So will my Massey swather need anti rejection drugs

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member
Started swathing grain with my old Massey swather when suddenly the finger reel clapsed. A real mess! So I called a friend that is a old swather man and asked him for some advice. He came over, took one look and said " if you want to swath grain this week, you need a new reel." And it just happens that he had a John Deere wooded batt reel he had stored away for the last 30 years, and never needed. Told me he thought we could make it work. So after we took off the end braces , trimmed of 5 inches of each end , and made it drive from the opposite end , it was almost ready. Had to make a few adjustments to the header springs , as the wooden batt reel weight less, and the header would not go all the way down. And the diameter of the wooden reel was greater, we also had to adjust the hydraulic stops so it didn't go touch the knife . All done and worked perfect, but will the Massey reject the John Deere donor parts?
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Looks good, but your going to have to cut slower. That jd real has never cut as fast as that massey can cut so you will likely have some problems at least til it forgets where it came from and gets over its fear of speed.
 
It's been stored for 30 years, huh?
You need to put a couple of John Deere decals on it. Just make sure that the deer is coming down from his jump and not going up. (John Deere fanatics might catch that joke, others won't)
 
Can the yellow paint pass for Massey-Harris yellow? If not then you could always paint the reel red.
 
My old man was a craftsman at marrying brands together. He never painted his creations he kept for himself. feared he'd burn the paint if it didn't work to his liking and had to redo it. Leave it as is, it will keep the neighbors talking...
 
After being hidden away for 30 years, I don't think that Reel even remembers what a JD Swather looks like; it's just happy to be out of that musty, dusty old barn. lol

:>)
 
I have the same Macdon pick up reel on my swather.
Years of use and abuse has caused several messes similar to what you had.
Nice thing about them is it really does not take much more than a few hockey stick handles and some flat bar to bring them back to life.
If damaged worse, parts are still available.
 

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