Bush hog making noise

[MFGuy33]

I have a 5' king kutter that I use for mowing jobs that I do with my mf 135. Other day I was mowing and noticed it was making a clanking sound almost like the blades were hitting the deck. I jacked it up got underneath it checked the blades etc nothing lose or bent. Checked u joints in pto and no slack or anything abnormal. I checked gear box oil and completely full as I always grease and fill everything before use. I am baffled and I cannot tell where it is coming from? The gearbox bolts are tight as well. However the gear box does make a whining noise if you call it when throttling up and down..so I'm wondering if maybe the gearbox is going bad?? Any ideas??

 

[Billy NY]

If possible, flip it over and drain the oil, if there is a bearing going bad, you should see metal fines in the bottom of the drain pan or cup etc. Might be able to dip a magnet down to the bottom and see if there are metal fines that way. Any obvious play in the drive line or either input/output shaft ?

 

[MFGuy33]

No not from what I can tell. I turned it by hand and pulled and checked and they seemed fine. It just started making this noise..up to this point no problems whatsoever.

 

[Rick Remmert]

You don't have a piece of wire fencing or something like that wrapped around the shaft between the bottom of the deck and the top of the flywheel do you? I pulled a hand full out of mine this spring while doing mowing season maintenance.

 

[MFGuy33]

Not that I'm aware of but I will check twice to make sure.

 

[MARK ROBKE]

Check the box temperature with an infra red temp gun after using it a while.Mark

 

[Patch700]

First time mine made a noise like that I thought something came unglued underneath lol.. turns out in my case it was an ever so slight bend or dent in the front of the deck that would occasionally come in contact with the leading edge of the blade from time to time... What made it hard to diagnose was that it would only do it once in a while and the dent or bend was very slight.
Made a very loud "Clicking" sound.
Good luck.

 

[MFGuy33]

Thanks! This is almost like a banging sound. At first I thought my blades were hitting the deck but it's not. It does It constantly and it's driving me nuts. Can't figure it out.

 

[tomturkey]

Like I always say, Everything was going great until it wasn't. lol gobble

 

[stevob671]

Happened to me with a Woods 6' about a month ago. Intermittent bang or clank...loud. Turned out I had bent the back skirt while backing into some tree brush at one point and every once in a while things would flex just enough to clank. Had shut it down twice to investigate turning by hand no problem. Finally found on the third try where the blade was nicking the sheeting.

 

[Ultradog MN]

A king kutter is not a bush hog.

 

[Indiana Ken]

Might remove the blades and run it. If the noise is still there, you can conclude it is not due to the blades hitting.

 

[Russ from MN]

I had that happen a few times this summer on our Bush Hog, it was the blade mounting pan getting bent up and hitting the frame. I have since repaired it and hope it doesn't happen again. I am very disappointed in the design of the Bush Hog brand. Your King Kutter is better! I would look underneath for scratches where the blade might be hitting something.

 

[MFGuy33]

Thanks everyone and to the guy to said it's not a bush hog it does very well for the purpose I use it for and I'm happy as can be with it! I am finishing up mowing a customer's property and this morning I turned it on and let it run and zero noise..soon as I started mowing all the clanking and banging started..turned out it is a bent piece of sheet metal towards the back. I took my hammer and beat it out and zero noise! Thanks guys!

 

[RobCons]

My bush hog of unknown brand does that when I back into stuff. A stiff neck makes it hard to turn around some days. A large pipe wrench bends the metal back in place also by clamping the jaws onto it and applying some elbow grease.

 

[maxwell99]

I have a cheap cutter, house brand
It did the same thing, tips of blade hit the underside of the deck,
Problem: since it's a lite duty machine the stump jumper bar that the blades are attached too is bent,

If you take the stump jumper and blades off, you can take the stump jumper to a machine shop with a heavy press,
They can press the main bar back to the straight position, they also welded on some support braces to mine as they had it straight,

Put it back on and the blades never touched the deck again as long as I owned the cutter,

Now the rubber meets the road, just how much is this fix going to cost you???? Is it worth it on an old cutter,

The blade attachment bolts and blade bolt holes could be badly worn if not recently replaced, if worn bad enough they could allow the blade tip ends to have enough up down movement to touch the deck,

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Nothing beats a big hammer in the tool box(LOL)

 

[wilson ind]

Agree with you, Why some folks run machinery and do not know what it is ?