Mower hinge pin repair

[Donn Hewes]

I have been struggling with the best way to fit salvaged inner shoes and hinges together with new pins. While the original pins were 7/8″ (IH and McD) due to wear and reworking they measure anything from that up to 1″ today. For some reason I have a bunch that are 0.92″. Not a common size at all. I had been considering having some custom pins made, but decide to go visiting instead.

yesterday I visited the shop of John Hershberger over in New Berlin, NY. He owns Mullet Machine Shop, and along with rebuilding and repairing mowers, he builds custom manure spreaders. Build on the 10A model they are really nice looking.

he was very helpful and told me several interesting things. First, He has a lathe and reaming bits to repair the holes in the shoe and hinge. He will commonly use 15/16th on the IH and 1″ on the JD. I think the 15/16th rod will be a little harder to find but I think he has a stash. I plan to drag a collect of hold shoes and hinges over there next week to repair them all.

Next we talked about relugging the tread of the wheels. This is something I have been very interested in as I believe it is the main problem with many otherwise good mowers. I hope to teach my self this skill, but he told me I a guy that comes to his shop and does it for him a reasonable price. I am eager to contact him and see if he will come to my place to do a handful of wheels. If he is interested in traveling or fixing mower wheels for folks I will post his a contact info here. John and I agreed that for the hard working mowers with 6′ or greater bars, the condition of the wheels needs to be good enough (almost new), or a person may not realize that is the cause of plugging, etc.

The mower I saw in his shop, had ever part out of the gear box. New seals in the axles, and his own addition of a grease fitting through the bushing, at the front of the pitman shaft. All nice work.

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