John Deere Potato Digger????

I will ask up on implement alley as well but, I was hoping to get some info from the "more experienced" JD crowd. I picked up a John Deere Potato digger pto driven out of the 1940 era. The digger has seen better days but, over all I think it is usable.

I was able to find a pdf copy of the parts manual online but, nothing of any operation manual or a "how to" on any of the adjustments. I have figured out (I believe) what most of the things are supposed to do except:

The trip arm and much of the depth adjustment arm were missing. I made a trip arm and I can fabricate the missing lift arm if necessary. However, it looks like if the depth adjustment arm "pawls" are engaged when you work the trip, the two will interfere with each other and something will bind and break.

According to the parts manual there was a small pulley that hung off the depth adjustment arm. No clear pic of just where on the lever it hung. I assumed that it was only to guide the trip rope for when the operator would pull the rope from the tractor seat. Someone, who doesn't know any more about these old digger than I do, suggested that the trip rope may have been set in such a way that when pulled it also pulled up the pawls that would release the depth adjustment lever. Then you would pull the trip again to reengage the machine and lower the front for digging you would need to keep hold of the rope until it got to the depth where you want it and then release the rope to engage the pawls at the appropriate depth. All this seems a bit of a stretch for me but, maybe it would work. I am hoping that some on here may have used one of these old JD digger or, even have one around in usable shape and could share some of their knowledge with me. Thank you.
 

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