Sickle Bar Section Rivets vs Bolts

[flusher]

flusher
Your third pic shows extra length on the bolts used to hold the sections, whereas the last pic shows the bolts flush with the nuts (that appear to be lock nuts). Did you change bolts along the way?

Looks like you replaced a number of parts, and have a good rebuilt mower now.

The short bolts are used to hold most of the outboard sickle sections.
The long bolts hold the cutter bar and the inboard sections to the gizmo that connects the bar to the mower drive unit. Here are a couple of closeup shots

 

[sjbrunk0]

So I went to an ag dealer and they had the rivets in stock. They measured exactly the same as the ones I bought at the farm store... it turns out they are the right rivets after all. I got a little more aggressive with the hammer and they are working great!
Since I've already got the rivets I'm gonna follow through with them.
Thank you all so much for your help!

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Cast my vote to rivits. A 4lb hammer, an anvil, a nail set (punch) and years of practice.....Knock off the old ones, peen the new ones....back in the field....No issues w/bolts, I just like the old way of doing things sometimes.

 

[Edward. S]

X 2! :thumbsup:

Make that 3! :thumbsup:

 

[AKfish]

Cast my vote to rivits. A 4lb hammer, an anvil, a nail set (punch) and years of practice.....Knock off the old ones, peen the new ones....back in the field....No issues w/bolts, I just like the old way of doing things sometimes.

Sometimes the "old way" is the simplest. For me, I really try to adhere to the KISS principle...

That said; I'd wager that there's less than 20% of the members here on TBN that could point out the "anvil" in their shop or garage!

AKfish

 

[oldmech]

Hi! Oh! Boy! Bolts for sickle bar. Rivets are a lot better. Fit more tight and cannot got out. Very easy to repair with good tools. I can remove and replace a knive in less 5 min. I put the sickle bar with knives toward down in jaws of my vise and with my 2.5 pounds hammer I hit the top of knive The shock put down knive and cut two rivets in same time. I clear hole with punch. I think today few person repair sickle bar they buy a new one. The How to Do is losted Good Luck! Oldmech

 

[soulasphil]

My sickle bar uses both rivets and bolts. The rivets are for the part that slides under guide plates. I include 2 pictures of the time when the new sickle bar broke because these guide plates had been made too tight at the JD dealer's (they replaced the complete assembly in a matter of days). There doesn't seem to be much trouble with the bolts catching grass or branches.

 

[sjbrunk0]

I like the simplicity of the rivets too... it just seems more reliable to just have one steel piece holding it all together.
So can someone explain taking them apart? I think I may have done it the hard way. I used a body grinder to grind off the end and then drove 'em through with a punch. It worked fairly well but I guess if the grinding isn't necessary I'm interested to learn about that.

 

[beenthere]

sj
oldmech described an alternative way.
Shear the rivets by using the big hammer to drive off the sections (holding the backbone of the sickle bar on top of a large vise). Will take a good heavy vise and a solid bench that doesn't bounce around. Visualize hitting the back of a section and driving it down between the jaws of the vise. Takes a strong arm and big hammer and a clean hit. And some goggles too.

 

[Tx Jim]

beenthere
You left out to only have vise lightly touching section but not tight enough so section won't fall out after rivets are sheared off.The vise and hammer method has been used as long as I can remember and I'm getting old.