was preforming some Howse rotary cutter maintenance this afternoon,
ran the cutter for about 10 mins then brought it to the shop to sharpen the blades and check the oil in the gearbox.
got blades sharpen, then took the small plug out of the gearbox, milky oil shot out of the gearbox.
so I guess the gear oil has water in it for it to be a milky color and the gearbox must have had too much oil as a lot of oil ran out.
I assume the top vent plug is stopped up as the gear oil was under pressure when I removed the lower small plug.
So I started cleaning the top vent cap and got a piece of wire hung in it. Had to drill the wire out, but got it cleaned out as I can blow air through the vent plug.
next problem, the lower plug is my oil height plug and the gearbox is full of dirty milky gear oil, there is no plug to completely drain the gearbox.
so my plan is to lift the cutter up with my boom pole and let all the oil drain out of the gearbox, then refill to the proper level with fresh 90 weight gear oil.
Others have said to use tube grease, but since my gearbox is not leaking I plan to stick with gear oil for now.
maybe if I get all that done today I can start cutting grass and weeds tomorrow.
hope you guys have better luck preforming rotary cutter maintenance than I have had so far.
ran the cutter for about 10 mins then brought it to the shop to sharpen the blades and check the oil in the gearbox.
got blades sharpen, then took the small plug out of the gearbox, milky oil shot out of the gearbox.
so I guess the gear oil has water in it for it to be a milky color and the gearbox must have had too much oil as a lot of oil ran out.
I assume the top vent plug is stopped up as the gear oil was under pressure when I removed the lower small plug.
So I started cleaning the top vent cap and got a piece of wire hung in it. Had to drill the wire out, but got it cleaned out as I can blow air through the vent plug.
next problem, the lower plug is my oil height plug and the gearbox is full of dirty milky gear oil, there is no plug to completely drain the gearbox.
so my plan is to lift the cutter up with my boom pole and let all the oil drain out of the gearbox, then refill to the proper level with fresh 90 weight gear oil.
Others have said to use tube grease, but since my gearbox is not leaking I plan to stick with gear oil for now.
maybe if I get all that done today I can start cutting grass and weeds tomorrow.
hope you guys have better luck preforming rotary cutter maintenance than I have had so far.