Sickle bar mower refurbish

13438 Views 83 Replies 17 Participants Last post by CHEVY&SEARS, Oct 18, 2013

CHEVY&SEARS

Discussion Starter · Jul 15, 2013

So I got these 2 mowers a few weeks ago, my ad on Craigslist really payed off. I got the 2 mowers, The Custom, the ST12, a buncha mule drives and random Sears parts and 3 3 point hitches for $400.

Model # 842.260020
Serial # 86260 and 97522

Neither of them are in working order but both are complete. As you can see in the first 2 pictures, one of them is severely twisted and broken but it's actually in better shape as far as rust goes. So all it's good parts will be switched to the other one.

The shaft and mounting assembly is much better on the twisted one, so it will be switched along with the rest of the pulleys.

Everything is coming apart surprisingly easy. This pulley came off with minimal effort with a pulley puller.

Took the arm off that makes the knives go back and forth off to make sure its crankshaft isn't frozen. It's not.

I assumed the mule drive gearbox's would have oil in them since they have a drain plug, but they don't. The grease? is hardened into a brick. Are they suppose to have gear oil in them?

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el_simonito

· #4 · Jul 16, 2013

Reading through the lubrication section of the manual shows that every season you're to add enough all purpose grease to fill the box. If you get a chance, can you take pictures of the mule drive and the idler pulley assembly? Mine came with this critical piece, so I'm having to recreate it from pictures!

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el_simonito

· #5 · Jul 16, 2013

Sorry, I meant to say that mine came withOUT this critical piece.

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el_simonito

· #7 · Jul 16, 2013

CHEVY&SEARS said:
Huh, I didn't see that. That just doesn't seem right. Once the gears eat up the grease in the gears nothing will push more into them. Seems like oil would be better...

I thought the same thing. My thought is that as the gear box heats up, it causes the grease to turn more into an oil, but that may be flawed. I wonder if you could put gear oil in there? Are the bearings sealed? It looks like there is a seal between the two halfs, so perhaps you could just substitue gear oil for the grease?

Also, thanks for providing the photos! I'm in desperate need of my sickle bar right now, and can only wait to use it!

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el_simonito

· #10 · Jul 16, 2013

Thanks for those photos! That is exactly what I am looking for! If I do have any questions, I'll know who to go to for answers!

I'm going to model this up so that I know that it works. I'm due to get my last belt in by the end of this week. I still havn't gotten the cutting bar to rotate back into cutting position, but I have a solotion for that....:14_6_5:

Also, thanks for the hints on the lubricants! I suspect that the bearings are steel, but I'm not so sure about the gears. My bet is that they are brass, and you are correct in warning about the use of typical gear oil. I believe that GL-1 or GL-4 are more acceptable, as opposed to the GL-5 that is more prevalent right now?

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el_simonito

· #12 · Jul 16, 2013

Never heard of 75w90 ep ls. I tried googling it, but all it came up with was ls 75w90. Can you explain more? I'm really interesed!

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el_simonito

· #26 · Jul 22, 2013

Looking good!

I got my last belt this past week, so I'm getting really excited to get mine going soon!

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el_simonito

· #28 · Jul 22, 2013

That's a good deal.

I got one from Erwin Haban, the long belt. One was still on the gear box, it's the medium one from the engine to the mule drive. The short one I got for my birthday from my wife, who ordered it from Amazon. It wasn't the best deal for the belt, but it allowed her to get to $25 for free shipping, so it actually came out cheaper. I will probably end up replacing the medium belt, as it has seen a lot of weather. I'm planning on using it until it dies, then replacing it. I don't think it will last more that one or two mows, but it will get it going!

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el_simonito

· #37 · Jul 25, 2013

I noticed that the belts looked to be 3" too small. I thought that you'd come upon something that I didn't know about, and was excited to see someone purchase new belts, and use them! Hopefully you get new ones soon, and that you're cutting before too long!

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el_simonito

· #41 · Jul 25, 2013

CHEVY&SEARS said:
I'm sure you guys are thrilled that i'm the guinea pig! :sidelaugh

You got it el simonito, the part number is the actual length. But on the website, the belts are listed by their length. So I ordered a 25" 50" and 59" belts. But that's actually the outside length. The part number is the inside length.

WHY would they even mention the outside length? Outside length does not matter!! :banghead3:banghead3

So that B22k was supposed to be the B25k? And where do they get the 8" from? I just hate all the different measurement systems that have been developed for belts! It seems like every vendor has their own in addition to several more or less standardized systems!

So the new belt should say B25k or 5L280K, and so on and so forth for the other belts.

Good luck!

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el_simonito

· #44 · Jul 25, 2013

sploke said:
I think that's supposed to be 5/8", not 8"...is that belt width?

I see it now. I'm just partially blind... And that is the belts width, or nearly the width.

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el_simonito

· #49 · Aug 4, 2013

And how do they fit? I'm especially curious about the shortest belt, as the size I gave almost seems to be too long in my tractor. It could also be the mule drive I fabricated, but I'm not sure so I want to hear how some one else's goes!

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el_simonito

· #73 · Oct 16, 2013

CHEVY&SEARS said:
I sharpened the knives...

It looks like your knives are still dull, and that you have quite the gap between the knives and the shear fingers. It's my understanding that the sickle bar acts like 25 scissors, so the knives need to be close to the shear fingers to work properly. These are just my thoughts.

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