Going to work on IH 100 sickle mower soon

I'm hoping my pictures come through and so a little background, last year my dad and I cut road ditches using the 450 with a 100 Fast Hitch balanced head mower. Somewhere between 60-80 bales worth so definitely worth sticking some time and money into for us. Got to thinking how it went last year and realized that things didn't go quite as smooth as I remembered. It's time to get it up to snuff for this upcoming year and I'm hoping you great folks here have some pointers.

The sickle rattles. It will never be confused for a quiet machine. The mower is loud. I don't know how quiet it should sound normally or if this can be fixed with just new guards or what all I should be looking at.

We had a lot of problems with grass getting stuck in the outer shoe area. It would cut but then bunch up and get stuck in the holes of the shoe and sometimes between the shoe and bar and guard on the end. The grass deflector would sometimes help but the grass wouldn't always slide up and tip over the way it should.

And lastly when the mower bunches up and plugs I can't raise the bar very high. This mower doesn't have a cylinder to raise the bar. When I raise the Fast Hitch it lifts the bar only about 6" off the ground out on the end of the bar and maybe 12" off the ground under the mower. Maybe I'm missing something but we thought about adding the cylinder lift if possible to make it easier to get out of the jams. I think I asked this question last summer but of course I lost the replies. The location of where I hook up the chain might be wrong.

So overall I don't know if I'm looking at rebuilding the bar or if the bar itself is shot also. I've heard someone on YT say that Rowse Rakes is a good place to go for parts. I'll be working on parts for now and when it gets a little nicer here in the next few weeks hopefully get to turning wrenches. Let me know what you all think. Thanks for the help!

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Everything in the sickle drive needs to be in good shape. Check to see if the drive pin is worn or loose in the wobble box pivot arm. Also the steel backed bushing in the sickle head. Sickle hold downs too tight could also cause a hammering noise. Worst case would be if you have to overhaul the wobble box with all new bearings. Just a few possibilities. Bob

Pin and bushing in the drive end of the sickle are worn replace. Wobble box bearings bad if their is to much play.On end of sickle get a tri or double section they make cuts so much better helps from plugging.

The grass slugs out on the end of the bar is usually because you don't have the special 1 1/2 cutter section as your last section. That's one possibility anyway. The next question I would ask you is, did you follow all the lubrication recommendations in the manual? Under normal operation these mowers are relatively quiet. Downright peaceful compared to the same size haybine.

Thanks for the reply Bob. The wobble box has been rebuilt already so that should be alright. I will check the drive pin and the bushing tomorrow. Thanks for the help!

Thank you sir I'll check that out in the morning!

Hey Dave yeah I'm pretty sure I don't have the 1 1/2 section on the end. I never thought of that... Like there is on a bean head. As for lubrication I don't have a manual but one is on the way. I've been all over it though and kept it greased.

Thanks for the help!

Do you have an operators manual? It doesn't look like you have your lift chain hooked up right. It should attach to the bottom of two point hitch cylinder. You'll need two small irons that are about three inches long. when you pull the pin that locks the cylinder it will float and when you go to raise the mower the bottom of the cylinder will lower first pulling on the chain first and it will raise the outer end of the bar first. And my mower is very quite. In fact, I like my pitman mowers better because they vibrate enough to clean the grass off them selves.

state of tennessee, used to use sickle bar mowers to mow right of way, mostly weeds , but some grass. if i remember correctly they cut a portion of the end shoe , above the sickle, off of the shoe.

do any of you know where i can find a sickle bar mower, like the governments used? the machine would raise and lower the bar, from the seat and the mower would cut in a vertical position. i will try to find the number. ( farmall mower)

I've got a manual ordered. Okay so yeah I think I have the chain hooked to the bottom of the other arm. I'll take another look tomorrow and see where exactly it's supposed to go.

I like the belt for the most part but I'm thinking there's just some worn out parts that make extra noise. Thanks for the help I'm looking forward to whipping it into shape

My John Deere number 8 mower plugged on the end until I put the special section in it.

You might call Rouse Rakes in Burwell, NE. They are the ones who make the wobble box for all this type of mowers and have a great repair shop. Plus they have all the parts at reasonable prices. I bought a complete knife assembly that included a new head on the knife for $79.00 and have any other parts you might need. They also have a plug that goes in the outer shoe to help stop the short grass from getting stuck in the hole. I bought one and a set of adjustable hold downs that can be adjusted when they wear some. They are set at .010 clearance and work great! The plug also works great on my 100 and stops almost all of the grass from getting stuck there. I also had my wobble head overhauled with new bearings and such for right at $400. Only problem is if the crankshaft would be bad, now is when the expense starts to add up. This repair would probably be around $1000, but still much less than a new wobble box.

Another thing to check and adjust are the hold-down clips for the bar itself. If they're too loose the mower will cut poorly and rattle excessively.

Some rattle is acceptable. The knife bar is cycling back and forth and that is hard to balance out.

I think they were made by Triumph. Bough out by Alamo now I think. I have one and they are heavy duty You can position the cutter bar in most any cutting configuration from down into a ditch to straight up, all by hydraulic control including the cutter bar being driven by a hydraulic motor. Great for trimming overhanging limbs along a woods road or field edges.

Darned good mower and very worth "tuning up". The pitmanless units are so much more versatile when cutting ditches, embankments, etc.

I've had a couple of IH pitmanles mowers, currently have a (similar) DEERE "350" on my IH 424 diesel.

Thanks for the reply Bob and I agree. This mower sure does a nice job. There's always the thought though that if it can do better then it's worth taking a look at if you know what I mean.

Yeah I see what you're saying and they
might be a bit worn. Maybe I'm thinking too
much into it as I'm sure it'll make some
noise. But anyway thanks for the help!

Hey 300guy thanks for the info. That's got me really curious about them and I'll be giving them a call.