John Deere 609 Rotary Cutter

[WARTIGER45]

I currently have a John Deere 609 rotary cutter that was left on a piece of property that I just recently purchased. I hooked it up to my John Deere 5103 and moved it to the shop to work on it. Gear box had zero oil in it which kind of concerned me. I filled it to required level and it spins quite easily. And the blades have movement after a little lubricate and muscle. After very carefully engaging the PTO after I believed it to be safe enough to at least test, I noticed some vibration...a good bit. I continued to look at the PTO arm and realized there was some play in the U-Joints. So here is my question, Is it possible to remove the slip clutch and existing PTO arm and replace it with a standard PTO arm w/ a shear bolt? Is there an adaptor that can be place on the gear box to accommodate a standard PTO arm? I already have a fairly new PTO arm and I am trying to eliminate buying a $300+ new PTO w/ slip clutch.

 

[raheimdal]

If all that is worn out is the u-joints, it should be a pretty straight forward process to replace them. Having a slip clutch is much superior to a shear bolt. If you aren't comfortable replacing them yourself you should be able to remove the entire PTO shaft and take to the dealer and have them redo the joints.

 

[dusty3030]

609 is a heavy duty cutter with heavy blades, slip clutch will work better for you.

 

[JD 4520]

Depending on what you have to cut, you might be fine without changing out to a slip joint. If grass, save the money.

 

[Happy Gilmore]

I run our JD 709 on a Ford 4630. I always run it with an overrun clutch off the pto. It's a rugged mower.

 

[WARTIGER45]

Thanks for the replies, I will replace u joints on the arm to see if that eliminates the vibration. I am just going to cut brush and grass with it. No 4" in diameter trees or anything. It is quite old so I am afraid of an oil leak in gear box. Any suggestions besides putting a heavy grease in there to try and stop the leak? Would it be dump to drain existing oil and try and patch around bottom seal with some form of silicone/jb weld? Or would I be better off just topping the oil off each cut. It only leaks when it is engaged and it is just enough to tell there is a leak when looking under deck.

 

[raheimdal]

Unless the cutter is in really bad shape, it would be worth a new seal in the gearbox. You have to figure even if you had the dealer or a independent mechanic do the work, the cutter itself was free. What is it worth in piece of mind, not having to check the oil level all the time. Gives the unit better resale value come sale or trade-in time.

 

[Tx Jim]

I would not eliminate slip clutch but a word of caution would be to loosen slip clutch so it slips and then adjust back to your tractors HP. Another thing to check is be sure the u-joints are in phase. Out of phase will cause vibration. Drive came with a groove in female end and a ball on male end but I seen these balls removed or shafts altered to where they're not in phase(time). Also a lot of wear can get them out of phase but that can be corrected without spending $300. If the seal is leaking you could install corn head lube in the gearbox..

 

[countrybumpkin]

As stated above check the joint phase, but I'm betting the blades are out of balance, 90 percent of cutter vibrations I've ran across is due to the blades. Bent, broke, chipped , ect. Any or all of these can make a Hugh vibration problem.