Message Board - Machinery: Wheels on gangs dragging
18 Feb 2010 by LittleDave
Yesterday I dragged our Ransomes gang mowers off the field to our garage to I could give them a bit of paint and service before the summer kicks in.
For reasons I won't bore you with, I had to take each unit one by one. The first two were fine, but the third one left massive tyre treads in the grass. Once I disconnected it from the tractor, this third unit would barely budge at all when I pushed it, almost as if the wheels were rusted up.
Anyone had this happen to them before?
Would it be a problem with grease/tyres/bearings on the wheels, or on the cutting unit itself?
18 Feb 2010 by Mike Last edited 18 Feb 2010
Common problem if gangs have been sitting outside for a while. Disengage the drive to the cylinder or back the adjusters right off until the cylinder is turning freely - that should enable you to move them. For future reference, if you will be leaving them sitting for any period of time, apply some light oil to the knives on the cylinder to stop them rusting.
Mike
18 Feb 2010 by peter poyton
take them out of gear
19 Feb 2010 by LittleDave
Cheers Mike, I had a look yesterday and yeah, it looks like the cylinder is just too close to the blade. I didn't hear the scraping noise when the tractor was dragging them.
I presume just a good scrape of the rust, application of paint and them some grease and oil should see them running OK again.
And thanks Peter, these are Ransomes MK 10 (see pic...these are the same as ours, but in worse condition) so I presume they don't have a gear?
19 Feb 2010 by Mike
Dave - give them a good clean down, grease, change oil in the drive housings and paint up. Depending on the severity of the rust, you might get away with clearing the rust off just by running them, or worst case scenario is that they will need a regrind.
Once you have them tidied up, adjust the cylinder so there is very little contact and cut for a little while. Keep on adjusting them regularly so there is constantly light contact until you can see a shiny surface on all of the blades.
19 Feb 2010 by chrismitchell
The gear lever is the little lever you can see on the inside of the left hand gearbox in you picture. There will also be one on the right hand side. They pull in and out. From memory in is off. Out engages the drive to the cylinder. If you get my drift.
Chris
You will never see a statue in honour of a committee.
19 Feb 2010 by mario
As Chris said - the long levers should engage/disengage the gears.
I had a set of the Mk II's which had much shorter levers and on that model you pulled the lever out and rotated it through 90 degrees to lock it.
They are a bugger for seizing up though!
I know no boundaries.
19 Feb 2010 by Sumomosr
The unit in the picture is in filthy condition. I hope yours are better...
Note that the one pictured has a link (sliding bar) missing between the tab on the rear of the bedbar and that cranked lift handle above it. This link enables the unit to be lifted up into a Transport position with the rear roller off the ground so you can drive (tow) them without dragging debris into the cutting blades. Thus road transport between fields is possible and without the roller banging on the tarmac. Transport is always done in Neutral with the reels disengaged, hence the need for the gear lever to be working. It has a grease nipple - use it.
Pressure wash yours LittleDave and carefully inspect the wooden fillet in the back of the bedbar for secure attachment.
When draining the gear oil remove the gearcase covers & felt gasket and flip the whole unit upside down for a better drain. Leave it that way for an hour. Check for presence of water in the oil. If there is water prepare for the perils of storing outside to manifest themselves in the form of rusted bearings etc. in due course.
When refilling, add a tube of grease to the oil on each side. This slows down the leakage from wheel seals considerably.
GOGGA
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