Rotary Cutter output shaft dropped away from PTO gear.

[GSB]

I have a Bigbee Titan rotary cutter on my L3200, with stump jumper and slip clutch. I ran over an unseen log, and when I did the thing made the awful gear grinding sound. I immediately put it in my shop, took apart the gear box and noticed the output shaft has dropped a measureable amount and doesn't mesh up with the PTO shaft gear.

I'm a little frustrated that a slip clutch and stump jumper didn't protect from this failure. But my question is, before I start taking it apart, has anyone experienced this before? Is it repairable, or do I need to go ahead and buy a new gearbox?

 

[Fedup]

You won't know if it's repairable until you see all the parts. If the bottom gear has moved downwards and no longer contacts the top gear, no teeth appear broken or missing, the box it probably toast.

Stump jumpers are only worth so much. Slip clutches even less. If the clutch is adjusted so it slips under duress, the discs will burn up. If adjusted so it won't slip, then other things break. Pretty much a no win situation.