So I bought a brush mower for cheap and got what I paid for. Now I need to fix it. Trouble is, I can't find a name plate or sticker to tell me who made it.

The mower is a 60" cut, PTO mower setup for connection to a 3 point.

What's wrong with it? The only functional issue with it is the gear box seals. Oil comes out of it almost as fast as it goes into it (and that's not hyperbole).

Here are some photos. Any idea what this thing is?











I appreciate the help.

From the other photos you had posted it looks similar to a Lowery, link below third. If not there are a load of mower parts sites you may be able to match. Chris

From the photos up now it looks like the leak is where plate and gearbox meet. If bolted cut you own seal if you can't match at local AG store.


http://www.lowerymanufacturing...roducts/cutters.html

I agree with Chris. The two main parts of the gear box are bolted together. Drain the oil, take them apart. Clean/scrape both surfaces thoroughly, make a gasket and use some gasket cement and put it back together. If you can't torque the bolts, at least try to get them close to being similarly tight. Gasket material, in small sheets, can b bought at your local car parts place. While not as good, in a pinch I have used cereal box cardboard.

While the box is open, look for Water, grit or metal particles in the bottom of the box. These would be signs of more problems.

If you aren't up to the job, find a small, local repair shop and they can do it for you. Search for farm equipment repair. They rebuild this stuff all the time (I did it for several years). If you can at least remove the gear box from the mower and take it to the shop you will save money, as they won't have to charge the time for the disassembly/reassembly.

Finally, if you do take it apart, DO NOT take the splined shaft out of the cast iron housing where it is mounted. This it carefully shimmed so the clearance between the gears is exactly right. Without that correct, the gears will wearabnormally fast. In a parallel thought, the gasket between the two pieces of the housing should exactly match the original as well. There may not be one. If not, clean surfaces thoroughly and use gasket cement.

The leak may be because the bolts holding things together simply loosened up over time.

Cereal boxes can be ok, but in an applications like this you really don't want to use something that has a slick side. Doesn't seal well. If the metal surfaces are in decent shape I would suggest Hylomar gasket sealer. NAPA can get it sometimes.

Measure the seals and you should be able to find them online. The seals may even have the part number molded into them.

http://products.emersonbearing...asurement-oil-seals?

One way a lot of people deal with gearbox leaks on older equipment is to run grease in them instead of gear oil. I have an old Woods 10 foot bush hog and run grease in one of the gearboxes ... Just open the cap and squirt a bunch of grease in there every now and then. I know other people running grease in theirs and they have been doing it for years.

If I had a newer piece of equipment I'd likely fix it right, but the time and effort it would take to tear it apart to replace the bottom gearbox seal exceeds the value of the bush hog.

If yours is just leaking from that cover plate, I'd go on and make a new gasket for that, or if it's the top shaft seal, I'd try to match one up.

Mine is leaking from the bottom end. Would the grease or seal suggestions still work?

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Kook:
Mine is leaking from the bottom end. Would the grease or seal suggestions still work?

The one I run grease in has the bottom seal blown. Replacing the seal is the correct way to fix it, but a lot of people with old equipment like me just run grease in them. I use the regular grade grease instead of high temp since I figure it thins out some and lubricates everything better once the gearbox starts to warm up.

That looks much like the light-duty (up to ~40 PTO HP) gearbox I had on an old Continental Belton 60" and on my current Ag-Meier 60".

I think most of those gearboxes are generic, and what I've seen generally are made in Italy. Since brands are often regional, you might ask at a implement dealer selling a commonly-seen brand in your area. National brands like Bush Hog *might* use proprietary stuff, maybe not.

Once the bottom seal goes, repairing it is a HUGE pain in the ass as the "T" bar the blades attach to is usually well and truly frozen in place.

Plus, even if you DO get the "T" bar off and replace the seal, the shaft has usually been banging around long enough that it's scarred up and will eat the new seal in short order.

Repairing gearbox leaks is almost always a losing proposition, especially on a low-end unit like that.

Run either a mix of grease and 80/90 gear oil or better a lube called "corn head grease" and call it good.

The T bar is already off. The shaft spins freely and smoothly. I was able to mow a small bit of my yard yesterday by filling the gear box with oil every other pass.

Can't help you with the ID, but I'm curious how the mower got in that condition. Did the previous owner store it in the bottom of his pond?

Maybe you could use a rope seal behind the damaged seal.