Bush Hog Repairman

After a lazy morning, I went outside to try and get the rotary mower going. I had a new wheel/axle/u_bracket assembly, a new A frame for the front, and my old rear, bent brace.

After unscrewing almost all bolts on the mower, I removed the old A frame and got the new one ready to go. I'd held them up to each other, and they appeared to be the same size. The new frame had a slightly different bracing point on it, but nothing that looked like a problem. I had to force it a bit, and life it off the deck of the mower to get it in there, but it was fine. The biggest time consumer was tightening all the bolts, most of which are 1 1/4" or so across, so it's slow going with 2 wrenches to tighten them.

Once that was done, I bolted my old frame back on. My thought was to get it on there and then try to bend it back. The old wheel had apparently gotten caught on something and bent the two bars counter-clockwise. Once I had this bolted on (very slow with nylon bushings in the nuts), I tried a few methods of bending it back, but all I managed to do was bend some of the pry bars I was using. I think I'll need to get something to heat it and then try to bend it another time.

In the meantime, I put the new wheel in there and then got the grease gun to grease the wheel and the two ends of the drive shaft. I hooked it up to the tractor and things looked good.

I got it set level, or close, and then headed out to the fields. I managed to cut a bunch of stuff, and it worked fine. The wheel is still a little cock-eyed, leaning to one side, but it cut fine. The rain came in, so not a lot was done, but probably a good hour of clearing pasture.