M-5 BUSH HOG?

Was given an old bush hog today by a freind- it had been in a feild for years. Looks like it was yellow at one point, decal on gearbox says "Model M-5". Anyone know the brand? Also, need the front half of the drive shaft- 1.25" square- what was the general length of these shafts?

Looks like a few welds will get it back into usable shape...

M5 was the model of a Woods rotary cutter. The 5 stood for 5 foot cutting width. The yellow color makes sense because Woods rotary cutters are painted kind of a dark yellow. The front half of the PTO shaft would be the same length as the rear half. I can probably supply the shaft you need if you can give me the length of the rear half from the front of the shaft back to the center line of the U-joint bearing cap that is pressed into the yoke that is welded to the shaft. I would also need to know if the retainer rings that hold the U-joint bearing caps into the yoke are on the outside of the cap or if they are on the other side of the cap where they are hard to see. Also, make sure the inside is actually square and not rectangular. It might be 1 1/4" x 1 3/8". My email is open if you are interested.

M5, Woods dixie cutter, I have one 5FT wide good mower.

While matching the existing length is good, what he really needs to do is figure out what length he really needs for his setup.

The situation with rotary cutter driveshaft lengths is different from other machines that have shorter drivelines, such as a rear mounted tiller or snow blower. On those machines, the distance between the tractor PTO shaft and the implement gearbox is so short that the shaft has to be cut to the correct length for the tractor involved so the drive line doesn"t bottom out or come apart through the full range of lifting and lowering. With a rotary cutter, the shaft is much longer, which inherently gives a greater range of engagement between the front half of the shaft and the rear half, eliminating the need for having to cut the shaft to an exact length. Rotary cutter manufacturers use the proper length driveshaft assembly to allow for this, and, because on any PTO driveline you always want the front half the same length as the rear half, when you are replacing just one half, it should always be the same length as the the other. This is the general rule when fabricating or modifying PTO drivelines. I hope I don"t come off sounding preachy here. If I do, that is not my intention. I have been building PTO drivelines for 25 years and have been through most of these situations.