John Whiteker
New User
I have been fixing up this old Ford 501 and I ran into a snag. What you are looking at is the view from the pitman side of the mower,
looking out towards the end of the sickle. This is the inner foot area. If you look closely, my issue is this large gap underneath the
front edge of the sickle (left side in the photo). On the outer side of the inner foot, the cutter bar is touching the steel guide that sits
underneath it. On the inner side that you are looking at, there is about a 1 inch gap from the bottom of the cutter bar to the top of the
guide. Is this inner shoe piece actually bent? If I fix this with shims, I would need over an inch of shims on the insdie edge and none on
the outer edge just to make it all ride flat. When I took this all apart, I pulled quite a few washers and junk out of this area. The mower
was working when I got it, but when this area caused a jam, it broke the pitman. I'm confused. I have a hard time believeing that this 1/2
inch thick steel shoe somehow got damaged that badly. I'm open to any ideas or suggestions anyone might have.
looking out towards the end of the sickle. This is the inner foot area. If you look closely, my issue is this large gap underneath the
front edge of the sickle (left side in the photo). On the outer side of the inner foot, the cutter bar is touching the steel guide that sits
underneath it. On the inner side that you are looking at, there is about a 1 inch gap from the bottom of the cutter bar to the top of the
guide. Is this inner shoe piece actually bent? If I fix this with shims, I would need over an inch of shims on the insdie edge and none on
the outer edge just to make it all ride flat. When I took this all apart, I pulled quite a few washers and junk out of this area. The mower
was working when I got it, but when this area caused a jam, it broke the pitman. I'm confused. I have a hard time believeing that this 1/2
inch thick steel shoe somehow got damaged that badly. I'm open to any ideas or suggestions anyone might have.
