Ford 501 Sickle Mower Pitman Arm Question

[Zephyr66]

Hi all... I have been given two 501s and between the two am trying to get one going well. One Sickle arm is about 5' long and the one I'm putting together has about a 7' sickle. The interesting thing is that the pitman arm on the 7' mower is metal while the other one is wood. It appears stock and not something that was fabricated. I didn't know they had metal pitman arms. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Thank you. Sylvia

 

[Leroy]

I don't know when they changed but the earlier Dearborn before 55 when they got the Ford name were metal.

 

[paul]

I?ve never seen an official metal arm on a Ford sickle mower. I own both sizes of the 501 mowers.

I think you have a well made (tho dangerous for the other parts of the mower) farmer repair.

Paul

 

[Leroy]

I am guessing you have not seen the older mowers then that were made by Detroit Harvestor for Ford, Ferguson and Case. The steel pitman is no worse or dangerous than a wood pitman. Neither will brake if mower is kept in condition. The steel pitman mowers had the knife head ball on the pitman arm and the clamp on the knife, not like the wood pitmans. I don't know anything about a 501 mower if it was built by Detroit harvestor or not do don't know if any were built from factort with steel pitman bar or not or if that one is farmerized or not. I had different versions of the Detroit Harvestor built mowers

 

[Oliver550Dave]

The pitmans that I have for two old Dearborn 14-73 mowers (which I think were made by Detroit Harvester) are metal with the fitting to the flywheel on one end and the clamp to the sickle on the other. The ball to which the clamp fits is on the sickle. I had one piece of the clamp break on one of the pitmans break about 30 years ago, then had it welded, which lasted for a long time. Haven't used that mower lately, but have a spare pitman from a second mower that I acquired that should work if needed!
Still, I have not seen a metal pitman for a Ford 501 mower yet.