501 sicklw mower

john korte · Jun 28, 2014

On the sickle mower bar, is every knife suppose to have a knife clip? I have about 4 knife clips across my bar. I notice a few of the knifes sit on or very close to the ledger plate but I have quit of few that there is 1/8" + gap. It looks like the only way to adjust the knifes so they work like scissors is to have a clip on each knife to push the knife onto the leger. Is this correct?

Tom in TN · Jun 28, 2014

John,

It is not normal to have hold down clips on every sickle section. Theoretically, if your knife is straight and if the knife holder (thing that the rock guards bolt onto)is straight, just a few hold downs should do the trick.

On the other hand, you can't have too many hold down clips, so you might want to to add some to what you have.

On the third hand, in practice, you are going to have variations of the gap from one section knife/ledger plate to the next. Slight gap is better than large gap, but 1/8 inch is probably not so much that it is going to render it inoperable.

Sally forth.

Tom in TN

JLeus · Jun 29, 2014

How are your guards/ledgers in relation to one
another? I bought a 515 a couple years ago that
had as varied a mix of guards as I believe you can
have. I replaced them all at one time with
identical guards to overcome the same problem your
describing. Mowing performance was restored.

Leroy · Jun 29, 2014

Skip 3 and then one hold down then repete. That sounds correct for a 5' bar. You should have a high hold down over the head and the last one should not be over 2 guards from the end shoe. Every one is excevive and would make it pull hard. For 7' bat should be 6 hold downs, 6' would be 5 hold downs. This is the way it has been done for the last 125 years on all mowers.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 1, 2014

On the ones with a gap make sure that finger isn't bent down. If it is whack it up with a heavy hammer.

john korte · Jul 19, 2014

Thank you jleus,
I replaced some of my rock gaurds with a different type and that made a huge difference. Also I learned if you take the knife clip off and bolt backwards you can then really whack it with a hammer to make it bend. I suppose a good vise would work to. I was able to get all my knifes to lay very close to the ledger to get a good scissor action. Tested it on a small field that we let the horses on and so there are areas that are thick and high. cut through it and thought my efforts where for nothing because a lot of the grass was still standing! Got off walked over there, it cut through so clean it literally left it standing in place! about 3 more weeks before the hay field is ready to be cut. Can"t wait to see how it does a 5 acre field. thank you everyone for advice and ideas how to make this sickle mower work.

501 sicklw mower

john korte

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Tom in TN

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JLeus

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Leroy

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Anonymous-0

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john korte

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