Finish mower gear box used for auger

[Walkin Horse]

Last year I bought a no name finish mower for $100. The guy said he had used it verty little I used it one time and the belt broke. I put a new belt on it and the first time I used it this year the belt broke. I put another one on today and used it five minutes til it broke again. That's $80 for belts.

I've made up my mind I'm gonna junk it. Could the gear box be used for an auger. I don't know enough about the gearboxes to know if I'd be wasting more time. Are they all about the same or are they geared different. I'm going to use the wheels and the tph to build a frame for my chain drag.

Can anybody tell me if this will work. Or give me ideas for another project.

 

[DuckSlayer1017]

Hard to say without knowing the gear ratio. I don't know for sure but augers run at a one or two hundred rpm. I would guess that the finish mower ran a lot faster than that. If it does spin slow enough I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I suspect that the mower gear box is a PTO rpm increaser while the gearbox on a post hole digger is an PTO rpm decreaser?

Don't have a clue on ratios but, makes sense?

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[Walkin Horse]

It has about a 10 or 12" pulley on the gear box. I don't know if that speeds it up. Does an auger turn 1 for 1 with the pto shaft. I've used an auger but wasn't interested enough in it to study how it works.

 

[boggen]

80 bucks on belts, actually sounds cheap to me. sounds like ya got the cheapest belts possible, vs beh been over a year since i had to last look up the info, i want to say kevlar belt. generally the more expensive belt choice option. the type of belt material, allows for higher heat before stretching. and the overall belt stretches less.

with belts going that quick i would also suspect idler pulley not being adjusted correctly. with correct amount of deflection in the belt.

pictures worth a 1,000 words more so on the forum!

==============
all gear boxes should have some information on them "stamped directly" into the metal of them or a silverish metal card maybe a little smaller than point finger/middle finger together. in length/width. if you found that info, you should be able to track it back to manufacture of gear box and find gear ratios and like.

you may find the silverish metal card some place on deck to find model number / manufacture of the actual mower as well. most likely some place on top of the deck.

 

[bcp]

Many successful post hole diggers have been made using old car or truck rear ends. That would generally be a reduction gear ratio of between about 3:1 to 5:1.

Turn your mower gearbox input shaft one revolution and count how many times the output shaft turns. Or the other way around-whichever is easier.

Report back.

Bruce

 

[Fallon]

100 rpm coming out of the PHD is about as fast as I'd imagine would be safe. With a standard 540 rpm PTO that's decreasing things by a factor of 5 or so.

A mower is going to be spinning a LOT faster. It runs on speed not torque like the PHD to do work. Unless you are running it backwards it would be the wrong tool for the job. Even if the ratios were right, hooking up an augur & PTO shaft would be hard. Cheaper & easier to get a PHD gearbox or use a truck differential.

 

[Cord]

That gear box is going to be too light duty and the output is going to turn too fast. Some of the Woods mowers had a horizontal pulley off the off the drive shaft, but no gear box.

Sounds like the seller didn't lie to you. He just didn't say how often the belt broke.

 

[Walkin Horse]

Sounds like the seller didn't lie to you. He just didn't say how often the belt broke.[/QUOTE]

Yes I guess he did me a favor only asking $100 for it. I'm just afraid to put any more money or time in it. Even buying these cheap $40 dollar belts I have wasted a lot of time fooling with it. There is no nomenclature plate on it to tell me what it is. There may be some stamping on the gear box. I don't know yet. The one warning sticker that's on it is worn out and mostly unreadable.

So does anybody have any good ideas to turn this into something else. Like I said I can use the new tires I just put on it and save the hitch. And the belt guard will fit my neighbors rusted out one.

 

[jenkinsph]

Sounds like the seller didn't lie to you. He just didn't say how often the belt broke.

Yes I guess he did me a favor only asking $100 for it. I'm just afraid to put any more money or time in it. Even buying these cheap $40 dollar belts I have wasted a lot of time fooling with it. There is no nomenclature plate on it to tell me what it is. There may be some stamping on the gear box. I don't know yet. The one warning sticker that's on it is worn out and mostly unreadable.

So does anybody have any good ideas to turn this into something else. Like I said I can use the new tires I just put on it and save the hitch. And the belt guard will fit my neighbors rusted out one.[/QUOTE]


I would assume that if you bought this finish mower you had a need for it. The gear box is not what you want for a phd so you might post pics of the mower and get some help on the forum to fix it. Sometimes we over look stuff that others seem to catch right away, posting some pics and answering some questions here might be the best resolution to your problem.