Ford 503 stripper shafts

[DHB]

I recently picked up a Ford 503 rake for a very good price. It has a brand new stripper with new bearings, and associated parts, but there are no shafts for the stripper, and the shafts are NLA. I know from reading over the last few days that this rake has a mixed reputation, but since the fields I work are relatively thin most of the year, I'm not expecting massive windows, which is fine for its intended purpose and low price tag.

This leaves me with two questions:
1.) Does anybody know of any hidden caches of new old stock parts or sources of machines being scrapped out

2.) If #1 doesn't pan out, I can make my own parts based off pictures in the parts book since I have access to the machines via my grandfather's shop. Does anybody happen to know what the length of the shafts are?

 

[old]

One big thing is where you are at. Parts can cost a good bit to ship. I have one of those rakes out on my fence line here in MO.

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

I have a 503 (I hate it but it moves hay) and the fins stripper fins are fastened with bolts. Not really sure if the shaft runs the whole length or
just into the end plates. I have replaced the left end bearing a few times, doesn't last long if you don't clean out the wrapped hay.

 

[DHB]

Old, I am located in Northeast Tennessee a few miles away from where Davy Crockett was born in 1786, although I'm not a native Tennessean only having arrived when I was 16 months old some 31 years ago... I can't find the field in the control panel to change my location.

The parts in question are items #2 and #3 in this diagram. I know the stripper itself weighs at least 70 pounds. The shafts I assume aren't going to be incredibly heavy or bulky, but harvesting those from old equipment might be a pain especially this time of year.

Mike(NEOhio), The shafts go in less than 8-12 inches I'm guessing. I've read about that problem with hay getting wrapped around bearings multiple times. I've got a few ideas floating around in my cranium that I'd like to experiment just to see if this problem can be resolved. I tinker around quite a bit.

 

[old]

You any where close to Athens TN?? I lived in Athens for a few years. Got my first drivers license at the age of 14 there and that was also where I first paid taxes and S.S. at the age of 12. I also totaled a 1965 Chevy Bel-air with a Honda 90 motorcycle at the age of 15

 

[DHB]

Athens in 130 miles south of where I live ( Chuckey, Tennessee ) I've been around those parts a few times when my parents would take my two sisters and i to to the Mayfield Dairy plant for the tour, the occasional trip to one of the farms in Sweetwater for hunt tests with their golden retrievers for Junior Hunter titles, and a trip or two to the Sweetwater cheese factory in Philadelphia.

A 1965 Bel-Air. Ouch! That is a classic, but also a death trap. I

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

I had that bearing smoking once bc I let too much hay stay on it. I solved it by buying the long needle nose pliers from HF for 4 or 5 dollars to
reach in there and pull it out each time I raked. Haven't replaced a bearing since. I liked it so much I got another for the conditioning rolls on
the MoCo and two more for the toolboxes.

 

[Leroy]

I am not familuar with that rake but I see no signs of any stripper bars in
your parts post. Only the real where the teeth would be on real bars. The
stripper bars go around the real and keep the hay from following the teeth
around the real And would be either flat steel or round rod bent in close
to a half circal. John Deere used flat steel for the stripper bars and New
Idea and McCormic used 1/2 in round rod for the strippers to keep the hay
from following the real bars with the teeth on to keep the hay from wraping
the real up by taking the hay around the real. Post more parts pages as I
think somebody is calling things by the wrong name. Some rakes use longer
bars at back of real than front and others use same length all the way.. The
teeth mount on the real bars and work between the stripper bars. I would
like to see parts pages that tell me I am wrong.

 

[old]

When I totaled that t1965 Chevy Bel-air it was in 1972 and I was 15 years old. I was riding my 1967 Honda 90 on my way home from my newspaper job.