The start of restoring an old Mott flail mower

[docrocky]

Gordo56: Want to thank you again for the information provided. You were right on in that my mower was a Mott 72" and the Montage people were great in that I found the coupler as well as the inner drive shaft which I ordered and have since re-installed. I gave it a test run and it operated well but it had difficulty cutting the tall grass, 8 to 10''. I noted in one of your posts that you had the same cutters as mine. The appear to be for grass mowing and maybe not for chopping wheat or corn stubble. Would you recommend using a bush hog or just doing several passes? I use my Oliver 880 diesel which is rated at 55hp PTO.

Again I want to express my appreciation for this website /forum. Have you ever posted on say CAR TALK where most of the reply's are put downs and insults. I get tremendous information and help on this forum and am sincerely thankful..
docrocky

 

[Gordo 56]

Gordo56: Want to thank you again for the information provided. You were right on in that my mower was a Mott 72" and the Montage people were great in that I found the coupler as well as the inner drive shaft which I ordered and have since re-installed. I gave it a test run and it operated well but it had difficulty cutting the tall grass, 8 to 10''. I noted in one of your posts that you had the same cutters as mine. The appear to be for grass mowing and maybe not for chopping wheat or corn stubble. Would you recommend using a bush hog or just doing several passes? I use my Oliver 880 diesel which is rated at 55hp PTO.

Again I want to express my appreciation for this website /forum. Have you ever posted on say CAR TALK where most of the reply's are put downs and insults. I get tremendous information and help on this forum and am sincerely thankful..
docrocky

Glad I was some help to you, Montage was a big help to me too. As far as you having trouble cutting tall grass 8 to 10 inches high, I don't know what the problem could be. I cut 3 foot tall canary grass and weeds as tall as the tractor with mine. i just don't try and cut any small trees or brush that is over 3/4 inches thick My mower has most of the original blades and only had to replace about a dozen of the blades with new ones, most of my blades are really dull. I have heard of one other person having trouble cutting tall grass with his flail, he was cutting bramuda grass and it kept wraping around is cutting shaft.

The cutting shaft and blades on mine are type A + F that can do rough cut or finish mowing. I wished I knew enough to tell you what might be wrong but I know we have people on here who can tell you. I also know there will be people on here to tell you to forget your flail mower and just use a rotary cutter.

Maybe if you could send some pictures of your blades we could see what you got.

Gordo

 

[junglejry]

Gordo, I too, have started to rebuild my motts 72" mower ! all your information was very helpful ! few question though, can you take the bearing off the nonpulley side, without taken the cutter shaft out ? the other question is how did you remove parts of the old roller bearing that stayed inside the roller, that keeps me from getting the new bearing back in ? notice your mower is orange and mine is yellow, I can still see the sticker saying. motts hammer knife mower ?

 

[fatchance]

I love this thread. I've returned to it a few times now for different items. Today I'm having to replace the input shaft seal that Leonz suggested buying ( and I did) when I bought the flail mower 3 or 4 years ago.

 

[Highgear]

So I'll add my to cents to this thread to repair the turf roller . I picked up an older Mott 6' mower that was in real nice shape - the turf roller not so much . All I got was the roller and some end caps dangeling off the back . This post was the only one I could find even close to repairing the roller . So I had no axel and when you looked in the tube there was a 1" pipe in the centrr and it was off center . So I knocked the pipe out and and pounded on the outside of the roller and a gallon bucket of dirt fell out . The old race for the bearings were still there and had to be removed carefully with a torch . Found the bearings on e-Bay ( $105. ea. ) they are 3/4" bore x47 mm . Bought some 3/4" barstock x 74 1/2" ( $19.). The original axel was threaded on the end with a grease fitting ( no longer needed ) . I drilled out the old axel nuts and welded them on the end of the axel . Bolted the two end caps on Mott part # 3-125 . I have no idea what the 1" pipe did ? The mower works good now and glad I was able to save it . The bearing was SealMaster SK-1673 !

 

[Ducktape]

Hey does anyone know where I could by a shaft? I have a 60 inch raymower which is a knock off of the 60 inch Mott. It's the knife version. I picked up recently but the shaft is bent 1/2 inch. Tried with a machine shop to straighten but is was a waste of time.