contamination is my big concern.

What about tig brazing?

The end result should be flat, so I can't really build it up beyond flat. Plus, if I ever want to get it apart again, I don't want to join the two pieces in the photo.
 
   / Repair Kuhn Mower Cutterbar/Gearbox? #5  
I fixed one last year in the field for a guy. I'm not saying it was ideal or the best way.
Scrapped and cleaned with buffing wheel ( pipeliner knot wheel)
Used cutting torch to find crack by heating red not glowing, keeping heat away from bearing
Ground a ditch in it so I could get it all
Welded slow at low amps 7018 3/32nd rods
They put it back together and went on cutting. I told if it kept leaking call me back and I'd fix it right. He has called about 3 other mowers for work but that is still going.
Sometimes you get lucky I guess.
 
   / Repair Kuhn Mower Cutterbar/Gearbox? #6  
A mig weld repair with the oil tilted away from the repair should work. I would weld and then run a few minutes until the oil heats up and then drain that old oil from the cutterbar and replace with new oil. Ken Sweet
 
 
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