One thing I forgot to mention in that post about first time mowing with my mules. The mowing machine I used was on it's maiden voyage (first time with me anyway). I had traded for it last year but had never had time to use it. I was supposed to be field ready when I got it. I checked the register and lead long before I planned to mow. Both were off. I set the register and when I adjusted for lead it took nearly screwing the push bar out of the mowing to get it right. One of my Amish neighbors was over and saw it. He said he was sure that it wouldn't last long like that as it could only have a couple of threads holding it in. He assured me that the push rod must be bent and that I should have it taken care of if I planned to use this mower much. Well, I drained the gear box, and found that the old oil was in pretty bad shape. I also noticed that the oil was much lower than I thought it should be. I replaced the oil with 10 weight, per Lynn Miller and found that I had a slight drip from the seals on one wheel. Everything else seemed tight so I put a little jag of brake fluid in the gear box to swell the seals and this seems to work real well. The drip stopped. The only other changes I made was to replace all the old guards with double combine guards and to put one stub guard next to the inside shoe. I also thought the knife looked pretty rough and replaced all the section. First time in the field, the mules did great as I said earlier. They actually acted like they enjoyed the mowing as much as I did and they really made the old mower sing. I started to think I may have to look for a regular gear for them as fast as the knife was moving. Now hears where I noticed the firs problem. The pitman wheel started to get hot. The first time I checked it, it was warm to the touch. The second time I stopped it was hot to the touch. I stopped again and refilled the oil in the bearing and by the next pass around the field the oil was hitting the pitman wheel and making smoke. So I parked the mower and figured I'd look her over again. I remembered what the neighbor said about the push rod being bent, so I pulled it out and checked it with a straight edge. It wasn't just bent, it was bent in two planes. It must have been a heck of a wreck is all I can say! I went to the barn where I had another push rod and a few other parts I had high graded from another old mower and compared them. It really made the bends stand out. I put the "new" push rod in the mower, set the lead and register, and made sure everything was back like it should be. I hope to get mowing either this evening or tomorrow. I'm hoping that will take care of the over heating problem. If not, my next point of attack will be the pitman bearing, itself. It is one of the old bushing type with a grease zerk. I have a sealed bearing that I will replace it with and hope that it improves the situation if it comes to that. I may replace the bearing anyway as I kind of hate having to remember to grease the bearing every time. My neighbor told me to bring the old push rod over and he would straighten it for me and I can lay it up for a back up if it's ever needed. You can't have too many spare parts!

Sounds like you have a handle on it Jerry. Hope that fixes it for you.
That new bearing might be the ticket.

One thing I did service when I switched to the double guards was to replace the inner and outer shoe ledger plates. They usually got overlooked over time and can help with plugging on the outer and inner shoes. The stub guards sure work nice on the inner 3 spots for me.

Geoff
Where did you buy your stub guards?
Billy

I picked some up from Midwest Leather Billy.