Super A Mower breaking pitmans

[Anonymous-0]

I have an old A21 mower mounted on the back of the Super A for mowing the hayfield. I have had problems breaking pitman arms and the connector blade that ties the pitman bearing to the pitman stick. This is a flat piece of spring steel that the bearing fits and also ties to the pitman stick with four bolts. Yesterday I went out to cut a small area and initially I had problems with the mower plugging. This was due to the belt slipping. I tighten the belt and went about 200 foot and the metal connector broke. It was brand new. The results were like the blade had flexed back and forth and fatigue the metal to cause cracks followed by total failure.
At the end of the sicle bar where the pitman connects there is some movement forward and back. There is no spec in the manual for this. I am wondering if this is the problem or if the problem is that the force to move the sicle back and forth is too much.
Any thhoughts or experience?

 

[old]

Almost sounds like you have either the wrong pit man in it I.E. to long or to short which will make it be out of time. Yep you have to have a sickle mower in time or they will not work as they should. To make sure its timed as it should be spin it so the cutter bar is first all the way in and the sections should be center of the guards. Then spin it till all the way out and again the sections need to be center of the guards. If its not centered at both places you have a timing problem and or the wrong pitman in it and if its wrong things do/will brake found the the hard way years ago when I had problems like that
Hobby farm

 

[Anonymous-0]

Marvin, there are a couple of things to check. If you are talking about sideways movement of the cycle in the bar, it is controlled by a guide plate that may be worn out. The most likely cause is either the bar is loose or cycle is out of time. On the bottom of cycle is three bolts holding the bar to the head. Check these and if loose install new lockwashers as used ones are no good. If mower is out of time it is adjusted by rotating the head on the pipe arm it mounts to. These parts are threaded, screw in or out as needed. A owners manual with set up instructions is needed. The manual should be available from Binder books or IH. May be available here on YT look to the left and click on tractor manuals and see.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Check the cutterbar lead, that is the outer end should be a little bit ahead of the inner shoe. The other thing is check knife register, that is when the knife is at the end of its outward stroke the section should be centered in a gaurd and at the end of its inward stroke the section should be centered in a guard also. The ajustments vary with diffrent manufacturers, a operators manuel should explain it for your mower.