Sears blade

I have a 72 Sears SS16 Twin, which should be identical to yours. It should have 4 hooks connecting the blade to the tabs on the front axle. The hooks are U-shaped pieces, 5/8" diameter and with cotter pins at the end, if I remember correctly. These are flexible connections (rod and pin type) that allow the blade to flex with axle articulation. My Dad learned this the hard way as he broke the tab off of one side of the axle when he shimmed one tightly.

My friend gave me a blade from an older (60's) Suburban. These models share the geometry of the slide-in bracket, but have only two retention hooks. They rely on nuts on the side of the slide-in frame to lock the unit in place. The later Suburbans have a doubled front frame and you can't access the nuts to tighten them down. Without them, the unit will tilt forward under load and not be usable. I modified mine with a couple of lengths of chain attached to the mower mounting brackets, and will post some photos for you this evening when I get to my home computer and photo archive. I'll also get some dimensions of the original links for you.

The blade bolts on the slide for the mule drive slot,then that has 1 hooh at the top to hook into the top hole on your axle and 2 braces on the bottom which bolts into the bottom holes of your axle.

One more thing, The later blades did mount different. You can tell if it is the later model because it has a trip spring like blades do today.

They did not mount to the axle like the old one. They had a bracket for the mule drive and then the blade hooked to that.

They, the newer, also are worth more IMO because the whole blade was heavy steel.

The older blade has a steel frame with thinner steel for the blade.