Help Educate me please- Deere 503 rotary cutter mounting for L2501

[mrknugget13]

Hi Everyone. I have a L2501, and have an opportunity to purchase an older Deere 503 rotary cutter. By glance I think it will mount to the 3PT, Does anyone have advise how to check this before driving an hr with trailer? Should I be able to turn the PTO by hand and check the blades turn? I would think yes.

My intentions are to use to cut down tall overgrown grass/ weeds/ very very light brush, nothing really thick all less than 1".


newbie to tractors and the forum, have found a good bit of info here the past month.

 

[mcfarmall]

If a 503 is Cat I three point hitch, then yes, it will fit your tractor. You should be able to turn the shaft and gearbox by hand. Your tractor will have a 1-3/8" 6-spline shaft. There is another style, a 1-3/8" 21-spline shaft but that is typically only found on attachments rated for over 100hp.

 

[mrknugget13]

If a 503 is Cat I three point hitch, then yes, it will fit your tractor. You should be able to turn the shaft and gearbox by hand. Your tractor will have a 1-3/8" 6-spline shaft. There is another style, a 1-3/8" 21-spline shaft but that is typically only found on attachments rated for over 100hp.

Thanks for the response. I'll check it out in the morning and will report back when I get it home, grease/ oil it, put on a new guard, and run over something large and break the new guard off!...

 

[Cathy Liebchen]

It’s a light duty model in rough shape so don’t pay much for it

 

[D2Cat]

By the way it's laying there it may be a bit difficult to get the blades turning by hand. Might take a long screwdriver or 1/2" piece of rebar to assist by inserting into the U-joint.

 

[bird dogger]

I have that same model that I used behind my B2650. It'll work just fine behinde your L2501. Since a heavy duty flail mower found a new home here, the old JD 503 has sat unused.

 

[mrknugget13]

Picked it up, cleaned up the PTO universal old gunked up grease, new grease, seems ok, gear oil level good, in good condition, sat it up on the side and banged out a couple of the sides. Sharpened the blades a little. One of the blades is jammed but it is jammed in the 'out' position for cutting, the other one turns fine. I'll give her a try this weekend and see how it works.

I spent 350 for it, considering the completely rusted out units around where I live being offered at $650-1000, I found this to be a fair deal. I do machinery repair for a living so Im not afraid of cleaning/ fixing up projects to work for us. Its a blessing to be able to do that I guess since I am also broke

 

[ken erickson]

I think you will end up with a good cutter for the money!

I personally would spend more effort in freeing up the jammed blade. It is my belief that swinging blades offer driveline protection on top of a shear bolt or slip clutch in the event you hit a large stump or some other solid object.

 

[mrknugget13]

I think you will end up with a good cutter for the money!

I personally would spend more effort in freeing up the jammed blade. It is my belief that swinging blades offer driveline protection on top of a shear bolt or slip clutch in the event you hit a large stump or some other solid object.

I agree the blade would be better in swing ability, hey maybe a stump will free it from jam

We will hopefully only need the cutter for 3-4 times this season and then in winter I plan to take it to work for a lunchtime rebuild week. One concern I do have is this blade assembly mount bolt in photo below (note that oily appearance is the kriol spray I put on all bolts/nuts/pins etc to help lube up, its not gearbox leak). Manual and deere online parts list shows a bolt to mount the assembly to the gearbox. This however, looks like a chewed up nut and a cotter pin through a threaded stud. It sort of looks like a welded nut onto a thread, but when I got real close under it, it doesnt have that weld appearance... hard to say. Worse news I could get here is if I end up heating up and no loosen, and end up cutting it off, and then find out gearbox output shaft was a machined shaft with thread, that would lengthen repair

Get that assembly off I can then secure the blade assembly and get the 5 million ft lbs bolt nuts off the blades that I hear are buggers to remove

 

[PoTreeBoy]

I think that's a heavily corroded castel nut. Heat and chisel to swell it off may work. The gearbox shaft is probably splined and threaded so you want to save the male threads at all cost.

Can you not remove the blades with the stump jumper still on?

 

[mcfarmall]

I think that's a heavily corroded castel nut. Heat and chisel to swell it off may work. The gearbox shaft is probably splined and threaded so you want to save the male threads at all cost.

Can you not remove the blades with the stump jumper still on?

Usually the output shaft is a tapered spline with a threaded end for a castle nut. I'd Kroil the heck out of the blade pivot bolt then chop some brush for a day. It'll probably loosen up on its own.