Rotary Cutter Loose Gearbox

I noticed the gear box on my 5 ft Howse cutter was moving on the deck of the cutter.

checked the gearbox attachment bolts and they are loose. All other bolts on the cutter are attached with nuts that have plastic inserts, guess this is a way to save on lock nuts.

my problem:
how do I get to these nuts to hold them while trying to tighten up the bolt heads from the top of the deck???????????

I do not think I can take the stump jumper off, if so how would you do it???????? I looked under there and if I got the key out and nut off,

you know years of being in the wet grass and rust, that stump jumper housing is not going to come off easy and I have no wheel or gear puller that large.

I am sure on a cheap cutter like this, they did not drill and tap any holes in the stump jumper so you could attach a puller.

how would you get the stump jumper off the shaft of the gear box so you can get to the lower gear box attachment nuts??????????????

thinking outside the box here: flip it over and hang it upside down with chain around the stump jumper then heat the shaft area, but then my lower gearbox oil seal would be toast.

hopefully some one out there has taken a stump jumper off before and did not get hurt and will have some helpful hints in this area.

what nuts do I reinstall with, so this does not happen again, a lot of work to tighten up 4 bolts????

Thanks for any input,

cutter did a good job, got my cpr land cut off and now this. seem to be always something.

my goal: get it fixed properly so this does not happen again and not get hurt!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a gap between the jumper and the deck. Get your FEL and a chain around the pulling end of the mower and lift it up vertically. Then 2 people ought to be able to get at it.

If you remove each bolt and nut, clean with a really good degreaser and then apply RED Locktite liberally, available at auto parts stores,
torqueing to the recommended force for the size bolt used (www has charts) you won't be doing it again.

Mark

It will come off, might be some work, might not, first time I took the one off in the photo, I thought the same thing, but decided to work at it by prying and a little pounding the break any rust bond, turned out a lot easier than I thought. I coated the shaft with some anti-seize, comes off easily now, I had been doing it every year, just to sharpen the blades, check for oil seepage, barely some residue, gearbox will need seals at some point, but so far so good, lot of acres gone over with it.

It would be worth finding a puller, not sure what size or type, shaft on mine was machined for it, larger wide 3 jaw maybe ?

Once the castle nut is off, you could hook the pan at the blade holder, and carefully apply force by lifting with a loader.

I did as in the photos, and used care to not deform the threads on the shaft, it just lifts out now, that was the only concern doing the above. Puller would be ideal I would think.

Mine had loose gearbox bolts, and even with the pan off, its easier with 2 people, but I found a way by myself, long pipe on the end of a breaker bar, and some other long handle on the opposite side, same drill for blade bolts.

I welded a hook onto the deck, and hoist the mower with the loader, then when its on its side I'll lean it towards the tractor, or set it straight with tension I can reach in without being in its path, mostly for sharpening blades, it goes upside down to remove the pan. Mine I do not think I could reach the gear box bolts without taking the pan off, so much easier, and once you do get the pan to come off, coat with anti- seize, it won't be an issue again.

I have the same cutter and had the same issue. I put the whole cutter up on jack stands (used 3 pt to get it up high enough) and had a helper tighten the bolts while i laid under the cutter, was able to get my arm between the stump jumper and the cutter deck to hold a wrench. didnt have to take it all apart, cannot remember if i added thread locker or not before i tightened it back up.

I've got a beat and worn Hardee 5 foot bush hog, it came with the MF50 - I assume it was for free! The gear head wobbled on it and we flipped the bush hog on it's side so we could get to it on each side. I think my bother might have welded/repaired the holes, but at the end of the day, we tightened it down and it has held for some 10 year of punishing brush cutting chores.

Good luck,
Bill

Got the gearbox tightened with lock tight on the bolts.

So hope I am good to go for a while.

Did notice the pto shaft on the gearbox did not have a safety snap ring installed in the grove.

This to keep the pto drive shaft connected to the gearbox shaft in case the shear bolt shears off.

Must get that fixed.

When I got my post hole digger, it was the same way, the gearbox pto shaft did not have a safety bolt or pin to keep the drive shaft attached in case the shear bolt broke off.