Reclaiming Long Abandoned Rotary Cutters.

[Diggin It]

I'll know about the wheels later today.

If I can get the 7 footer running, they may keep it and use it on their larger Ford tractor instead of their small riding mower. That'll still get me the two 6 footers to either use, sell or maybe trade for a 4 or 5 foot rotary cutter.

 

[Diggin It]

No progress on the wheels. People have been busy with other things.

Yellow deck is freed up. Had to work each pulley and spindle manually with blaster and grease, but they all rotate now. Will probably have to replace the idlers and maybe the spindle bearings. Won't know that until after I can apply power. Rerouted the belt and got it tensioned without the need for the trailer ball in the earlier pictures. I can now run the belt by hand which turns all three blades and the gearbox which DID have oil that looks decent. Not dry like I first though.

PTO shaft that was connected to this deck is also freed up now. It was all rust frozen. With the help of lots of blaster, time for it to soak in overnight, a tree, a chain and a gentle tug of the blue beast, the two halves pulled free without much fuss. Yes it was tied to a low point, short and very little pulling forward on level ground.

Appears the 'Walton' and 'Wallace Hardware' are some kind of store brand. Parts and belt routing diagrams for a King Kutter 72 all match.

 

[Diggin It]

Got hooked up to the red deck sufficiently to move it to my yard for inspection. NO WAY I'll try to run this on my machine though.

Took the belt covers off and it looks like I evicted somebody, or a few somebodies. Packed almost solid with nut shells, shredded cloths, leaves and grass. Belts are rusted to the pulleys, but not chewed or otherwise damaged. Everything is frozen solid, nothing rotates at this point. Once I get the belts freed up I can go to work on the pulleys, spindles and gear box to see where I am.

 

[Diggin It]

Red beast is freed up. Took some ooomph, some disassembly and lots of Blaster, but all three spindles and the gearbox now rotate easily. I can hand pull one of the belts and everything rotates as it should including the PTO input stub. It's still a mess and will need to be washed and degreased. Not sure I'm going to get into stripping and painting though. Might spot wire brush and paint the loose rust areas.

Located four of the five missing gauge wheels, but a few of them need tires. Shafts are bent on several. Need to find a way to straighten.

He thinks that the gear box was changed on the gray one so it should be able to run on my tractor. How can I confirm that? Gearbox part number?

 

[Diggin It]

Making progress. Guide wheel shafts that were so badly bent are now straightened, lubed and reinstalled. New wheels on the gray one using the 8" solid rubber wheels from HF. That one has a broken blade, so I can't test run it under power until I get blades. All pulleys and spindles rotate free and easy. Will probably need both belts though.

Red one, being the higher value one will eventually be fully disassembled, stripped and painted. Looks like I can get new labels from Befco dealers. One of the guide wheel tires was shredded somehow, so it has to be replaced. Found that last one buried under some other junk, so at least I have all the support arms. Tire shop in town says they can do it installed for $15 which sounds decent. It'll need a tube too due to a bad wheel so that will be a bit extra. New wheels would be nice if I can find them, but so far not much luck. I think the belts will be OK on this one. Haven't checked the blades yet.

Yellow one is in much better shape now. Guide wheels all roll and shafts rotate free. Got the belt tension adjuster cleaned up and straightened this morning so it works like it should. I can now pull the belt by hand and all three spindles rotate and the input PTO shaft turns with them. Will probably need a new belt on this one.

Glitch here is on one spindle some knuckled head decided to weld the blade to the spindle instead of fixing it properly. The other two are fine. Need to figure out exactly what brand of deck this is so I can order one. It'll work for now, but I don't want to sell it that way. Need to check further on parts for the King Kutter 72 I mentioned above to see if that's it.

Inner grooves of all pulleys as well as the idlers on all three decks are badly rusted. I'm hoping I can run them under power for a few minutes to see if there are any bearing issues and hopefully run a lot of this rust out of the belt bearing surfaces. I know I'll have to replace belts before I can sell them, but I really don't want to have to replace pulleys and idlers.

 

[4get gto]

Any one of those machines would be $250-500 just the way they sit in my area. You did well. I've seen them so badly rusted you could stick your head in from the top check the blades..��
And thats not to mention the 15#'s of weld they put on various spots.

 

[cglaser104]

Red beast is freed up. Took some ooomph, some disassembly and lots of Blaster, but all three spindles and the gearbox now rotate easily. I can hand pull one of the belts and everything rotates as it should including the PTO input stub. It's still a mess and will need to be washed and degreased. Not sure I'm going to get into stripping and painting though. Might spot wire brush and paint the loose rust areas.

Located four of the five missing gauge wheels, but a few of them need tires. Shafts are bent on several. Need to find a way to straighten.

He thinks that the gear box was changed on the gray one so it should be able to run on my tractor. How can I confirm that? Gearbox part number?

If your using the machine in your profile you should be fine to run anything you wanna try. Gear boxes are about maximum tolerable HP, there isn't really a minimum. I think the smallest gearbox I've ever seen was 30HP so go for it. I would just change gearbox oil beforehand to make sure not to tear up anything with bad oil.

 

[Diggin It]

I've seen them so badly rusted you could stick your head in from the top check the blades.

All three decks and all six belt covers are completely intact. Some surface rust, some bubbled paint, but no through rust anywhere. Lots of rusted bolts and nuts though.

If your using the machine in your profile you should be fine to run anything you wanna try.

I ain't that brave. My luck would be they'd start out OK, then something would bind up suddenly and over-stress my PTO. Neighbor has a couple of old JD workhorses that would power through any glitches, even if it broke the decks. I'll have him come by and do the test runs.

Yeah, I plan on changing the gearbox oil at some point before I try to sell them.

 

[cglaser104]

Lol you'll be fine. There are either sheer pins or slip clutches on the PTO to prevent damage to your machine. You can power them but I'm not sure how much you would wanna try them in the grass.

 

[aczlan]

No progress on the wheels. People have been busy with other things.

Yellow deck is freed up. Had to work each pulley and spindle manually with blaster and grease, but they all rotate now. Will probably have to replace the idlers and maybe the spindle bearings. Won't know that until after I can apply power. Rerouted the belt and got it tensioned without the need for the trailer ball in the earlier pictures. I can now run the belt by hand which turns all three blades and the gearbox which DID have oil that looks decent. Not dry like I first though.

PTO shaft that was connected to this deck is also freed up now. It was all rust frozen. With the help of lots of blaster, time for it to soak in overnight, a tree, a chain and a gentle tug of the blue beast, the two halves pulled free without much fuss. Yes it was tied to a low point, short and very little pulling forward on level ground.

Appears the 'Walton' and 'Wallace Hardware' are some kind of store brand. Parts and belt routing diagrams for a King Kutter 72 all match.

Can you post a picture of the drive pulley on the yellow one? The supports for the wheels and the three-point hitch assembly looks exactly like the one on a Walco-Douglas mower that I used to have.
It was a rear discharge mower with a 7 foot deck, one oddity on that was that the blades had rectangular holes in them for the bolts to attach to.
I was able to run that one behind our B7500 which has 16 PTO horsepower, but it was only good for trimming lawn, not for putting any kind of tall grass.

Aaron Z