JD 25A Flail Mower Rotor/Drum Bearings Replacement

[leonz]

You need to rent an engine hoist for a few days to do it as efficiently as possible as you need
to fully remove the flail mower rotor to do the repair.

Have you checked with Ohara machinery or Cazenovia equipment to see how busy they are?

 

[onionfmr]

You need to rent an engine hoist for a few days to do it as efficiently as possible as you need
to fully remove the flail mower rotor to do the repair.

Have you checked with Ohara machinery or Cazenovia equipment to see how busy they are?

Thanks leonz for your reply. I've checked with Cazenovia Equipment and Landpro Equipment, but not O'Hara.

 

[TractorTech]

An engine hoist would be great, if you could get it. But, a loader on the tractor would suffice.
I have changed the rotor bearings on my Fords and never hoisted the rotor though. If you take the driveline off, flip the mower on its nose and block it, you can block it and wedge it out and back it. If you take the roller off, you have more room to work too. A 2 jaw puller should take the bearings off pretty readily. Once the bearing lock collar is loosened on the bearing, the bearing should be fairly moveable.

 

[Flogger]

It looks like a removable side plate. Seems pretty straight forward but may require heat and puller to get the race off.

 

[dieselscout80]

Thank you to leonz and Tractor Tech for the help. Here are a couple of pics of the flail when I brought it home a couple of years. Actually, better shape as I cleaned it up quite a bit.

leonz - as I've said that I have limited space and animals. As you can see, the unit is really clean and there is not much grease and dirt on the underside. Is it possible to block the drum up and with the flail frame on jack stands, then starting on the drive side, split the bearing supports without removing the drum from the unit and remove the bearing? Since I don't want to use dry ice because of animals, what pullers would you recommend? Thanks again for any and all help. Ted

I did the rotor bearings on my Alamo fail with the housing blocked up and a floor jack on the rotor.

It wasn’t a difficult job. Note everything on a Alamo fail is heavier than a John Deere 25a or Ford 917.

 

[onionfmr]

Follow up: the JD 25A is together and back in operation. Pretty basic job once I got into it. My wife made a quick video of the overall process. Here's a link for anyone interested:

As a general note, this video isn't meant to be a detailed how to, just an overview. For example, pictures may be out of order, I didn't show using a torque wrench or belt adjustment, using anti-seize on the drive pulley splines, PB Blaster is your friend, really securing the locking collar (video shows lightly tapping it on with a punch), etc..., as that is pretty general information. I wish that I had showed the twist-in bearing install in the bearing support, but at that point I was just wanting to get the flail back together as the grass wouldn't stop growing. LOL. Note, JD Service recommends replacing both side bearings since I was doing the drive side. I'm waiting on parts and at some point when I have time I'll replace the non-drive side bearing also. Hopefully, this video helps someone undertaking the drive side rotor bearing replacement.