# 1949 Gravely L blow-back



## historicfrankli (Feb 7, 2008)

I respect the educated and experianced opinions I read here so here the deal. With my 1949 Gravely L running, I cannot open the oil fill cap to see if oil is pumping. If I understand the owners manuals correctly for these early units, you start it and then check to make sure it's pumping oil. There is so much splatter coming out of that filler hole that it's impossible to determine what's going on. Obviously there's oil pumping but this seems extreme blowing pressure coming out. Next thing is I can see a seal or something vibrating out on the casing on the shaft that the hi-low arm mounts on the lower casing. If the arm was not there is looks like it would surely fall out and looks kind of brass to me. There's not oil running out like I would think with a loose seal but the area above, beside and below is oil/dirt covered like many areas of the machine. Next, the 30 inch mowing attachment shaft that connects to the gravelys PTO has the seam and bolt up. I can see oil gurgle out of that seam when the mower is engaged. Photos I find I cannot see the seam. I'm deciding what is usual conditions and what I need to prepare to get parts for as I'm restoring the unit. I've 
played with this tractor mowing some brush out by the CSX tracks behind my property and some one posted a note to "not fight it because it will win and just laugh at you", this is sooooo true. In 15 minutes I had a huge blister on my hand from trying to tame the beast because I didn't realize who was in charge. Obviously not me. 
Thanks for your time and have a great day from HISTORICFRANKLIN Tennessee....ya'll.


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## chrpmaster (May 5, 2004)

first of all if you are getting good oil pressure you will get splattered if you remove the oil cap. Is the oil at the proper level or is it over filled? Do you have it running at full throttle or does it spatter a lot even at idle? I can't think of any problem this would cause though unless you leave the cap off for too long  I don't know if there is an adjustment for the oil pressure on your tractor. Normally this adjustment is on those later tractors that had a replaceable oil filter and pressure gauge.

Do you have the service, operators and parts manuals? If not you can download them from www.oldgravelys.net. This will tell you if there is a brass bushing on your hi-low arm. Have you tried to tap it back in to see if it stays? If its not leaking oil then its probably not hurting anything but without it in place it could put the arm out of allignment where it passes through the case and contacts the clutches inside. This could cause premature failure of the clutches. That would be a much bigger job to fix.


There are gaskets you can get that go between the attachements and the advance casting. I have never used one but if your mower and casting don't meet flush then one of these might help stop the leakage.

Its good to hear you are putting the old girl to work. They always run better if they get used regularly. If I am mowing rough areas I will wear gloves to avoid the blister problem. Plus it makes it easier to unplug the mower if needed.

Andy


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