Rotary Cutter Woods RM660 making load noises

[Kubota Tee]

Was out mowing our 3 acre lot this past Saturday and had just turned to cut another row when my Woods RM660 finish mower started making some loud noises. I immediately stopped mowing and checked to see if there was any interference underneath or if I had hit something. Everything seemed to be in order, but when I re-engaged the PTO, the noise continued. I didn't really have time to dig into it then, so drove the tractor back to the garage and finally got back to it this evening. Here is what I found: Basically, the idler wheel bearing blew out. I'm actually glad to know that it wasn't the gear box, a blade spindle or something much worse. I pulled out my parts list, found the parts I needed and ordered them up online. Cost me about $85. But then again, it could have been much worse! Anyone else out there have a similar experience? Same mower? Any inherent problems I should be aware of with this model?

 

[coveredbridge]

My RM660 is going on 20 years with nearly 700 hrs. Only thing I ever had to replace were the roller sleeves in the gauge wheels. Still has the original belt. May be the most dependable piece of equipment I have ever owned.

 

[Kubota Tee]

My RM660 is going on 20 years with nearly 700 hrs. Only thing I ever had to replace were the roller sleeves in the gauge wheels. Still has the original belt. May be the most dependable piece of equipment I have ever owned.

Wow! That is great to know! Have you ever done maintenance on the idler wheel bearing? I checked the manual and couldn't find any maintenance suggestions like repacking the bearings or anything like that. Seems a bit strange that this part should fail.

Thomas

 

[coveredbridge]

Wow! That is great to know! Have you ever done maintenance on the idler wheel bearing? I checked the manual and couldn't find any maintenance suggestions like repacking the bearings or anything like that. Seems a bit strange that this part should fail.

Thomas

I'm not aware of any maintenance for the idler wheel bearing. Only maintenance I've ever done is greasing the spindles, gauge wheels, u-joints and drive shaft, sharpening the blades, and clearing grass clippings from underneath and off the top of the deck. I have noticed dirt and grass clippings accumulate under the deck guards. I also remove them and clean under them periodically. Did you have any buildup of debris under the guard? Seems unlikely, but maybe debris or an obstruction could contribute to failure of the bearing. More likely you just got a bad one. It happens sometimes. Any idea how many hours on your mower?

 

[lt190b]

did you order bearing or pully and bearing

 

[Kubota Tee]

I'm not aware of any maintenance for the idler wheel bearing. Only maintenance I've ever done is greasing the spindles, gauge wheels, u-joints and drive shaft, sharpening the blades, and clearing grass clippings from underneath and off the top of the deck. I have noticed dirt and grass clippings accumulate under the deck guards. I also remove them and clean under them periodically. Did you have any buildup of debris under the guard? Seems unlikely, but maybe debris or an obstruction could contribute to failure of the bearing. More likely you just got a bad one. It happens sometimes. Any idea how many hours on your mower?

No idea how many hours it has since I bought it used. I've had it for 3 years and have put approximately 150 hours on it over that period. I do sometimes get clippings and dirt under the deck guards so perhaps something got lodged into the bearings. I do clean out this area every time I sharpen the blades and grease the spindles. Will have to keep a closer eye on this aspect with the new one.

 

[Kubota Tee]

did you order bearing or pully and bearing

I ended up ordering the pully and bearing together as a sellable unit. Thought this would be easier to deal with from an install perspective.

 

[Kubota Tee]

Everything arrived as I had ordered thanks to the wonderful service at Messicks. They have a great selection of Woods parts and the online exploded diagrams are very helpful. Here are the parts I ordered:



The new idler pully (ordered with the bearing as one piece) installed very nicely and I was able to get the mower working again in no time. I did take the opportunity to do a little clean up as long as I had the covers off.




I still have several weeks left of mowing season, but doing this repair convinced me that I needed to add a couple of "winter" projects to my schedule.

1. Install a compressed air system in my shop with a nice reeled hose near the garage door. This will allow me to easily clean off the mower after every use and hopefully keep the dirt, sand and dust from building up again under the covers. I'm convinced this is what caused the bearing to fail.

2. Since I bought this mower used 3 years ago, I've done very little to it other than keep it greased and the blades sharpened. It's starting to show its age a bit and since I know it is a well built machine with many useful years left, I'm going to do a major maintenance overhaul on it including a very thorough cleaning and new paint job for the covers which are looking pretty rough.

I'll start some new threads on both of these projects once I get them started later this fall / winter.

 

[MorningViewStables]

My RM660 is going on 20 years with nearly 700 hrs. Only thing I ever had to replace were the roller sleeves in the gauge wheels. Still has the original belt. May be the most dependable piece of equipment I have ever owned.

Mine too! Purchased it 19 years ago and I have only replaced blades and kept it greased.

 

[Kubota Tee]

Mine too! Purchased it 19 years ago and I have only replaced blades and kept it greased.

MorningView,

Thanks for sharing about your RM660 mower. I have to imagine with a large horse farm, you do a ton of mowing! Gives me even more reason to invest the time and effort into giving mine a deep "winter" cleaning and some new paint! :thumbsup:

Take care!