Bringing old equipment back to life

bjseiler

5 year old buck +
Our farm came with a handful of abandoned equipment. I finally got a small tractor two weeks ago and have attempted to use some of these old implements. Other things have been repurposed. Turned an old manure spreader into a chicken coop and built a half assed, yet very effective last year, wagon blind out of pallets and a hay wagon (not pictured). The disk is only heavy enough to get through maybe 2" of our hard clay but that might be a good thing as I'm fine with min-till/throw mow. Seeded and then used the cultipacker yesterday. Disc is hanging together at parts with bailing wire. Cultipacker is actually all ok. I've greased most of the zerks I could fine on the disc, cultipacker and mower (a couple to do still).

Looking for some advice here on the mower. I don't really want to wreck my brand new Kubota L2501 so I am wondering what steps people might take before hooking it up to the pto and just giving it a whirl. It is pretty darn heavy so I'm not even sure what the correct way to flip it up to look underneath. Pulley from a tree? Front loader and a chain? Any advice on steps to bring it back to life safely would be appreciated. Scrap it and go by a new one is also a fair answer I'm willing to hear.
 

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sorry no help on the mower, but them old disc, can be made a lot better with some basic new parts, and there alrready proven to be able to take abuse and last a LONG time, rebuild one, and you got a LONG lasting tool again!

slotted front disc, will cut a TON better, also going to a taller disc if room in there, and then some new grade 8 nuts and bolts
I rebuild a lot of these older disc's over the yrs,
what is dine about them to me is, a smaller tractor can pull a MUCH wider disc like this, than a 3 point design one, and , as you know, they are also good for light discing, not going too deep if one wanted
 
The old mower I would do a couple of things first.

#1 - See if your wheels are free turning (tires hold air)..... if so take it to a better place to inspect/work on it.
#2 - check for any loose bolts, broken welds and the like.....you don;t want to be lifting or pulling on something that isn;t structurally sound later.
#3 - inspect the gear box....open it up and look at the oil if there is any. You will want to drain the oil out of it at some point and replace it...if there is any in there. You are wanting to look at the gears and the like to see if they are rusted or damaged. You will then want to see if the gear box turns freely. You should be able to do this without having to hook it up to your tractor. Put a pipe or long wrench in the yoke of the pto shaft and turn is SLOWLY by hand. If it won't turn....your screwed. If it turns but there is virtually no force needed...check for a broken shear pin in the drive shaft somewhere (I would NOT run this equipment without a PTO shaft with a shear pin set-up - this helps keep from damaging your tractor - as the bolt is designed to break before that happens).
#3 - if the gear box turns....then....I would turn it over (up on it's side) with LOTS of bracing and additional safety supports. You will want to see the blades and the shape they are in. In fact you may want to investigate what it would take to replace them or take them off and sharpen them. Don't put oil in the gear box as this will just make it run out....
#4 - Set it back on the ground and make sure your height adjustment and the other things work as intended.
#5 - Put your new/sharpened blades back on it, put new oil in the gear box and hit every grease zerk you can find (do NOT blow out the dust seals like most folks do) again try to make everything work by hand first. If you get the resistance and can hear/see the blades rotating, then.....you can hook it up to your tractor and run it at a very low RPM. Then as you gain confidence you can ramp up the RPM's and see what you got.. I would start easy and work your way up with it.

I hope this helps and this is where I would start. The order may not be exact but you get the idea....just try to think ahead and always do whatever you can to be safe. If you have it lifted up or whatever always have someone else around. Don't trust one means of safety as they can and do fail....be safe....this mower isn't worth you being hurt!
 
On the mower I can’t tell from the picture but many have a set of slip disks between the pto and the gear box. It will look like a nut followed by a bunch of washers. If it has one before actually mowing break that nut free and engage the mower so the PTO spins and the blades don’t. Should clean all the rust up. Shut the mower down and tighter 1/4 turn past where the nut engages the washers down. It lets the blades stop if you hit hard ground. (Again, if it even has one)

grease the snot out of the cultipaker and go.
 
Imma tad jealous of that double roller cultipacker...tbh
 
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