Finish Mower : Water in gear box. :(

[Drifthopper]

Going thru and re-building the finish mower : new bearings in the hubs, new pulleys, new belt, deck welded where needed, new paint job..... etc....

I have the gear box off the deck....( the mower has been sitting today for the last 10 + years ,) Today , took the top fill plug off and flipped the gear box over to drain the oil out...

Well..... a mix of brown sludge and water came out.

Without taking the gear box fully apart.... What can I do to flush it out / clean it out before putting it back in service on the mower deck...?

 

[Flintknapper]

IF the bearings still feel good (not gritty or rough) then you could partially fill the unit with mineral spirits, hand rotate the shafts with the unit up, then on its sides....enough to dilute any residual lube/water.

Drain that, fill with new gear lube and run it a few hours (4-5) hours. Drain and fill again with new oil. Should be good to go.

IF the bearings or bevel gears feel rough or gritty then I would suspect damage to them owing to corrosion and at that point...disassembly and inspection would be in order.

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

Fill it with your preferred flavor of gear dope, and forgot about it for another 10 years.

 

[mikester]

Fill it with your preferred flavor of gear dope, and forgot about it for another 10 years.

and park the mower under a different downspout...the current one is defective.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I'd probably tear it apart, clean really,really good, then install new bearings and seals. sounds like you want to USE it and since you replaced the spindle bearings.... well ,why go 1/2 way ??
Sure you 'could' just fill and go, but sooner or later, you'll need to rebuild anyway.
it's on the bench now....might as well do it right.

 

[woodman55]

Going thru and re-building the finish mower : new bearings in the hubs, new pulleys, new belt, deck welded where needed, new paint job..... etc....

I have the gear box off the deck....( the mower has been sitting today for the last 10 + years ,) Today , took the top fill plug off and flipped the gear box over to drain the oil out...

Well..... a mix of brown sludge and water came out.

Without taking the gear box fully apart.... What can I do to flush it out / clean it out before putting it back in service on the mower deck...?

I would flush it with kerosene or something similar. Then use a high end gear oil in it.

 

[GeoHorn]

Flush it with Diesel, then fill it with grease, and go mowing. (This was the advice of the previous owner of an old Servis/Rhino shredder given to me which had rusty water in the gearbox. So that’s exactly what I did….. in 2008….and it’s still running just fine.)