Final Assembly of the IH #9 Mower

Last night as I was working the girls, I saw the big brown UPS truck.  I got really excited because I am waiting on the last few parts for the mower.  Sure enough, there was a package to me from Macknair & Sons in PA.  I was as excited as a little kid the night before christmas.

I contained my excitement to eat a meal as a family, but once that meal was over, outside I went, with box in hand.

The first thing I did, was put a coat of paint on the fender rod.  It came red, and I wanted it blue.  After I did that, I went out and completely torqued down the sickle guards, and then used my new bolts to attach the sickle bar to the mower.  I then just kept going, and after an hour or two, the entire mower was together.  So awesome!

One word of warning.  That lift spring is DANGEROUS!  I had the mower down on the ground, and was making some adjustments to the gag lever.  Well, I had let go of the lift lever and was using two hands to line up the gag lever, when SNAP, the lift lever snapped back to the fully upright position.  This smashed my thumb horribly.  I only have all my thumb thanks to my thumbnail.  Without it, it may have removed the end of my thumb.  So ... when working with the gag lever and such items, take it from me, and disconnect the lift spring!!!

I'll show some pictures now, and then I'll talk a little bit about what I have yet to do.

Here she is!  Blade down, Ready to go.

A view from the right.  Sickle bar down.

From the front.  Yoke and Tree's installed, ready for horses.

Bar line

Mower with bar in the upright position

Bar in upright position.  I'm lucky that this mower came with the rod and the nut to hold the bar up.

The sickle bar in upright position

A close-up of the pitman assembly

A close-up of the yoke with bar in upright position

The Draft Bracket with double tree installed.

To install the draft bracket on the pole I had, I used washers on the inside  to take up the gap.

I put an eye bolt 3 inches down from the end of the pole to hold the yoke.

I'm having a hard time putting into words how happy I am.  To see what was once a giant rust bucket take shape like this has been awesome!  I did try to pull the mower with everything installed.  It has a lot of drag on the blade.  So even though it's assembled, I still have work to do to get it useable for hay.  Here's the list of things I have left to do.

1. Install the new fender rod once the paint dries.  I currently just have a bolt holding the front of the inner shoe's sole on.  The fender rod will go in that location.  
2. Get the timing bar unstuck.  The timing bar (bar that bolts on right in front of the pitman) is supposed to be adjustable.  Mine is seized up.  I tried and tried to get it unstuck, but after talking with Norman Macknair, my last option is to put the flanged side in a forge, and try to get it to release that way.  If this doesn't work, then I'll just have to buy a new one from Macknair & Son for $65.  Repaint it when it's done.
3. Do some touch-up painting - there's a few parts that got scuffed while installing.  I'd like to touch them up so they look pretty.
4. Adjust the bar lead.  I know this involves twisting the yoke around the push bar.  I need to measure and make sure I have enough lead.
5. Adjust the timing of the sickle bar.  One the lead is good, then I can adjust the timing so the bar cuts appropriately and won't get jammed as easy.
6. Adjust the wear guards and other sickle blade items.  I'm still not sure how to adjust these, so I'm going to do my best.

 Once all of this is done, I'll be ready to cut hay with my machine.  YAY!  It's so great to see this all coming together.  I'm grinning ear to ear.

IH #9 Mower Page