Thank you. "Pump"? "Engine has oil pump", I assume?
I have removed the cutter bar.
It is rather bent, the knife bar that the blades are rivetted to has a continuous curve, the thicker bar it sits in and which the fingers are bolted to has quite abrupt bends either side of the casting it's bolted to. I should be able to straighten out both (and keep an eye open for spares/used ones, attachments, etc.).
Some of the fingers are bent at the tips. I wonder if it's possible to straighten them, perhaps by heating the ends and hammering back to position on an anvil (or in my case an old offcut of RSJ)? Also, at each end, the "double finger" blocks have been flattened rather, that it the piece that covers the top of the blades has been bent down. Perhaps these can be bent back to position?
The "hardened steel inserts" look OK (not rounded at the edges). Are these removable? I'd guess not.
The "drive lug" in the centre of the cutter bar is quite worn.
The engine, even with the cutter bar removed, seems a little stiff turning over. It had at least some oil in it, not too discoloured, which is encouraging. There is no spark. Perhaps the points are mucky, as they were on my Howard 350 (Kohler K141T). I'd better get the lid off and look at the valves, and fix an annoying shortage of fasteners in the cowlings too.
Somebody has made a frightful bodge, and hammered in a bolt on the RHS wheel/shaft. The bolt threads are striated, but the keyways don't look too bad (as far as I can tell without removing the wheel).
Not sure whether I need to look in the innards of the actual machine, or just change the oil (is there an improvement on the recommended SAE30 engine oil nowadays)?
Perhaps there's a decent "Allen Scythe mainteinance/restoration" video lurking somewhere? There are all sorts of videos, but mainly of people who don't seem to be very familiar with these "frightening" machines trying to use them, with varying degrees of success.
I will have to gently look into various things and see what's what.
