Flail Mower Help

I have a Mott or Alamo 70 or 72 6' finish cut flail mower that I bought used.

It cut nice when I bought it though it needs blades replaced. The belt broke and I bought a new belt for it. That belt lasted about a year and it came apart. I bought another belt, topped off the oil in the gear box
greased it and went to work.

I was cutting and it started to make noise, run rough and vibrate. I thought maybe I hit a piece of fence wire. I checked but found nothing. I tried it again with the same result, but then it just quit completely.

I believed something either broke or seized in the gear box. When you start to engage the PTO, you can hear / feel the tractor bogging down, the PTO shaft isn't even moving...or going to move so I stopped trying.

Any idea what the problem is?

Any idea how to remove the gear box?

Is there any manuals (with a parts diagram) available to show me how to fix it?

This has the big old round gear box on it with bolts around the big cover and a small round center cover in the middle. It has a tube from the gearbox to the side with the pulleys.

Also, any idea how the gearbox connects to the pulley shaft? do they just slip together?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Before you to that - Take the belt off to see if it's the gear box or the cutter shaft bearings that are binding.

I'll try that to be sure. I figured since it's not really super tight that the belt would have been smoking if that was locked up. But it's probably cheaper and wishful thinking if it is. I see Flail Master wants almost $2000 for that gear box.

How much do you use this mower? I am south of green bay and do work on them regularly. They are great mowers when tight. Gearbox can be rebuilt and I have a machine shop I. Green bay I use to balance rotors on them. Most people's bills after I am done with one with issues is over $1,000. I myself have four on the road doing municipal mowing. That is how I got good with them. I will try to leave my email open.

I love the mower, much better than a bushhog. It doesn't get much use, maybe 12 hours a year. The only problem I had was the input seal would leak a little and the blades could really use replacement, other than that it worked great. When I first bought it the belt broke. I got a replacement but it started to come apart in layers after a year. I expected a little bit more than a year and a few hours out of it. Should I just unbolt the large cover and see what it looks like inside?

Are you talking over $1000 for the whole mower or just to fix the gear box?

If it was easily fixed it might be a thought to send it to you depending on shipping costs. We go up to Harshaw every summer, could possibly drop it off too.

I guess I'm thinking if this is going to be an arm and a leg to fix it that I might just junk it and look for another used one.

OK,

I tried it today, it works (turns), but noisy as heck.

For some odd reason I was wondering if over filling the gear box would cause a hydrsotatic lock.

The cutter bar turned, but it had a ton of grass wrapped around it. I removed all the grass and regreased. Still noisy and vibrates.

While cleaning out the grass I noticed that there is 4 sets of blades missing. 2 side by side on 1 row toward the right, 1 toward the end on the right of a different row and one toward the center on another row.

Could this be the source of my noise and vibration?

Otherwise everything seems tight and turning free and smooth.

One other question, what kind of oil should I use in the gear box?

Any missing blades will throw balance off and cause vibrations and noise. The rotor will usually wind up heavy side down and take more power to get started. This can also cut down on belt life. First thing to do is get ALL cutters in place and replace any broken/bent ones.

I do have a question.

On the 4 stations with missing blades, I have the ring clips and bolts but the D ring and blade are gone. Should I replace the ring clips as well? Not quite sure how the D ring came off of the clip unless it's possibly worn?

If I replace all the blades at one time, do I just replace the blades or do I replace everything, clips, ring, blade, nut & bolt? Are the nut and bolt anything special? Looks like a bit over $300.00 to replace everything.

Hello,

I finally got around to looking at it. The gear box isn't the issue, it's the cutter bar bearings. I found that the bearing on the pulley side is bad and or the housing is bad.

You can see where something has cracked and is allowing the cutter bar to move around.

Can you tell me how to fix this?

I believe I have a Mott / Alamo 72 flail mower.

I think it is the old style cutter bar as the bearing housing has 3 bolts.

Some of the questions I have are:

How do I remove the cutter bar?
How do I remove the bearings?
Are they pressed on?
Would you also go ahead and replace the non pulley side?
Would you replace the housing?
How do I tell the difference between old and new style when ordering the parts?
How heavy is the cutter bar (do I need help with it) ?

Also, I have a new belt on it. after a few hours of use you can see wear on the back of the belt. The idler pulley has some pitted spots on it. Is this causing the wear on the belt?

Thanks for any help!
Tony