Replacing seal in the bottom of a bushhog cutter

[clemsonfor]

OK Jbar put the wrong postage on the package so it got returned and then reshipped so it arrived last saturday. I put it on in about 30 mins and powerbar and blades that i touched up last week and let it sit over night to let the silicone i put on the flange dry before i filled the box with oil.

My point is this. After doing this repair, i would never fill a gearbox with greese. First off the seal was $7 and some change and they charged me $250 to ship, so i was in less than $11 for the seal, if i were to fill with cornhead greese i would be 20-30 $ in grease or $6 for cheap grease. Now that i know what i am doing, and if you had a set of instructions or parts diagram like i did not have you can do the whole job (assuming you have the seal when you start) in less than 1 hour. I see no reason to fill a gearbox with greese on any thing other than a rusty swiss cheese deck cutter that is i field away from the scrap heap.

Just thought i post the results of my repair.

 

[Ginormous]

My reason for filling my gearbox with corn head grease ($20 total, including shipping and an extra tube of grease) is that I'm not sure how to or if I would be able to get the old seal off; by all descriptions, including yours, it's a real bear even when you know how. If I knew I could get it off, I would have replaced it. And just to assure you, I'm not offended at all. Just pointing out why I personally went the corn head grease route and got-R-done. :thumbsup:

 

[clemsonfor]

BTW, the corn head grease (from GreenPartStore - Parts for John Deere Lawn Tractors, John Deere Lawn & Garden Tractors, John Deere Mowers, John Deere Attachments, John Deere Accessories) wasn't too expensive. The grease was $3.45 a tube -- mine took 3 to fill it 90% full -- and shipping was about $10.

Ok so thats not as much as i was thinking. Thats what 20.50, still twice the price for me to fix it right. Plus mine was leaking bad, a whole box full in like a day and a half. That soupy looking stuff may have even leaked out? My seal had gras and junk in the flange and a wad had worked up between the shaft and the rubber seal part so it would just flow out. So far since sunday when i filled it not a drop has leaked and that included cutting a vacant lot in town and running it till hot or about 20 mins or so.

 

[clemsonfor]

My reason for filling my gearbox with corn head grease ($20 total, including shipping and an extra tube of grease) is that I'm not sure how to or if I would be able to get the old seal off; by all descriptions, including yours, it's a real bear even when you know how. If I knew I could get it off, I would have replaced it. And just to assure you, I'm not offended at all. Just pointing out why I personally went the corn head grease route and got-R-done. :thumbsup:

Mine was so much trouble cause i had no idea where to start. I was going to get it if i had the whole gearbox apart one way or the other. Now that i know it wont be half the trouble as i wont pull the pinion shaft out and the bearing and race as well and have to seat them back.

 

[ovrszd]

OK Jbar put the wrong postage on the package so it got returned and then reshipped so it arrived last saturday. I put it on in about 30 mins and powerbar and blades that i touched up last week and let it sit over night to let the silicone i put on the flange dry before i filled the box with oil.

My point is this. After doing this repair, i would never fill a gearbox with greese. First off the seal was $7 and some change and they charged me $250 to ship, so i was in less than $11 for the seal, if i were to fill with cornhead greese i would be 20-30 $ in grease or $6 for cheap grease. Now that i know what i am doing, and if you had a set of instructions or parts diagram like i did not have you can do the whole job (assuming you have the seal when you start) in less than 1 hour. I see no reason to fill a gearbox with greese on any thing other than a rusty swiss cheese deck cutter that is i field away from the scrap heap.

Just thought i post the results of my repair.

I did the seal replacement on a Ford cutter. Lasted thru two uses, then new seal started leaking. Went to grease and never looked back.

 

[clemsonfor]

I did the seal replacement on a Ford cutter. Lasted thru two uses, then new seal started leaking. Went to grease and never looked back.

Im gonna give this a try, if it dont last the season i may go to grease i guess?

Some designs must be more prone to getting wrapped up and cut than others

 

[eastexan]

I did the seal replacement on a Ford cutter. Lasted thru two uses, then new seal started leaking. Went to grease and never looked back.

I may do that with my old Servis mower. It seeps a little and it's probably 40 to 50 years old and will probably be hard to take apart to replace the seal. And besides, the shaft might have some wear and the seal not hold anyway.

I was a little concerned about the thickness of the cornhead grease in the pic's cause it looked a little too thick to me.
But when I looked it up, it said it "Thins to gear oil when working; thickens to grease when resting".
So that sounds like there wouldn't be any void places, and everything would get greased ok. :thumbsup:

 

[Ken]

To remove the bush hog type cutter bar that the blades attach to . after removing the nut and soaking the shaft place a short pipe over the the exposed threaded shaft. Using a hydrolic jack chained so head penatrates the short pipe pushing on shaft and wrap a chain placed in X fashion secureing the jack from slipping off. Then pumping the jack to put pressure on shaft when hard to pump jack using a sledge hammer hit the cutter bar close to flange of where the nut was placed. Used this method on several hard to loosen type shafts.
Same thing as a hydrolic press used in shops .
I have used several types of oil grease anti seize and all resist removing after years of seizing the shaft.
Plan on a cool morning also helps.
ken

 

[clemsonfor]

I may do that with my old Servis mower. It seeps a little and it's probably 40 to 50 years old and will probably be hard to take apart to replace the seal. And besides, the shaft might have some wear and the seal not hold anyway.

I was a little concerned about the thickness of the cornhead grease in the pic's cause it looked a little too thick to me.
But when I looked it up, it said it "Thins to gear oil when working; thickens to grease when resting".
So that sounds like there wouldn't be any void places, and everything would get greased ok. :thumbsup:

Really those pics it looks pretty goopy and flowable to me when compared to others.

 

[Ginormous]

Eastexan is right. It's a special grease that gets thinner as it's being worked. The scientific term is thixotropic.

thixotropic definition: The property exhibited by certain gels of becoming fluid when stirred or shaken and returning to the semisolid state upon standing.

It's just what you want. It's like oil when the gears are working, and it's like pudding when they're not. Very cool. :thumbsup: