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Is the drive train in good shape? Pto shaft, bearings, belts, pitman arm, ball & clamp, couple bearings? Are the piviot bearings on the arm in good shape, or sloppy? Need to be firm. Is the sickle wore? By the time you hammer out all the old rivets & pound in new, it might be as cheap to buy a new sickle, a 7' for my Ford is about $70, don't know much about your mower. If you replace the sections on your bar, there are bolts instead of rivets avaiable to hold them on. Cost more, make repairs easier. How are the sickle hold-downs? They can be worn down, and need to be shimmed properly to keep the sickle down, but not tight. (You may have to replace these with slightly higher-clearance ones if you use bolts to hold one the sickle sections.) How are the guards? Most have ledger plates riveted on, long job replacing them but not too expensive, or maybe you need some new guards totally. These ledger plates are the 'other' half of the siccors action of the mower, and need to be as sharp & good as the sickle. Many times they are neglected more than the sickle. Many times a sickle bar will clump up on the outer most section of the bar. There is a 'double section' available to put on here that helps a lot. It has 2 smaller cutter blades into one section, and does a better job of cutting off hay on the end section. That's about it for a sickle mower. Many of these parts are available in a fleet & farm store, look in the cutting section of any good farm supply store & you should find ideas & most of what you need. They might be out of stock now, but in early spring should be restocked. --->Paul
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