Mower Gearbox RC54 Rebuild Help G1800

GreentoOrange

New member

Equipment
Deere 4300, X320
Mar 2, 2020
19
0
1
Gordonsville
My middle blade on my RC54 mower attached under my G1800 suddenly stopped. I opened the gearbox from the top to find bearings mauled. Should be two photos attached.

The bearing cassette didn’t pop out and rather than going in full steam ahead, I thought i would seek the knowledge of wiser and more experienced folks here. In other words i would really welcome some guidance.

How do i go about this? From the top? as you can see, I removed the top cover, but that is where i stopped. I suspect i need to start with removing blade from underneath or will this cassette pop out so i can see inside and assess damage?

Is there a rebuild kit??
I appreciate any help you all can offer.
 

Attachments

dlundblad

Member

Equipment
G5200, L2501, ZD1211
May 16, 2009
503
10
18
IN
Hard to tell with my phone since it will not let me zoom. Is that a snap ring I see holding the cassette in place?
 

Fedup

Active member
Apr 6, 2016
206
58
28
Winchester
You're wasting your time trying to deal with the bearing from the top. Just get after it, remove the gearbox, open it up and replace what's needed. Even if the damaged bearing would come out the top, the shrapnel is now everywhere down below, in all the other bearings, and more failures are coming.
 

Gemstone19

New member
Jan 5, 2020
8
0
0
Strawberry AR
Looks really dry...After rebuild keep up with the gear oil. My 2014 54” has a vent to allow for the hot oil expansion so it weeps during heavy use.


I use air pressure and a tube to remove old gear oil during maintenance.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

RCW

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
BX2360, FEL, MMM, BX2750D snowblower. 1953 Minneapolis Moline ZAU
Apr 28, 2013
8,399
4,051
113
Chenango County, NY
I use air pressure and a tube to remove old gear oil during maintenance.
I like that set-up, and have everything to do it.

Been thinking for while there's got to be a better way!

Thanks!
 

Butch

Active member

Equipment
Kubota 2410, RC60-24B, FL1000- kubota hydrolic front snow blade- plug aerator
Sep 10, 2009
633
82
28
74
Rising Sun, MD
I replaced the whole gear box on my RCK60-24 about 3 years ago. Once I tore it down i it was so mangled the parts was just a couple hundred south of a complete box assembly that included the pulley. The worst part of it is that I religiously checked the oil level every 10 hours. When the lower seal went I had no clue till it was too late and $1000.00 later.
 

lugbolt

Well-known member

Equipment
ZG127S-54
Oct 15, 2015
4,843
1,598
113
Mid, South, USA
you guys still haven't bought a fluid extractor? Thing works wonders to suck gear oil out of a gearbox among a thousand other uses. I can tell you; if I didn't have the one I made, my day would be 10x longer and customer repair jobs would be considerably more expensive! Case in point, oil changes. RTV900 I did today. I had other stuff to do with it but one of the things the owner wanted was an oil change. Ok, stuff the evacuator tube down the dipstick hole until it hits the oil pan, walk off and do other stuff (filter change, grease the fittings, etc). A few minutes later it's done sucking, refill, start the engine, shut off, let it drain back for about 20 minutes or so. While it was sitting I had to get underneath it to look at the axles and propeller shaft which is where I spied a completely rounded off oil drain bolt with a bunch of silicone sealant gooped up on it, telling me (1) it is probably stripped (2) the seal washer is gone. Had I had to loosen that plug to drain the oil, the owner may have said it was fine before we messed with it, OR the better option, STOP the repair at that point, call service manager to look, he calls customer (if he can get in touch with him....), push the RTV to the side for a while, hour, day, week, whatever (months in some cases) and wait. Other option? Make note on R/O, add pic to R/O of the drain bolt, suck the oil out change filter, complete the rest of the repair, and a half hour labor and it's all done. Option #1 can take forever, #2, 30 minutes and we don't even touch that drain bolt. THAT---is exactly why I bought (well actually made) a fluid extractor!

If you guys do your own maintenance, you might be money ahead to buy one. They make a manual one and a pneumatic one, they both work the same but the pneumatic one you hook up the air hose and walk away; it will suck the oil pan (or whatever) DRY. Real handy on some equipment that requires skid pan removal to get access to the drain bolt(s)....

https://www.skf.com/mityvac/products/fluid-evacuation-and-dispensing-equipment-and-accessories/fluid-evacuators/mv7300