Ford 501 mower

I found that a few of the guards were a little low, rather than hi, but only by a little bit. I took them back off & filed a little material from the "notch" where they fit up against the bar & that did the trick to get them all in alignment.

Now if I can just quit finding odd pieces of iron sticking out of weeds, I'd have it made.

Mike Sa

Bill,

Chris is absolutely right about bending the hold down brackets down so that the blade rides on the ledger plates. Also, I personally have never had any luck with trying to bend the rock guards up when they are installed on the bar. I always take mine off, put them into a vise, and bend them with a hammer. Sometimes I have to take the guard off and put it back on more than once to get it right, but I still prefer to do it that way instead of whacking the guard while it's on the bar.

Good luck,

Tom in TN

next can you take your finger and press down on the leading edge of a sickle tooth point and will it go down? if yes, then you have to hammer your hold downs down tighter - or maybe replace....

then i took a sledge without heat and beat them around until they were all pressed up against the bottom of the sickle - not perfect yet , but much better than it has been in along time....