Just moved from a development with < 1/4 acre lots to a home on 7.5 acres, most of it in pasture. I bought a package deal of a Ford 1715, a 4' rotary cutter (brush hog), a 5' box blade, a 20' deck over trailer, and a 5' Ford 917L flail mower. The flail mower hadn't been used in over ten years and had been left outside on a narrow island where the salt air blows in no matter which way the wind is blowing. The tractor broke within a few hours of using it so I took it to the local New Holland shop for repairs. While it was there I decided to tackle the flail mower. The first thing I noticed was the condition of the blades. Out of 96 blades, not one of them was straight. It looked like they had been using it to mow quarry spalls level or something. Forty-eight rusted nuts and bolts later I had them all removed. I couldn't find direct replacement blades, so I ordered 100 Alamo fine cut blades because they had the closest similar geometry. The mounting holes were a little too small for the 3/8s bolts so I ordered some 5/16 bolts and nuts and mounted them. I noticed the previous owner had neglected the bearings on the rear roller a little,,, or a lot. There was no bearings left on either end and the roller had been riding on the mounting plate. Messicks had genuine Ford 917L bearings for $97 each, so I ordered some from somebody else, $16 delivered to my door for the pair. So far so good.
While I was waiting for the knives to arrive, I took the belt cover off and found the belts weathered and checked, so I removed them. I noticed that there was no movement in the idler bracket so I tried to remove that and clean it up. After using a can of PB Blaster, and a pipe wrench on the "L" where the spring attaches, I managed to get it moved out 1/4". I put a puller on it and moving it up and down and tightening the puller, I got it out another full 1/2", but then it just refused to move at all. I put an extension on the pipe wrench and pulled up and something popped and it moved freely. Unfortunately that was because the welds holding the shaft into the mount broke. I took it too the truck shop of my former employer and and using a press the foreman had designed and built for working on Mack dump trucks and mixers, plus a little acetylene it finally popped out. Cleaned the shaft and the bracket with emery cloth and eveything moved freely. Found a neighbor to weld it back in place and after a hour of grinding away excessive welds the shaft was back in place and the idler bracket, now with a zerk was back on the machine. Changed the oil in gearbox, greased the bearings, installed new belts and a few cans of Rustoleum and it looks and works pretty good.
I used it today to mow about five acres of roughly brush hogged pasture and it looks great. It was so dry this summer that with not knowing the ground and what I might hit and what sparks might fly that I held off mowing until we had some rain. The grass had absorbed some moisture, so it wasn't the best cut. I have found that if you want to discover old 1/2" steel cable that was buried in the ground, or discover an ancient wire fence that has rotted and fallen over where no fence was supposed to be a flail mower is your best tool.
All in all I am quite happy with the mower, I think it will do a good job in the coming years.
