RobS
Super Member
Nothing says springtime like a new PTO shaft!
A couple of years back my light duty Deere 513 cutter lost the lower seal and all the gear oil. That resulted in a rather catastrophic gearbox explosion! A new box was pretty pricey and the rest of that mower was pretty beat up anyway being light duty construction. A friend offered me this old New Idea cutter for less than the cost of the new gear box so I jumped on it.
Over the course of a year or so of use though, the tractor end of the PTO shaft had gotten stuck twice and the PTO guard was pretty bad. I tried swapping only the tractor end of the shaft but it had odd size U-joints that I couldn't get a conversion joint for. I had some vague idea of PTO shaft prices at the local TSC but instead tried Google. That lead me to Agri-Supply where I got a new shaft, including slip clutch for only $143. Arrived at my door a couple of days later and all I had to do was shorten it a bit. I'm back in business and knocked down about 4 acres of prairie Saturday evening. My only comment is that the slip clutch is pretty exposed. Seems they could have had a wide-mouth guard to cover that as well.
So in the end, a nice old cutter with a shiny new shaft!
A couple of years back my light duty Deere 513 cutter lost the lower seal and all the gear oil. That resulted in a rather catastrophic gearbox explosion! A new box was pretty pricey and the rest of that mower was pretty beat up anyway being light duty construction. A friend offered me this old New Idea cutter for less than the cost of the new gear box so I jumped on it.
Over the course of a year or so of use though, the tractor end of the PTO shaft had gotten stuck twice and the PTO guard was pretty bad. I tried swapping only the tractor end of the shaft but it had odd size U-joints that I couldn't get a conversion joint for. I had some vague idea of PTO shaft prices at the local TSC but instead tried Google. That lead me to Agri-Supply where I got a new shaft, including slip clutch for only $143. Arrived at my door a couple of days later and all I had to do was shorten it a bit. I'm back in business and knocked down about 4 acres of prairie Saturday evening. My only comment is that the slip clutch is pretty exposed. Seems they could have had a wide-mouth guard to cover that as well.
So in the end, a nice old cutter with a shiny new shaft!
