Changing the sections on NH 467 Haybine

What is the simplest way of changing out the sections and guards on a NH 467 Haybine?

Are the sections held on by rivets or bolts? if they're rivets, take the sickle out, lay the bar flat across an anvil and hit the edge of the section with a hammer. It'll shear the rivets right off and then with a small punch just punch out the rest of the rivet.

Bolts are easy and can be done in the machine most of the time. You need to remove the guard where the busted section is, and then form there it's pretty straight forward.

If you have rivets, I'd just go ahead and use bolts when replacing. You find them right next to the new sections at TSC, Fleet Farm, etc... I'd also reccomend the tool used to install the new bolts in the bar as they are a press fit and they bend easy.

Guards are easy as well. If you're doing a bunch, an impact is you best friend. Easiest to pull the sickle out and then go at it if you're doing a bunch.

Donovan from Wisconsin

The easiest thing would be to price a complete sickle assembly.

The sections are held on by rivets. I bought the sections and rivets yesterday at TSC. But, you're saying i can use the bolts instead, that would be easier to reinstall.

The main reason for the new sections was that the most outer section was missing, so when i was cutting, the outer area was 'ripping' the alfalfa and clogging that area so nothing could get cut.

last night i had raked what i cut on Tuesday and noticed that the overall cut was very poor, not clean. So i might just replace all sections.

Thank you for your advice and help.

Yep the newer bolt type set up makes it easier in the future to replace them. With rivets you have to pull the sickle bar out of the machine to replace then sections unless you have a $200 rivet tool
Hobby farm

Check the price on a new, aftermarket, knife BEFORE going through all the trouble to replace ALL the sections. The cost of the individual sections can add up pretty fast!

Bolts usually require higher arches in the hold down fingers of the sickle mower.

I've found that the fancy tool breaks when pushing out rivets, so I use a die grinder and cutoff wheel to remove the rivet head, then punch out the rivet with a long 5/32" punch. Then I can use the rivet tool to squeeze new rivets and it doesn't break that way.

Guards unbolt and new ones bolt on. It important that the secttions ride against the bottom of the guard slots else they won't cut. Sometimes it take shims under the mounting of the guards, especially that end one.

Gerald J.

Is the outermost section on the haybine supposed to be one of the sickle and a half sections?

Im honestly not sure, but I know that i had to put one of those on my old sickle bar mower as the end section, since there was a lot of binding there at the end without it.

The rivets work fine and I have used them with great results, but the fact of the matter is that the bolts just work easier and faster. I would be willing to bet that the end section is supposed to be one of those 1 1/2 sections. I find that I have to replace those every so often just because they seem to go dull a little quicker than the rest of the sections.

I would also lookup sickleservice.com and price out a complete new sickle. May be able to get it with the drive head, but for sure should be able to get it without the drive head. The benefit of getting a second drive head is you can have a spare sickle in the rafters and if you break one or a bunch, you can swap out the entire bar with a good one and fix the other one later.

We have 2 haybines, one is a 9 ft. New Idea 290 (same as the Ford 535 and I think the Massey #81) and the other is a 14 ft. Hesston 1014+2 twin sickle Hydro-swing. The New Idea we have one complete spare sickle in the rafters and we mainly use this machine for cutting tall swamp grass for bedding. The local Fleet Farm was closing out the replacement sickles for our machine, so we bought the last 3 they had in stock. We still have 1 brand new one in the rafters that has yet to have the head mounted to it, and the others are in use. The sections are riveted on, but the last time I replaced the head and every time I replace a section I use bolts without any troubles in the hold down clips.

The Hesston is our main machine and while we don't have a spare sickle for it, we did a complete rebuild on it a couple years ago. We bought everything from sickleservice.com. The hold downs are better than the ones that TSC sells, in that to adjust them you simply tighten a bolt and that squeezes the hold down clip tighter. That whole sickle is bolts, but in the middle where the 2 scissors together, it takes a special bolt and section so the heads are counter sunk in the sections.

Here's what we were dealing with before we rebuilt the cutter bar on the Hesston:



We bought it out of a junk yard for a good price and it was definatly worth it. Works great, and much faster than the 9' cut.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I ended up buying a new sickle from NH. It turned out to be cheaper than ordering one (even without shipping) or the local stores. TSC of course was out of stock as usual.

I had the same trouble breaking the replaceable punch, until I started using a small pipe wrench to tighten the tool to the bar. Any bit loose, it would cock sideways and break the punch. After that, it worked fine, but I still like the bolts better.

weld a 1/2 inch hard nut to the top of a bottle jack. Grind the rivet head off with a small side grinder. Place the jack under rivet, put some lift on the bar and drive out rivet with a punch. The jack lets you make a solid hit. You can place the jack on some blocks of wood to make things higher.

Take your sickle and open our vice just enough so the sickle sections will slide in the vice facing down. Don't let the sickle bar fit in the vice though.

The bar itself should rest on top of one of the vice jaws and sections fit loose in the vice but have a snug fit. Now hit the back of each section with a big hammer and it will shear the rivets in one or two blows.

Grinding the rivet heads is time consuming and I didn't think any one did that any more.

I found on my little IH 1300 sickle mower that replacing the bar was cheaper than putting new sections on the old one. always kept a new bar handy every year before hay making season. The down time was almost zero.