Troy-Bilt

Troy-Bilt 38" sickle bar 

This mower was designed to mow tall grass and weeds on small acreages.  It is the alternative to gas  powered weed eaters and will make life easier for those places where you need to manage vegetation but cannot put a mower.  I have used it to tackle 6 foot grass in rough wetland sites and small aspen trees up to 3/4 inch stems.  It is my "are you crazy I cannot mow that" mower.  

It is a dangerous mower to operate not just because of the exposed blade but the controls are opposite of expected.  

The sickle bar mower was manufactured by Garden Way Inc.  They operated until 2001 when they filed for bankruptcy.  The Troy bilt brand equipment and parts were sold to MTD.  Troy bilt equipment continues to be manufactured by MTD.  

The death of the sickle bar mower was caused by the design of the sickle bar where the teeth were exposed for cutting.   The exposed cutting blade could not meet safety regulations set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).  There was a grandfather clause but was not extend when MTD acquired the Troy-Bilt® brand from the bankruptcy court.  Therefore, manufacturing stopped and a new design was impossible given the exposure of the bar.  The  remaining parts inventory for sickle bar mowers are available on the MTD website and Ebay has both new and used parts.  

Records show my father-in-law purchased the mower in 1979.  He gave it to me in 2006.  It works best in tall grass but will mow shorter grass.  The wheels turn 10% faster than the cutter teeth can handle thick grass so the mower leaves lots of uncut stragglers.  I thought about changing sprocket size of chain drive but could not find a smaller upper sprocket.  The mower is used to rough cut of grass with finish mowing with a walk behind mower if necessary.  I have replaced the top cutting blades twice because the teeth were dull and once because of a broken cutter bar.  The broken bar was due to hitting a rebar property line marker.  The lower cutter bar has been replaced once when I hit the rebar.  Fortunately I saved old cutter bars and parts because they are no longer available from Troy-Bilt.  However parts are available on Ebay and expensive.

In 2022, the mower started acting up as if the engine was seizing and would not start.  The mower taken to repair shop and they were able to get it started.  After mowing a couple of times the mower seized again.  In diagnosing, I discovered it had a bad pivot bearing and was missing the lower bearing plate that held the bearing in place.  The bearing was ordered from MTD parts and the bearing plate was found on EBAY.  The repair brought the mower back to life.  

Recently it was suggested I sharpen the cutter blade rather than purchasing new because new blades are no longer available from MTD.  The upper cutter blade was sharpened using a hand grinder with a disk used to cut off metal to lightly polish/sharpen each tooth edge.  The object is to just put an edge and remove rust not deeply remove metal.   

In June 2023, one of the motor mount bolts vibrated out and a bolt holding sickle bar housing snapped off.  Snapped bolt probably due to over torquing.  The vibration of the mower caused the dip stick holder came loose from motor and started to leak oil.  Oil leak solved by adding an O-ring between engine and holder and a silicone sealer to the connection.  

In July 2023, another motor mount bolt vibrated out.  During the diagnosis it was discovered the bottom pivot arm bearing was upside down causing the pivot arm to be out of alignment and causing excess vibration and binding.  My bad.  A new drive belt was added and the mower bearing installed correctly and mower functioning again.  

Thoughts and hacks

1. Wear hearing protection

2. Pump the primer ball 4 times before trying to start. 

3. If engine hot it will not start.  Let cool and it will start.  

4. Check fuel and oil level before starting.