Hi guys,
I wanted to share my experience in hopes it may help others regarding removing the stump jumper plate and knowing if the seal is leaking.
I have a 5' King Kutter I bought used a few yrs ago. The gear box bolts loosened some how and I needed tighten them but could only do so by removing the stump jumper plate. The main retaining castle nut/cotter pin came out w/ little effort but the stump plate was another story. After I removed the nut there was a little gear oil that leaked out, and from noticiing the amount of dried/caked oil ON THE TOP of the plate, viewable from the access hole on the top, this was a sign the seal was bad already.
The plate has about 5" of female splines that are mated to the gear box tapered shaft. This is where it was stuck. In order to get pressure on the plate to remove it from the shaft I cut a 4x4 block of wood in diagnolly in half to create wedges I could pound between the plate and deck. I had the cutter leaned on it's nose for access to the belly of the deck using folk lift tines (I used a chain to secure it from falling either way once it was upright for safety) After I pounded in the wedges I heated the plate "collar" from the top of the deck access hole to get heat on the female splines to expand it. After about 5 mins of heat and about 10 whacks of a 10 lb sledge the collar came free.
While the heat made the seal leak worse, there was a handful of sludge on top of the plate already where the seal was leaking. KK uses a pretty generic seal that I could pick up from a bearing shop here in town for $8. Everything went back together pretty easy.....I used Never Seize on the tines in case I needed to remove the stump plate it in the future. I also removed the (4) nuts/bolts that held the gear box to the deck and put Lock Tite on them, even though they are lock nuts, they got loose some how!!
What I learned is if you are low on oil, check to see if there's fresh (or old) oil on the stump plate from looking into the access hole from the top. I think the leaking oil coated the gear box mounting bolts and helped them to back off from the natural vibration.
Hope this helps someone in the future!
HAppy mowing!
Bush
I wanted to share my experience in hopes it may help others regarding removing the stump jumper plate and knowing if the seal is leaking.
I have a 5' King Kutter I bought used a few yrs ago. The gear box bolts loosened some how and I needed tighten them but could only do so by removing the stump jumper plate. The main retaining castle nut/cotter pin came out w/ little effort but the stump plate was another story. After I removed the nut there was a little gear oil that leaked out, and from noticiing the amount of dried/caked oil ON THE TOP of the plate, viewable from the access hole on the top, this was a sign the seal was bad already.
The plate has about 5" of female splines that are mated to the gear box tapered shaft. This is where it was stuck. In order to get pressure on the plate to remove it from the shaft I cut a 4x4 block of wood in diagnolly in half to create wedges I could pound between the plate and deck. I had the cutter leaned on it's nose for access to the belly of the deck using folk lift tines (I used a chain to secure it from falling either way once it was upright for safety) After I pounded in the wedges I heated the plate "collar" from the top of the deck access hole to get heat on the female splines to expand it. After about 5 mins of heat and about 10 whacks of a 10 lb sledge the collar came free.
While the heat made the seal leak worse, there was a handful of sludge on top of the plate already where the seal was leaking. KK uses a pretty generic seal that I could pick up from a bearing shop here in town for $8. Everything went back together pretty easy.....I used Never Seize on the tines in case I needed to remove the stump plate it in the future. I also removed the (4) nuts/bolts that held the gear box to the deck and put Lock Tite on them, even though they are lock nuts, they got loose some how!!
What I learned is if you are low on oil, check to see if there's fresh (or old) oil on the stump plate from looking into the access hole from the top. I think the leaking oil coated the gear box mounting bolts and helped them to back off from the natural vibration.
Hope this helps someone in the future!
HAppy mowing!
Bush
