Woods DS1260 Rotary Cutter Gear Box Replacement

We've had out cutter for about 2 years. I was cutting with it last season and the cutter box made a funny noise then started to smoke and it stopped working. I opened the inspection cover and found there was no oil in the gear box. I check the other gear box and it had oil. So did the main gear box. Albeit milky looking there was still oil in the box. This process is going to take some time to get resolved. In this video, I get the gear box removed. But not without lots of trouble. Getting the stump jumper off was a difficult task as was getting the gear box itself off. I tried all sorts of way to make this happen. I was able to get it all removed. I was disappointed with the dealer I purchased the cutter at in that they did not want to help me get this fixed. That dealer was Hoober. I contacted Woods directly and they told me to take it to any woods dealer and the process could get started. That's what we did. We took the gearbox to Beverage Tractor in Stuarts Draft Virginia. Hopefully it will be repaired soon and we will put this cutter back together and get to brush hogging our pastures.
In working with equipment this size, you need really big tools. Here is a link to a 1 inch socket set like ours. There is no way I could have done this without this size of a tool! Brace yourself, they are expensive...
www.agrisupply...

[@THCAPI]

Waiting for part 2 brother, now I'm invested in seeing that saucer pan come off! God bless!

[@MillGapFarms]

THCAPI, Part 2 is on the way...And possibly a Part 3. Turns out this is a bigger project than I originally thought. Thanks for watching and commenting! Kevin

[@countryroadslife]

I know anymore that when you purchase a new brush hog they do not (for some apparent reason) come with gear oil in the gear boxes. The reason I know this is a good friend purchased one brand new, used it for about 5 hours & completely burned up the gear box. I hate it if that’s what happened, if not would it be covered under manufacturers warranty?

[@MillGapFarms]

Country Roads, I never thought about the gearbox not having oil but that was suggested by the dealer that now has the box when I first called them. They shared a similar story about other dealers that have had that happen to them. At times, things happen. Even the best quality control checklists can get overlooked. The removal of the UFO was difficult in itself, in the next video we remove the gearbox... which is stupid heavy. I don't have tools for things this size... Thanks for watching and commenting too! Part 2 is being rendered as I am typing this... Out soon! Kevin

[@tonydoggett7627]

It looks like that box was never filled with oil. My cheap Chinese gearbox has a oil level window. I check it before and after I use my flail mower. Synthetic gearbox oil works the best in mine as it doesn’t foam so much.

[@MillGapFarms]

What a great idea with the synthetic. Next time I change this out, I'm going with that. I'm not too far off from checking the oil and bush hogging again. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! Kevin