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You really need a manual. Close examination may reveal a searil plate tag, or a picture to your Case dealer should get you a model #. You need the spring on to hold the weight of the mower. Both skid ends should be lightly touching the ground. Generally most mowers have 2 springs to achive this, one for each end. Without the springs, the skid plates will dig in. You need to be driving fast enough for the cut hay to fall behind the bar. Generally 1st gear means your mower is way too dull (sickle and/or ledger plates) or you are in damp or very fine-stemmed hay or clover - when dew is out, sickle mowers are parked on grass hay. You need to correct these problems & drive faster. What type of sickle do you have? Smooth sickle with serated ledger plates works well in grass. Smooth ledger plates & bottom serated sickle works well. Top serated sickle & serated ledger plates can cause hay to hang up & rechop itself over & over, gumming up the works clogging the bar. Wind over 20 mph can cause a real headache as it blows the hay in front of the bar in one direction. Downed, driven on, wind-swept, not mowed in years, hay can be an _extreme_ challenge to get a sickle mower through. Likewise short fine grass that was finish mowed for a time & is not very tall will clog up a mower and dew makes that extra worse. They only work well on fairly mature, standing straight & tall, hay. Very soft peat or muck ground with ruts and usually damp can be a real problem, as plants want to pull out of this soft soil, and the mower wants to dig into it. Hopefully this helps you zero in on the problem? 75% of the time a new smooth or bottom serated sickle bar clears up the problems. Keep the old one for backup when you break a section & need to finish cutting. I bet much of your problem is the missing spring causing the mower to dig in too deep. --->Paul
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