Rotary Cutter Drive Shaft Sheared!

[Ford850]

Well I decided to drop by my dealer this afternoon to inquire a bit more about the fix. Turns out my MX5 is an earlier version and the only option at this point is to change entire gearbox and the turntable. The upside is my blades are still good ......yipee. I'm having my dealer do the work as this is a first time for them and could not give me good guidance on the changeover. Ironically another customer called my dealer about his broken MX5. Must be the heat.

So you are paying them $1000 for a gear box, plus the "turntable" (stump jumper?) and then maybe you'll need blades to fit this new setup? Plus labor on something they've never done before? I hope they were greatly exagerating their estimates.

 

[gauthier]

Yeah,since a 40 hp gear box can be bought for 100 bucks[next bigger hp range box wasn't that much more by the way],and you can buy a 5 ft king cutter for 800 bucks or so[other brands are out there for about same price],don't believe I would be giving deere anymore money,my kk is blue but I don't care that it don't match my tractor color

 

[Haoleguy]

Thanks for many of the suggestions. From my checking prices on medium duty rotary mowers at 5-6ft for a 66 hp tractor I'm not seeing a price that suggests I can have one at my door for under the price to fix what I have. The Agrisupply suggestion is interesting to me(thanks for the link) but the time I fumbled trough bolt patterns, shaft configs, etc I will have lost time I'd rather spend elsewhere. After talking to my 2 local dealers(JD & Kubota) I would go with a Woods medium duty rotary cutter. My expectation is that Woods parts would be available longer into the future than JD has shown. I will let this group know what the final damage is...

 

[milkman]

Hawkline 5 ft Brush Hog $895, shearpin protected or $995 with slip clutch. I bet the Deere repair bill will be more that the price of a new cutter? Ken Sweet

I'd bet that you'd even paint it green for him and still come in WAY under the repair bill.:laughing:

 

[Haoleguy]

Quick update after 1 week. Called Deere dealer today and they said the gearbox was on back order and that the production facility does not have run completion date. Don't you just love outsourcing. Can one use another gearbox, drill new attachment holes and make sure the PTO driveline matches to that new gearbox?

 

[Ford tractor]

Quick update after 1 week. Called Deere dealer today and they said the gearbox was on back order and that the production facility does not have run completion date. Don't you just love outsourcing. Can one use another gearbox, drill new attachment holes and make sure the PTO driveline matches to that new gearbox?

Sure. Some metal working may be required to get the replacement box at the correct height. Maybe the woods BB600 or 720 gear box?

You do know that KK has a like of Heavy Duty cutters? They are really close to the specs of the Deere and the woods medium duty (not quite but close.)

From the web site.....
KING KUTTER'S HEAVY DUTY KUTTERS are designed to meet the needs of any tough job. It is constructed of extra heavy material, 8" I-Beam side rails, and a 3/16" single sheet top deck that is fully reinforced with cross and spider bracing, this Kutter is built to perform. Each kutter has a splined cast iron gearbox, a shielded PTO shaft with slip clutch, a solid 3/4" thick steel plate blade carrier, a heavy duty wheel fork(s), a top link swivel, and adjustable laminated tail wheel(s).

King Kutter Incorporated

 

[sweettractors]

Quick update after 1 week. Called Deere dealer today and they said the gearbox was on back order and that the production facility does not have run completion date. Don't you just love outsourcing. Can one use another gearbox, drill new attachment holes and make sure the PTO driveline matches to that new gearbox?

We may have a gearbox. Need the configuration of the input shaft (round smooth or round splindsd) and the # of splines on the output shaft? Ken Sweet

 

[JohninCT]

Quick update after 1 week. Called Deere dealer today and they said the gearbox was on back order and that the production facility does not have run completion date. Don't you just love outsourcing. Can one use another gearbox, drill new attachment holes and make sure the PTO driveline matches to that new gearbox?

Here's a link to a 75 HP gearbox that Agrisupply offers. Measure your input and output shaft sizes and configuration and mounting hole pattern and compare. Comaparison to JD MX5 parts dwg (I don't know if yours looks exactly like the one pictured) shows a splined input and output shaft but doesn't say size or number of splines.

75 HP GEARBOX FOR ROTARY MOWERS - Agri Supply

Here's one from eBay that might work for you also
Replacement Rotary Cutter 60 hp Gear Box on eBay!

At 1/3 or less than the cost of repair from JD I'd be inclined to buy a replacement gear box even if I had to fab up some kind of adaptor plate to mount it to the mower deck. But that's just me

 

[Haoleguy]

Just to close the loop on this saga. After >5 weeks I received my repaired MX5 and am $1400 poorer. My dealer has been good but the national JD Parts department has been abyssmal. The gearbox showed up after 3 weeks and then the turntable at 5 weeks all because of no homebase stock and an OEM manufacturer in Mexico... bad strategy! Production runs, shipment/customs, and delivery were very poorly coordinated and forecasted by national JD Parts. My dealer had no idea on what to expect. In the interim my dealer dropped off their MX5 for me to use for a couple of weeks so that I could catchup on cutting. If I were purchasing a medium duty rotary mower today I would not look at JD but rather Woods, LandPride, or someone in the US that can deliver on parts if needed. Thanks for all of the previous suggestions which I will use in future purchases.

 

[buck12]

When I got a used Woods tiller a local dealer told me Wood's parts were difficult to get.