Mowing repair burned LX5?

[mapmgr]

I have a JD 4310 with an LX5 among other attachments. A brush fire partially damaged the LX5.

From what I can see, the plastic covering over the PTO shaft and the cowling near the gear box are melted. I am unable to extend the PTO shaft. JD also said over the phone that plastic washers may also have burned causing a loss of grease at the gear box.

The current plan is to have the brush hog picked up for inspection.

If I have a choice, should I go ahead and get the LX5 repaired and upgrade to clutch vs shear pin if able to to so, invest in an MX5 or can the 4310 handle a small flail mower? The repair should be covered under insurance.

Thanks in advance!

-- Glenn

 

[danedgington]

Personaly, I would pull down the gear box, clean and inspect. (once you do that you are going to replace the seals anyway). If all looks good I would sandblast burn paint areas, repaint and replace shaft (personally I use a slip, but I think that is personal preference, and only use a slip if you are going to make a habbit of making sure it is not rusted shut).

And I wouldn't make a claim on my insurance as the total would be less than my deduct. and only take a few hour of my time....

 

[Johndeere3720]

I would definitely take it apart and fix it. I salvaged my rotary tiller from a barn fire and I saved a LOT of $$$ vs. buying a new tiller. Taking apart the gear box is pretty simple, there are only 2 gears in there to work with as well as 2 bearings and 2 seals. The PTO stub should have a bolted on cover as well as the bottom of the gear box where the gear box goes to your mower blades should have a bolted on cover. The seals will be bad so i definitely recommend replacing them. You will have a bit of a mess in the gear box and there may possibly be bad bearings as well as the heat weakens the metal. I had to replace all the bearings in my tiller as well as all the seals. I am not sure if my tiller had a PTO shaft cover but I presume it did but i never replaced it since I rarely use my tiller and I already have the slip clutch on my PTO shaft. When you clean out your gear box, we used mineral spirits on an old rag and it did a pretty good job of removing baked on greece and oil. When it is all apart, cover the open ends on the gear box and use a wire wheel to clean up the metal and apply primer. For the rest of the mower, i would have it sand blasted and primed as well. How is the tail wheel's condition? was it solid rubber or air filler? Is it still there or did it melt? That I cant imagine would be to hard to replace if something did happen to it. Finally, I would have the entire unit painted or even powder coated and to top it off have new decals applied and it will be done. Over all restoration i estimate will be around $100-200 plus what new decals would cost along with a PTO shaft with a slip clutch.