Darren, Your skepticism is appreciated and welcomed. It is good to not be too easily convinced of something you have reason to doubt. Here is the first hand evidence I have. There is a very authentic looking metal manufacturer's tag/label riveted onto a substantial piece of the mower. It clearly shows wear and doesn't look like it is something new added on lately. Of course it could be faked but to what end? If you were going to put a fake tag on something to try to pass it off as something it wasn't, wouldn't you give it the model number of a popular well known easily recognized implement, especially if you were offering it through eBay (where it was headed if I didn't take it)? The tag clearly shows Ford 505. I looked carefully to see if it could have been 1505 or something else but partially obsured by wear/damage/whatever. Looks like it has always said Ford 505. Until or unless I find good info to the contrary, like a knowledgeable Ford/New Holland expert/dealer/mechanic/collector/whatever I will consider it a Ford 505 and try to find instructon and repair/parts manuals for it.
All the parts fit well together and it works fine (except for my ignorance regarding the cable anchoring). There are a few small parts that have obviously been replaced with new ones fairly recently (operating hours wise).
There aren't a lot of choices of where to anchor the eye bolt at the end of the cable. I grabbed the eye bolt and moved it around in a 3D arc to see where it could reach, limiting the swing to places that didn't misuse the swivel pulley thing the cable goes through. I allowed for where it would reach if it was under tension as well. Not only are there no holes of the size of the bolt, there aren't any holes as much as 1/2 the bolts diameter. This caused me to think perhaps the thing was bolted to some tractor part like the 3PH or draw bar. I don't like that idea but I had to consider it as a possibility. I'm sure the folks who used this were not all rocket scientists or savants. We would probably slap our foreheads and say well du-uh if we saw the way it was used. I'd be happy to have some good ole boy embarrass me by showing me how simple it is to hook up. This sure as heck is no ego thing for me, I just want to mow with it and would pay someone to come by and show me. I could probably hook it some way to get it to work but would rather know how it was supposed to be.
Warning, off topic digression follows for illustrative purposes:
Once while trying to replace brushes in an alternator I tried to tie the brushes back with string, expecting I could pull the string out just before the case halves went tightly together. It didn't work. I tried electrical tape as it was thinner than my string. It failed. I shoved the brushes all the way back in their holders and wedged them there with toothpicks, dripped a few drops of water between the brushes and holder and put the assembly in the freezer. After the water froze, I removed the toothpicks and quite easily assembled the case halves. When the ice thawed, the brushes popped into place and everything worked fine. I felt relieved at having got the job done but called a buddy to find out how "regular" (read, SANE) folks do it. He says, "ya hold em back with straightened out paper clips or equivalent!" I ask where to put the paper clips. He says in the little holes. I say, what little holes? He says wipe off the dirt and grease. I say w-e-l-l.... DU-UH!!!
I would like to mow with this mower BUT I would like to rig it correctly. Not to avoid showing my ignorance (too late to hide that) but I don't want to damage it out of ignorance or make some overly complicated arrangement (see story above) when there is likely a very simple solution.
If I can't crack the code soon, either I'll rig some Rube Goldberg solution or it will snow and I will have a few months to work it out.
Patrick
