Ford 2000 and Woods rotary mower

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
I have a 1965 2000 3cyl gas tractor (which I love!) and am having trouble with a Woods BB60 rotary mower. When you raise the 3 point, the PTO drive shaft hits the front of the mower deck. I have broken 2 driveshafts this way. When you raise the mower with the 3ph, the front of the mower deck goes up faster than the back until the drive shaft hits the deck.
I have shortened the top link until the tailwheel is nearly off the ground in level position. Still it hits. I have tried every bolt mounting possibility on the mower brackets. No luck.
Contributing to the problem is the fact that the tractor's lift arms go up sometimes out of proportion to the movement of the lift control lever. You can't rely on the control lever stop to limit the up movement with any degree of accuracy.
It seems like a geometry problem between the tractor and mower. Any ideas?
 
I've got an old 60 inch Woods Rotary on the back of my 3 cylinder 4000, and mine needs the top link the be shortened to the point where the front of the mower deck is tilting down at the front about 1 to 1.5 inches lower than the rear of the deck when the tail wheel touches the ground for the PTO shaft to be clear for the full lift range. It still mows fine. Over on the lawn tractor forum they're always talking about how to adjust the mower decks on their machines to get the best cut and they all say that the mower is supposed to be tilted so the front is a little lower than the rear.
 
I agree with Sean.

Shorten the top link. You may wish to lower the tail wheel a bit to compensate.

I have similar issues with Woods BB720X and BB840X mowers on my MF tractors. I need the top link shorter than I would like to prevent the drive shaft from contacting the front of the deck at full lift.

If there are two sets of holes in your lower lift arms, attach the upper lift arms to the front set of holes. This is counter intuitive but it works in my situations.

Dean
 
You just need to lengthen the PTO shaft with an over-running clutch or PTO extension. This will change the angle of the shaft and give you more clearance when you raise the mower. It worked for me.
 
The problem with all the 2000 & 3000 tractors is the pto shaft is so low in the rearend that it doesn't allow much room for adjustment. The height adjustment problem you are having maybe caused by having it in draft control mode instead of position control mode.
 
Thanks Guys,
I do have an ORC and the tractor hydraulics are in Position control. I will get a shorter top link and lower the tailwheel as several folks suggested and hope for the best. Will report back.

The situation is made worse by my tractor"s hydraulics: The lift arms always go up when you lift the control and always go down down when you put it down, and it will mostly hold any position you leave it in, but the relationship between the control location and the location of the lift arms is very inexact and non-repeatable. So you can"t use the wing-nutted stop to accurately limit the lift arm height.
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I'm running a BB48 on an 860 and run into the same problem. My solution: I don't lift it all the way up, or if I need to for some reason I detach the drive-shaft.
 
(quoted from post at 10:47:43 07/29/13) Thanks Guys,
I do have an ORC and the tractor hydraulics are in Position control. I will get a shorter top link and lower the tailwheel as several folks suggested and hope for the best. Will report back.

The situation is made worse by my tractor"s hydraulics: The lift arms always go up when you lift the control and always go down down when you put it down, and it will mostly hold any position you leave it in, but the relationship between the control location and the location of the lift arms is very inexact and non-repeatable. So you can"t use the wing-nutted stop to accurately limit the lift arm height.
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my mower never comes within two inches of that height.
 
First thing I see from the pictures is that the Over running clutch is making the situation WORSE. Look at how far back it makes that pivot point. If the clutch was on the mower it would make it better. I bet it could not be put there though. This tractor does not have live PTO?

That is why fyingace said to add an extension to the PTO, BUT it needs to be on the mower end of the shaft.

Is the top link in the lowest hole at the tractor? Are you sure about the position vs draft setting? Change the small lever and verify that makes it worse. It may be opposite of the way you think it is.

Keith
 
(quoted from post at 06:20:36 07/31/13) First thing I see from the pictures is that the Over running clutch is making the situation WORSE. Look at how far back it makes that pivot point. If the clutch was on the mower it would make it better. I bet it could not be put there though. This tractor does not have live PTO?

That is why fyingace said to add an extension to the PTO, BUT it needs to be on the mower end of the shaft.

Is the top link in the lowest hole at the tractor? Are you sure about the position vs draft setting? Change the small lever and verify that makes it worse. It may be opposite of the way you think it is.

Keith

Looking at the pics, I see that with the mower resting on the ground, the shaft is level. Mine angles up towards the tractor.
I think the point about the tires is valid - a couple of inches of height would make a big difference.
 

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