I was thinking of changing the gear oil in my mower deck gearbox, only to find out JD does not have the gasket listed with a part number!!:banghead: Are you kidding me?! I guess they figure there wouldn't be any reason whatsoever to take the top cover off.:nunu: Really! On second thought, maybe I should just leave well enough alone. It's not leaking anywhere, and there is only 260 hours on the tractor. I just thought fresh gear oil would be nice. Oh well, if it ever does have to come off, I guess using some sort of "liquid gasket" will have to suffice. Seems there is always something they (JD) do that makes you shake your head.
Ya, do what Kenny did, that's what I did. Loosen the belt, pop the drive shaft off and take the whole plate off to get the gearbox off. Drain that sucker, it takes a whopping 4 Oz of oil, the manual says change every 500 hours, I did mine at 30 and used Amsoil Severe Gear.
I have not had one of these in particular apart, but often gear lash and bearing clearance is set by spacing these types of covers. In the industrial field I have worked on many right angle drives that utilize what are sometimes called onion skin gaskets due to their extremely thin cross sections. It may well be that the cover in question does not space anything critical and liquid gasket is correct, but gander carefully if you do remove the cover.
that little hamster sized 90 degree gearbox is not a serviceable item and it goes for about $600 bucks. I would take it off the deck still attached to the mounting plate, pull the side plug and drain it, then refill with synthetic.
I about cried at the $600 when I had to buy a new one a few years back for my X595. I've gotten better with mechanic work since then, and if I have another one go bad I'm going to give rebuilding it with generic parts a try first.
I usually remove the gear case vent and then drain the lube with my air powered Mityvac 7300 extractor. Then refill to the correct level using synthetic GL5 80-90 lube. Annual service for peace of mind.
In Tom's case I happened to wash the deck after putting it away for the season. We suspect that a bit of water entered through the gear case vent and caused the contamination issue.
Did you have to run the deck first to get the oil hot or were you able to suck out the oil when cold?
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