KNIFE REPLACEMENT
Knife Replacement:
The Knives are very sharp, use gloves and caution when working with these knives. Secure tractor so that it cannot be started until you are ready for it to. Set the parking brake on the tractor. Make certain cutter bar is completely on the down stroke, this will prevent the cutter bar from moving down ward. Also the Knives can be locked with a clamp so it cannot move unless you want it to. If cutter bar needs to move the best way is by using a punch in one of the holes on the flywheel, remove clamp the replace it after you have moved the cutterbar.
To remove the old knife the Knife retaining bolt will have to be removed, usually these bolts cannot be used again and it is recommended that new one be used when changing knives. When lock nut is removed the bolt should not fall out as the shoulder of the bolted is ridged to make a drive in fit. Drive the bolt out from the top, there are two bolts per knife. There are two different length of these bolts, the majority is 5/8" long. The first 7 bolts which also bolt the knife section, knife backing strip and the knife head weldment together is longer,
Replace a Knife or a group of knives. The knife can be changed without disassembly of the cutter bar. The Knife retaining bolt is a special ridged shouldered bolt, this makes the bolt have a wedged fit into the knife backing strip. The special bolt will need to be driven into the knife backing strip from the bottom until the head of bolt bottoms out on the knife backing strip. Install the new cone locknut and snugly secure the bolt, do not over tighten these bolts as they are 1/4" gr. 5 and will twist off. Torque 9 to 10 ft. lbs max. If all the rock guards and clips were adjusted right to begin with they should not have changed, but check them for alignment to make certain. If the rock guards and clips need to be adjusted go back to the guard ajustment section earlier in the manual. (See Figure 11, 12, 13 & 14)
Special Cone |
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| Locknut |
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knife | knife | knife | |
Ridged | Ridged | Knife | |
Shoulder | Shoulder | Backing | |
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| Strip | |
Figure 12 | Special | ||
Knife Bolt | |||
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Figure 13
Figure 14
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Switch Blade
© 2005 Alamo Group Inc. | Section 7 - 7 |