Sickle Bar / Knife Register for Opposed Guard Configuration?

[Does’ Leap]

Geoff:

I ground the existing rivets off and replaced them with small bolts and lock nuts. I’ve mowed with it for two years and the ledgers are still held fast. If you have a wire feed welder with low amperage welding capabilities, you could tack the nut to the bolt for extra insurance.

George

[Does’ Leap]

I just remembered that the bolts I purchased for the job had a Phillips head. I had to grind the head flat enough so that I would fit flush or slightly below the depression on the ledger so as not to interfere with the knife sliding across it. You cannot grind to much off so that you can’t hold the bolt tight with a screwdriver as you tighten the nut on the back side.

George

[Mark Cowdrey]

Geoff,
When I got my ledgers from Macknair several years ago they came w small taper headed bolts w allen heads that work great. I drilled & punched the original rivets.
Mark

[Jay]

Geoff,
I too have had good luck with the tapered head bolts Mark refers to. They have a place for an allen wrench in the head.
I would put some kerosine on those pins several times to see if they wont loosen up a bit. If I need to take stuck or tight pins out of a mower, first I cut the pins with a sawzall, to separate the shoe and the yoke, then drive the pins out or if very stuck, center drill and then drive. As Donn says, the more usual problem is when they are too loose. See if you can get it to loosen up a bit. Good luck, Jay

[near horse]

Hey All,

Thanks for the responses RE: rivets on the inner/outer ledgers – as soon as you mentioned the tapered headed bolts w/ allen fitting on top, I remembered using them on an old swather instead of rivets. So that’s what I did and it seems pretty good. As far as the bar pivot pins go, I doused ’em w/ some diesel and worked the bar up and down a bunch. Then tried some dry spray graphite and it seems much better.

I should also add that I couldn’t seem to get my inner shoe to sit flat on the ground when everything was in the “mow” position. It ended up being the gag link pin being in the wrong set of holes – I think this mower was originally a vertical lift mower which I think only came as 4 or 5 foot bars and when I got this it had (has) a 6 ft bar. Switching over the gag link pin from the one for vertical lift mowers to plain seems to have made the difference. Never would have thunk it!

Now, I need to get to mowing if we can get 48 hours with a decent forecast.

[Author]

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