Land Pride Bush Hog Maintenance

So Alex wants to borrow the bush hog and knock down the grass between us before winter.  No worries.  I get everything hooked up and ready.  Alex comes back in about an hour - the unit is smoking.

No worries.  Let's let it cool and then check it out.  I have him fire up the tractor and engage the PTO.  Thump, thump is all we got.  We shut it down and I check for blades hitting an obstacle or stuck branches.  Nothing.  We try again.  Nope, it's the gear box.

We shut everything down and investigate the gear box.  Looky there.  Kinda looks like an oil fill plug.  We open it up.  Burnt to a crisp.  No oil in sight.  Huh?

Alex notices there is a three-year warranty on the gear box.  Nada.  I've owned it for 11 years - and have never...ever...put oil in the gear box.  My bad.  Maybe I should have read the manual???  Go figure that the gears do not want to turn without lubrication!

I research the web and find one, with tax and shipping for $200.  Bingo.  Ordered - AFTER consulting the owner's manual to ensure I get the right thing.  < First time it's ever been opened BTW.

Now, after returning from the squirrel woods (read the post below this one for details), I start the process of tearing the bush hog down so that I can install the new gear box and while everything is apart, I shall sharpen the blades.  

I will say that prior to me even starting, my bride looks at the mower sitting on the ground and says - don't you just want to haul it into the dealer and have them fix it???  "No," says I.  I figure I broke the damn thing - I can fix it.

I flip the deck upside down so that I can get to the nut holding the stump jumper and blades on.  It is a 1.5" nut.  Neither I nor Dad own a 1.5" wrench.  The largest we go is 1.25".  To town.  Buy a set of wrenches from 1" - 2".  $60 more.  I wanted a 1.5" impact socket but Harbor Freight only goes to 1.25" on their impact sockets.  Ok.  Looks like a manual job.

With the proper tools in place, my next obstacle is to keep the blades from turning.  I jam a pipe wrench in the holes, but it is too short and everything spins.  I grab a piece of 4' rebar and pound it into the ground.  Nothing turns now but the nut.  I did have to utilize a 3' piece of pipe as a cheater-bar to get enough leverage to remove said nut.

The nut is off.  My next challenge is to remove the entire piece from the drive shaft of the gear box.  Zeus himself must have seated that sum bitch onto the drive shaft.  It took my 2 ton hydraulic jack to apply pressure to the blades while I whacked the holy living crap out of the drive shaft to loosen everything.  My lovely wife came out to suggest it's not too late to haul it in for service.  NO!  I will win.  It's principle now!

Got everything apart.  Blades have been sharpened.  My next challenge?  Reassembly.  And yes, I do expect yet another "take it in" comment before I have everything operational.

My advice?  If you have a bush hog - put mother loving gear oil in it more frequently than every 11 years.  And if you do have to service it after 11 years and you think you can get it apart with all the dust, grit, grime, and rust built up...just take the damn thing in to the shop.  Amen.


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