Made a score today! JD 54/56 Blade

KennyP

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Drove 45 miles (one way) to gather this up. 54" JD blade with both cylinders. Needs some TLC and maybe one cylinder replaced. Didn't get the mount for the tractor. May need some help making a new one. Got it cheap!!!!

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Nice find! You might want to clean the rams up on those cylinders and just use them. A little oil seepage is a cheaper than new cylinders. Especially if the blade is not used a lot.
 
Nice find! You might want to clean the rams up on those cylinders and just use them. A little oil seepage is a cheaper than new cylinders. Especially if the blade is not used a lot.
My thoughts too!
I got it torn down for repairs.
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This part will need the most attention. It's the pivoting part the springs hook to. I have no idea what the one side for the angle cylinder mount looks like.
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Some ugly weld that didn't hold:
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Got the fittings out of the lift cylinder and cleaned the shaft some:
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They look like 1/8" pipe threads.
 
That’s probably the reason the mount was removed, someone tried to fit to a different JD. The 400 GT had a mounting system not compatible with any other JD.
 
If someone has a 54 or 56 blade out there, I need a pic and some measurements for the 1/2" hole for the angle cylinder. It was under this mess:
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While waiting for mower parts to arrive, I decided to repair the skid shoes for this. They were in bad shape.
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Found some stock and bent the ends to match.
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Trimmed the originals for a band saw cut.
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Trimmed the excess off the 'new' parts.
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Ground some bevels and welded them together.
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After a massage with the flap disc.

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I found the measurements for the angle cylinder to mount (see post # 11). I went to work this morning and got the 'new' part made up. I will continue on this as time allows now.

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Took about 30 minutes and I had it dissected.
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Next up was smoothing old welds.
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Got to try to get this back closer.
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Best I can get.
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Now the fun of getting it back to weld together!
 
Been figuring out the best way to mock it up to weld back together. Thinking I will attach the lower part back into the blade and use that to align everything as best I can. Tack it together well at that point.
 
I put the parts back into the blade to help in locating them. Got them aligned well and tacked it all. Took it back out and finished the welding. Rechecked fit and all is good. Gave it a coat of Rust Reformer for now.

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Also coated the feet:

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I went to work on the 'arm' as JD calls it. This is what the lift cylinder hooks to. I noticed an issue with the 'pivot' not being correct. I could get a pin through one set of holes, but not the other.

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I tried swapping the plates around, but matters got worse.

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So I got out the redneck 'slot maker/hole enlongater'!

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Elongated the offending holes and we have a winner.

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Made up a pin for that situation. Works good.

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Continued:
Wire wheeled the rust off and got some semi-gloss black on things.

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Kenny, not sure if you know it or not, the way JD has the blade set is the pin goes through all the holes to lock it for down force. The other set of holes is where you put the pin through over the step in the mounting bracket. That allows the side plates to pivot and gives you a float feature. Some of the tractors this blade can fit on didn't have a float feature in the hydraulic controls.
 
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