New Idea 290 broke cutter bars

so i bought this new idea 290 haybine from my aunts husband. he had used it for a short time then it broke the bar close to the end that mounts to the (wobble box?). he bought a new bar and it did the same. he thought something looked miss aligned so he shimmed the bottom block that the wobble box shaft attached to the body. but obviously didn't help... so i bought it for 400 bucks and dragged it home. i pulled the wobble box off. first thing i noticed was a ton of weld where the main shaft meets the short tube that the Z shaped bar is welded to. it didn't take long to see that that repair was made and it was twisted making the main shaft off a few degrees from the shaft that the cutter bar attaches to... they are not parallel and it would seem to me they should be. from what i have read is that this 290 is the same as a ford 535 and the MF 81 models... does anyone have one of these that can take a look at theirs to confirm? or anyone just know? and then the question would be what should i do to fix it... try to grind the ton of weld to straighten it there or cut out the Z bar and adjust it there or just try to heat the Z bar and tweak it there? i know posting a picture might help, i'll try to take a couple tomorrow.

We got one that I just used yesterday. Looks like you're up in the UP? We're about 1/2 hour south of green bay so probably farther than you'd want to drive just to take a look. Off hand I can't picture what part you're talking about.

And yes, they are the same as the Ford and Massey models mentioned. We had a Ford first and now our New Idea is wearing a few blue parts as well as green and orange.

Donovan from Wisconsin

After rereading your post again it sounds like you broke the sickel bar? I could probably convince Dad to sell one of our old ones that needs a drive head on it. We've got 2 that would probably work ok in alfalfa, but would need work if there's any amount of grass as the sections are worn and not so sharp.

Donovan from Wisconsin

yes, the sickle bar. both times it broke close to the head near the wobble box. here are some pictures...
where bar broke.


these two show the shafts not parallel.




this one shows the amount of weld on the wobbler.


...and a couple of the whole thing just for the heck of it.

I'd have to do some digging, I'm not sure if that's one of the parts I kept before we scrapped the rest of the old machine or not. They were a popular machine around here and there are still a few in the junk yards.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I did a little looking today and I don't think I saved that part off our parts machine before scrapping it. I thought yours looked funny, so I looked at mine when I cut some more. The one in ours is a cast part, so no welds on it. Our other one was cast too so I'm thinking you may have one of the very early models.

Unrelated to your current problem but I notice your front pto shaft is twisted and the joints are out of phase. That'll cause you all sorts of heck with the joints and the shaft vibrating.

Donovan from Wisconsin