MF sickle mower

Bytheacre

New User
Bought a older MF 32 , looked ok by the picture, it's going to require some tune up time.
It didn't take long to figure out that the cutter heads where mix matched over the years. You can kinda figure out why they wanted to get rid of it.
There was about a 1/4"- 1/2" space between the cutter blades and the cutter head?
Anyone else ever have seen this before?
 
Oh it's completely repairable, it's just the job of alignment of the blade heads, grinding and custom fitting each one that's all.
Looking forward to bringing her back to life!
 
MF32 is a good mower.

Ledgers should have a 90 degree corner to them and not be rounded. Sickle blades should be sharp and down in the ledgers, very little to zero gap. Order a manual for it from Agco before you do anything. Drop dead simple mower - properly adjusted/maintained/sharpened, will cut hay great.

Search this sight for ?MF32" as one word. I purposely wrote my posts regarding this model mower to get better searches for another day. You can see from the posts where I've been with my MF32.

Good luck,
Bill
MF32 at work
 
I do not understand the term cutter heads and cutter blades. If you are meaning sections and guards, I may add that the guards for a MF mower will interchange with no other mower. I know that IH. JD, Ford. NH and AC will somewhat interchange and get you out of a tight spot but the MF is strictly their own design. My BIL bought a MF mower at a sale and the sections were at least a quarter inch from the guards. I gave him my old MF Dyna Balance for parts, The old Dyna balance was the oldest Massey Harris Ferguson, I believe it was a model 25 or 35. A great machine but too hard to put on or take off.
 
Thank you all very much for the valued info.
It's going to be a matter of time to grind each of the guard to an acceptable tolerance, but I am already seeing her potential. MF made a distinct edge detail on the guard bar of their own.
 
I picked up a Ford 515 that suffered from the same issues yours has. Tried and tried to get all the half worn out guards to agree at the ledger plate and could never get acceptable performance. The fix was all new guards and sections. Evaluate the guards you believe to be the keepers, do they have "crisp" rights angles???? Fortunately the Ford works with a more generic guard, found new in the $8 range on the net. Good luck, it's satisfying to watch the grass fall over.
 
Once you get your sections and guards in proper order,

You will need to check the blade register or (timing)

The owners manual will tell you how to do this, but the mower will not cut property if it is out of register,
Anytime a pitman is broken and replaced, this action can get the register off,
Most of these old mowers have had a number of pitman replacements by now, I think our MF32 mower was purchased new in 1960
 

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