Rotary Cutter New to rotary cutters, have questions, help please

[StrangeRanger]

Ok, did a little more work on it last night. Cleaned it up a bit, got the old blades off and greased where I could. One of the bearings wouldn't take grease because the "case" around the bearing was broken. So I'd squeeze in grease via the zerk and it would just spew out the side. Bummer.

It looks like the PTO from my blower will fit. But getting the PTO off the blower is a royal PITA. Still not sure what to do about that.

The other issue is that the 3pt bars are too narrow for my 3pth. Not sure what I'm gonna do about that either. I really don't want to pay anyone to weld on this thing for me.

Not sure about the pulley set up not working. The thing obviously has a ton of use on it so while I'm sure pycoed has some valid points I'm also sure that it has worked in the past for someone. A lot.

The old blades may be salvageable after all. The one I thought was bent was actually just caked w/ girm/grease/grass stuff. The bolts holding them on didn't even have washers or lock washers or anything on them. They were literally so loose I didn't even need a wrench, just used my fingers! Someone was a very brave fool w/ this thing.

I could probably get it going, but I'm still thinking it's not going to perform very well and probably just scare the h3ll out of me the whole time it's running Anyone got a TSC coupon I could use?

j

 

[N80]

The other issue is that the 3pt bars are too narrow for my 3pth. Not sure what I'm gonna do about that either.
j

That may be the deal breaker, there. So you are saying that your lower lift arms won't close in narrow enough to fit on the pins? That seems odd, they will swing nearly together on mine. Do you have turnbuckles on your lower lift arms?

 

[studor]

What is holding your lower links apart? There must be sway bars or turnbuckles or something because otherwise it should fit
As for the drivetrain not sure why it is such a PITA to take off-- can you describe or picture it.
The bearing is probably pretty standard and sounds like it has to be replaced

 

[Glowplug]

Your stabilizer bars should be able to be released so that the lower links can swing together closer.

 

[StrangeRanger]

Even w/ the turnbuckles completely unscrewed the lower arms do not come close enough together. They're close, but still about 1-2" too wide on each side.

The PTO is a PITA because when it's on the blower there's literally no room to get anything behind it to drive it off. And I really don't think it's a good idea to pull on the thing is it. Those knuckle joints sure don't look like they'd like to be pulled on.

j

 

[N80]

The blower PTO should come on and off without having to drive it off. There should be a button you push or a collar you pull that will release it from the blower. Some WD-40 might help.

If the lower lift arms won't close in tight enough without removing the turnbuckles.....I'd call that the last straw. Time to give that thing the heave-ho.

 

[StrangeRanger]

The blower PTO should come on and off without having to drive it off. There should be a button you push or a collar you pull that will release it from the blower. Some WD-40 might help.

If the lower lift arms won't close in tight enough without removing the turnbuckles.....I'd call that the last straw. Time to give that thing the heave-ho.

The end that slides onto the blower shaft is not a locking collar. It slides on, has a key and then a shear bolt that goes through it. I've put never-seize on the shaft and key, but it's still a very tight fit.

The lift points are disheartening... gonna have to ponder this a bit.
j

 

[Glowplug]

What is it? A cat 0? How far apart are the pins?

 

[studor]

Hmmm
If the shaft is keyed then the shear bolt is somewhere else - a key would stop it from freewheeling if the shear bolt went

 

[StrangeRanger]

What is it? A cat 0? How far apart are the pins?

I didn't bother to measure them, I just looked at how far my lift arms were from reaching and bagged the plan.

The more I looked at it and started to recondition it I realized how much effort was going to be needed to get it going. And it would probably be marginal performance at best and probably just scare the he*& out of me the whole time it's running. Dang it!
j