NI Sickle Mower

When I picked it up with my tractor (MF35 diesel), it was unbalanced enough to the blade side so that the lift arms looked to be different in height by a couple or more inches. I don't know a lot about the lift mechanics, but know that with nothing attached and the lift down, I can lift either arm a couple or three inches independently by hand to align vertically to mount an implement. I assume this is normal, but maybe not so - tell me if not.

Is this unbalance normal, or did the conversion from towed to 3-pt result in an unbalance? With a towed sickle, do the wheels comnpensate for this? Is this a problem in actual use, or do I just adjust the blade angle to horizontal to compensate? Would this likely cause any harm to the tractor 3-pt mechanism? If it's a bad thing, any suggestions on a fix - add a support wheel for example? The amount of use will be pretty minimal - grass hay on less than 10 acres a few times a year.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. When I get around to it, I'll post pictures with additional questions.

Thanks!

Model 30 & 250 series - The gear box and mech lift all one unit. A large oblong (tear drop) shaped cast unit (H6"xW14"xL32" roughly) with gear box cast in it (on top). There is a removable cast cover the covers the slip clutch. The pto shaft entered the front, and comes out the back of the gear box part with a large nut on it. This nut is the adjustment for the slip clutch. The mech lift consist of a shaft coming straight up and had an arm on it the would spin half way around when the trip rope was pulled. This would put the mower in either a raised or lowered position (no inbetween). The drive for the sickle bar, exited the rear of the oblong unit and had a balancer and pitman on it. The pitman is connected to the sickle via a spring loaded ball joint. This is another weak point and may have a bolt thru it or a hose clap around it.

• Pic

Errin...OK, as promised, here goes. I'm going to try to attach a drawing. Not as good as a pic, but better than the sketch I'd have done. It's an overhead drawing of the mower - NOT TO SCALE. I've annotated, so hope you can tell what's what. I'm afraid it's not a good representation unless you know what you're looking at.

For starters, I was remembering incorrectly - as shown, the gearbox itself is not ahead and to the bar side of the assembly, it is on the bar side, but is somewhat behind the circular housing. That housing is more like 12" in diameter. It has a hole as shown at about the 2 o'clock position, and five bolts holding it on in a six-bolt pattern - the sixth would have been about where it joins what I'm calling the gearbox. The elliptical shape on top of the circular casting is an arm that has a rod attached that seems to have to do with raising the bar assembly. Since teh mower, less the bar, is about 4 ft or so side-to-side, wioth the 7 ft bar, it's about 11 ft - all hanging to one side off the lift arms. My mechanical intuition tells me to feel uncomfortable.

Of course, I'm not showing all the detail, but I hope it's enough to give you a feel for what I'm looking at. Sure enough, a picture is worth a thousand words, but a drawing like this may only be worth a few hundred! :)

Once I get it working, I may consider further mods to relieve that side torque a bit - maybe add a single wheel on the bar side to provide a little support. Also will think about what you said about break-away safety...maybe I can figure a way to adapt. I don't want to think about hooking something very solid. Gonna be hard enough maneuvering around my small acreage with underground irrigation sprinkle risers - the place wasn't realy set up for hay...more like horse pasture.

Do you know if there are still manuals available? How can I ,make sure of the model? I'm guessing model and serial number are pressed or stamped into that compartment cover, but it's so worn or weathered as to not be readable.

Also have to learn a little about it - never used a sickle mower (green as grass relative to haying). Haven't yet figured out how to adjust and lock the bar.

Thanks very much for your help.

Errin...OK, as promised, here goes. I'm going to try to attach a drawing. Not as good as a pic, but better than the sketch I'd have done. It's an overhead drawing of the mower - NOT TO SCALE. I've annotated, so hope you can tell what's what. I'm afraid it's not a good representation unless you know what you're looking at.

For starters, I was remembering incorrectly - as shown, the gearbox itself is not ahead and to the bar side of the assembly, it is on the bar side, but is somewhat behind the circular housing. That housing is more like 12" in diameter. It has a hole as shown at about the 2 o'clock position, and five bolts holding it on in a six-bolt pattern - the sixth would have been about where it joins what I'm calling the gearbox. The elliptical shape on top of the circular casting is an arm that has a rod attached that seems to have to do with raising the bar assembly. Since teh mower, less the bar, is about 4 ft or so side-to-side, wioth the 7 ft bar, it's about 11 ft - all hanging to one side off the lift arms. My mechanical intuition tells me to feel uncomfortable.

Of course, I'm not showing all the detail, but I hope it's enough to give you a feel for what I'm looking at. Sure enough, a picture is worth a thousand words, but a drawing like this may only be worth a few hundred! :)

• NI SIckle Mower drawing

Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera yet, but will try to get some pics and scan them and post, or at worst, make a sketch, scan and post that. Your pic doesn't look a lot like what I have, but then, it doesn't show the gear box assembly very clearly. Looking down from the top would be easier to compare, but don't go to the trouble of doing another pic if you don't have one already.

I'm at work, and can't bring up a good mental pic right now, so can't describe what I have, but will try. Will take a hard look this evening and reply then with at least a sketch.

I can tell you this much...there is a sheet metal cover with a tab to grab to open it, over a recess that looks like a compartment to store spare blades, guards etc. on top, with NI raised letters on it. Kinda poor design since it isn't seqaled in any way and fills up with rainwater since it has no drain hole. There is a roughly circular part of the gear box assembly - maybe 8"-10" in diameter, with the top held on by maybe a half-dozen bolts around the edge. It seems to be a mechanism to raise the bar sssembly - or at least provide an assist or positioning - since it has an arm on the shaft coming out of the top that connects to the bar assembly. As far as I can tell, there is no power to it unless it's connected internally (inside the casting where I can't see it till I open it up).

Forward and off-side of that (if I am recalling correctly) is what looks like the actual gear box since the pto connects to it, not the the other circular housing, and this connects to the pitman, which is square cross-section made of wood.

That's pretty rough, but starts to give you an idea. At worst, I'll sketch what I've got, and post that as a pic and se if that helps.

My tractor (MF35) does have a height adjustment on one of the lift arms, so I can compensate some with that, but some of the issues you raise concern me. Starts to sound like my ignorance might have bought me a white elephant.

Thanks for your reply.

Cobbled...yes. Not pretty, but seems OK. There's a little offset - the lower mount pins aren't exactly aligned, but close.

Thanks for the reply.