True on all counts;
you need a small hand held magnet
blue shop paper towels
squirt bottle of new gear oil
oil pan
set of box wrenches
set of allen wenches
magnetic base dial indicator
high candle power flashlight
long and short steel rulers
wire brushes small and large
rubbing alcohol to clean exposed welds
spring style weld chipping hammer
A couple of quick ways to check it for value;
remove several sets of knives to check for true by placing the ruler(s) in a clear part of the rotor, roll the rotor and hold the narrow end of steel ruler against the hood firmly but not to firmly and if it is out of round you will see it and feel it move the ruler.
do the same thing with the ruler flat against the rotor with a little pressure and if its damaged you will feell it scuff the ruler with authority.
It takes a lot off physical energy to damage a rotor as it is very well constructed and welded then balanced for proper orbit while mowing high rpm's
a rear roller will be damaged if the mower is backed into an immoveable object.
obtaining bearings is no problem as they are all metric, thank god!!!
the magnet is to check for metal pieces in the grease of the bearings after you wipe the bearings free of grease on all four sides.
Bring some wrenches and allen wrenches for the oil drain plug
and ask to be able to drain the oil in the gear box and offer to replace
the oil removed with new oil.
open the drive cover to check the chain and sprockets,
leave the cover off to check it later after you check the rotor for true orbit.
use the dial indicator to check the cross shaft for true orbit if the rotor and roller are OK- the end bearing will go bad before the shaft does.
Borrow or bribe a machinist or mechanic friend with beer, dinner, donuts, etc., or buy a dial indicator with a magnetic base to check and establish the orbit of the roller and the rotor- before you unpack the dial indicator-spin the rotor to see if its free by hand preferably with a pipe wrench as an aid to spin it- if it spins freely by hand no issues, no pipe wrench.
do the same with the rear roller, then you can unpack the dial indicator, park it where you have some clean metal-paints is ok but dirt and grass will distort the orbit to allow the magnet to hold and then spin the rotor by hand where it will have a clear path to create an orbit to see if it is out of round-if you have really bad bearings it will not be true in orbit but the bearings will correct that.
its end bearings are replaceable if they are bad.
The shafts are balanced to provide proper orbit and allow high speed rotation to allow quick grass slicing.
more than likely whoever had it stopped using it and took ther PTO shaft for some other implement.
I would offer them $175 dollars because it will cost almost that much to buy a new replacement limited slip clutch PTO shaft to replace the one that is missing.
Call flailmaster today-monday and tell them wht you know about it.
as the gear box should be standard issue where it can be identified and the mower blades are most likely grass blades anyway and there are plenty of grass knive types available.
It it were me, I would gamble and rebuild it if the bearings are questionable; pulleys, gearbox, roller chain, and sprockets are easily obtainable from a lot of places like grainger and Mcmaster Carr and probably Flailmaster as well.
They may have ruined the old bearings and substituted the erong bearings to begin with and ruined them too.
the flail mower requires sperical roller bearings,
you should have no issues obtaining the proper sperical roller bearings as they are common bearing used for many purposes.
the hood weldments should be checked by cleaning them with the alcohol and using the flashlight to check for holes if any in the steel hoods. I would also tap the steel at the welds to see if they sound a bit hollow to check for broken welds- you will be able to tell quickly with a flash light and a chipping hammer.
