More paint and initial re-assembly of the IH #9 mower

Today was a great day.  Cool temps with sunshine, my favorite kind of day.  The first thing I did, was to finish prep on my 2nd wheel, and paint it.  YAY!  I currently have both wheels sitting in the garage, ready to be installed.  I drilled new holes, threaded them, and added grease zerts to the wheels since it looked like the old ones had fallen out.

I found another part that I hadn't prepped for paint yet.  It's the Gag Lever Hinge.  When I instpected it, I found some pretty major cracks in it.  This must have happened when I was pounding out the pin from the hinge and the yoke.  Ugh!  Looks like I need to buy this from the Macknairs.  Luckily they have it listed as available and for $22.  Once I have this, I will be ready to install everything but the sickle bar.  Very cool!

If you look closely, you can see 3 cracks.  One where the pin goes, and 2 in each of the corners.  Good idea to replace this part and not try to reuse it.

I think this is a good place to mention something on this mower that I am not re-installing.  My mower was equipped with the vertical lift assembly.  What this is, is a rod that attaches from the lift assembly to the clutch.  This makes it so anytime you lift the sickle bar, it automatically engages the clutch (so the sickle bar isn't working while it is in the vertical position.  I would have had to replace a part to have it working good, and the guy at Macknairs told me that most people just don't put them back on.  This means I'll be responsible for engaging the clutch anytime I'm not cutting.  I'm fine with that.  :)

The assembly was kind of fun.  I was impressed that I actually remembered how it went.  I used the Lynn Miller book when needed to help me remember how the lift assembly all went together.  I took some closeup pics of how it is looking.  Enjoy!

Here is the lift assembly put back together.  Looks really good with it all painted.

This is the view of the lift assembly from the right.  The pin on the lower right is for the vertical lift stuff that I didn't put back on.

A rear view.  Here you can see the tension spring, and also the tilt lever and it's assembly.

Here's the clutch.  The hole that has nothing hooked up is for the vertical lift assembly that I am not installing.

IH #9 Mower Page