We ran in to Jody (brownboystoys) at the Bainbridge winter meet and greet and swap a couple weeks ago. He had a sickle bar mower for a Bolens Ride-a-Matic and we struck a deal with him but didn't have a way to haul it home at that time. We went over to his place the following weekend which was actually last weekend and picked it up. He and his dad were nice enough to show us around and they have a lot of cool stuff.
I downloaded all the manuals I could on the sickle bar mower and the Ride-a-Matics to get an idea of what I needed to do to get it hooked up. The one thing that has always thrown me off on Dad's 59 was the PTO lever. It never seemed to work properly and I didn't know why. Well today I spend some time and pulled the whole assembly off along with the variable sheave pulley. I realized that there was a reason there was a circle clip on the end of the shaft that the PTO lever pivoted on. I managed to drive the pin through which was seized causing all of the issues. After cleaning up the pin and greasing it the PTO works just like it should.
Took a short video of the tractor running and engaging the sickle mower. The only thing I wish was that it could be stored vertically like the Haban sickle mowers for the tube frames. I also adjusted the runners so it was at the highest position.
Here is the video and of course I took it with my phone again and the sound sucks.
