Farmall Cub

Wow, I installed a sickle mower this weekend on my 48 cub with a hand lift and realized how dangerous this tool is, although it works well.

My questions are: when I pick up the sickle bar 90 degrees to the ground, in order to transport it, the blade sides down almost to the ground. The pitman arm is almost on the ground. Is there something I’m not doing right, or is there a clamp I can install to keep the blades form moving?

Does anyone have a pictures of a device they created to keep the blades from moving or to protect folks from getting hurt?

Any and All advice would be appreciated.

On the hing side of the cutter bar wearplate there should be a cast on pin. That will catch the cutter bar and keep it from sliding down when in the stowed position. It catches on the pitman arm release.


Bill S.

Bill is probably right and you will find the pin broken off so the bar cannot stay in place in the up position
Tim

Joe:

My buddy Dale McKay makes these for the Cub-22. I have a very nice set hanging up in the pole barn awaiting my Cub-22 restore.



The guard is made from sheet metal and is held on by small custom fitted bungee cords and the mower is held up by a stay rod .

Without seeing it firsthand, what you're describing sounds normal to me. If your mower is installed properly, you should be able to use the hand lift to raise the entire cutter bar to get ground clearance. A knife guard can be easily and inexpensively made from a section of 4" corregated plastic drain pipe and a couple of bungees.

The pin that was mwntioned is shown in the upper right of this picture from eBay:



Bob

edit: I'm not where I can look at a mower, but what I am referring to as a pin hits a lip that may be broken off (I think).

If you need the part pictured above let me know Joe. I have a NOS I would sell reasonable.

What are you using to hold up the bar? You really want a slightly larger angle between the cutter bar and coupling bar than 90 degrees (as would be the case with a factory stay rod).
Picture from TM Tractors

Otherwise, you are relying on the point on the strap (pictured in the post above) engaging the ear on the rear knife head cap (p/n ME652). I have never seen a broken strap, but have seen several rear knife head caps with the ears broken off. --Lee

Hi,
You didn't say, I guess it's a Cub 22 mower you have. Here's a pic of the other part, that the point on the end of the pitman in the other pic, hits on. You probably have one of them broken off, which is why it slides down when up. This is an old one that I had. Hope this help you. Glen.

It is indeed normal for the blade to slide down a "little bit" when raising to transport position, but the guys have you covered as to why it would fall almost all the way to the ground. One thing to be careful about even with nothing broken is to keep fingers WELL AWAY from the blades when raising it up...the sliding blade will easily sever a finger. Those Cub-22's are EXCELLENT, but they sure look and act like instruments of destruction when working!

Mike

Yes - They are excellent machines, but they are brutal and merciless. I came close to losing a finger last summer. Be aware of where your fingers are, and work on the knife while it is level. Gravity works!

How often they get clogged up, and what can you do to minimize that?

Where is it clogging? Do you have the triple blade on the innermost section?

Thank you all for the information. I think I have the problem solved.

Glen wrote me the following:
“If your bar slides down like that, you have one of the 2 parts missing, probably. They are like pointed metal, like in the pic. They touch together when the bar is up for transport, keeping the blade from sliding down. If the one is there on the end of the pitman, like in the pic on your post, the other one is probably gone. It's made on the part that holds the sickle head, the rear one that fastens on with the 2 big bolts.”

When I got home I checked and the part broken wasn’t the one on the pitman arm but the one on the blade, being held on by 2 big bolts. As luck would have it, it happens that I had an extra one on an old blade that I almost scraped a few weeks back. Whew!

Thanks to all, this has been very informative. I also plan on making a guard out of the drain tile for now. Thanks again.

Redclip wrote:How often they get clogged up, and what can you do to minimize that?

Good cutter bar maintenance. Sharp, straight knife. Sharp straight guards. All clips adjusted properly. Proper knife registration. Sometimes you can't avoid it completely.