JD513 Cutter Seal Replacement

[RobS]

I have a John Deere 513 rotary cutter which has been leaking oil from the output shaft for a while now. Time to replace. Has anyone done something similar? What's involved? The bolt holding the blade holder onto the shaft doesn't look too bad (not as big as I would have guessed). Is the connection tapered, splined or ??? I have various small gear/pulley pullers but nothing too big. Will I need a larger puller of some sort? TIA /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Rch]

Try pumping it full grease and add a can or two of a STP knock-off. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif I've got a snowblower and tiller gear box that this has worked on for 4-5 years so far.

 

[joecdeere]

Rob, it's not a hard job, after you get the blade holder off.
It is held on with a 16 x 35 mm bolt @230 ft-lb, so you will need an impact wrench or a good pullbar and cheater pipe.
After the holder is off, there will be a seal protector and then the seal (DEERE # CE17707)

 

[RobS]

Thanks for the input Joe. Once I get the bolt off will the blade holder fall off or is it a press fit of some sort?

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[BillyP]

If I'm not mistaken here (and I very well could be). The blade holder is held onto a splined shaft, by way of a nut and cotter pin. Take the cotter pin out, loosen the nut a few turns, start the tractor and engage the PTO. This should loosen the holder from the shaft, if it isn't already loose.

If engaging the PTO doesn't loosen the holder, you can tap it from the hole in the top of the deck. Use a heavy bar or something, tap one side, turn the holder 180 degrees and do it again.

 

[joecdeere]

My parts book shows it as a bolt. It is a splined slightly tapered shaft. Can't tell you how hard it will be to get off. Sometimes one rap with a big hammer gets it loose, and I have seen people have to cut oak wedges to drive under them to loosen them. I'm not a big fan of loosening them up and turning them on, but it has been done. No matter how you loosen it, remember it's about three times as heavy as it looks, so don't let it fall on you, and get help to put it back.
If you need me to e-mail a parts page to you, just let me know.

 

[arto98607]

Lets see if I can revive this old tread which was pretty handy for me!


I have John Deere 413 brush hog, which is identical to 513 - only little narrower cut.

The gearbox was leaking oil and it turned out the output shaft had corroded due to moisture collecting and settling down in the lowest point of the gearbox! The oil seal was actually not damaged at all, only the shaft had bunch of corrosion which caused leaking. I cleaned out the shaft and installed new seal - so far so good.


I also installed spring loaded JD5801 gearbox vent plug and pan W37716 which should keep the weeds from wrapping up around the output shaft.

Never did figure out how the water entered the gearbox since this cutter was always parked under cover and the original oil fill plug was a solid steel?


View attachment Blade holder, blades and pan.pdf