Brush mower gearbox with overrunning clutch?

[freedomlives]

Finally got the adapter made to use the YABE/Nibbi brush mower with my Goldoni. I fully anticipated that the direction of rotation might be opposite, which should just require flipping the swinging blades over. I did not realize it would have a overrunning clutch / freewheel mechanism in the gearbox, so I was quite confused at first why it didn't turn at all when I turned on the PTO. It does "work" with the groundspeed PTO in reverse, which is obviously absolutely useless.

Anyone have experience with such gearboxes? Do the ones that BCS/grillo use have such a feature? I guess inevitably I'm opening up the gearbox to see what I can do...

 

[sandman2234]

I really hate reverse running tractors or implements. Should be a law, lol!
David from jax

 

[freedomlives]

Good news is, I've got the gearbox apart, and everything can be reversed-- not just direction of the freewheel mechanism, but also swap around the gear to the other side, so the mower blades will spin in the same direction as from factory. Only disconcerting thing is that one spacer doesn't fit on the other side-- seems better without the spacer. Getting the old gasketing material off, I'll know in a bit that it works for sure.

 

[freedomlives]

The gearbox is Comer brand L-25 A. I didn't get a chance to mow with it today, but just want to post the pictures of the conversion process-- might help someone in the future.


Cover:


Open gearbox:


Closeups of freewheel mechanism:





Spring positions:


Ready to go back together (note the spacer ring that wasn't needed when the gear was swapped to the other side):


Sealant on edges:


Gearbox back together:

 

[js5020]

Nice fix.

 

[freedomlives]

It works.

 

[NibbanaFarm]

Interesting. I have the 26" BCS bush hog and the blades are completely symmetric. That is, you could run it in either direction and it would perform identically. I can only think that they designed it so that it could be used with any tractor by just reversing the overrunning clutch assembly like you did. And using the correct hitch.

 

[freedomlives]

I would wonder if perhaps in that gearbox yours has it is possible only to reverse the direction of the over-running, and not the direction of rotation?

Further good news is that I've used it more and its doing fine.

 

[kangelis]

Hi,
Is it possible to share the code of the Comer L-25A because I can't reed it in the photos.
Constantinos

 

[freedomlives]

Code is 124.654
Which is on page 70 of their catalog:

https://media.comerindustries.com/production/2023/05/Gearboxes_compressed.pdf