Changing the Width of Your BCS Sickle Bar Attachment

When you get a sickle bar attachment for your BCS tractor, you aren’t stuck with the bar it came with. As long as your tractor and transmission are compatible, you can switch between bars with different lengths to fit the job at hand. That means you can use any single action bar with a single action transmission, and any dual action bar with any dual action transmission. Here’s how you swap these bars.

Tools Required

You’ll need these tools to replace the bar on your sickle bar transmission:

  • Torque wrench
  • Ratchet with an extension and a 22mm socket
  • 13 mm socket
  • 22 and 10 mm wrenches
  • A block to support the transmission

Removing the Bar

  1. Place the block under the transmission to support it.
  2. Loosen one of the bolts on the side of the blade coupler with the 22 mm wrench. Once loose, use this wrench to keep the bolt in place, while using the 10 mm wrench to loosen the adjusting pin inside the bolt. Turn the pin until you can separate the drive bushing from the coupler.
  3. Use the 22 mm socket and extension to remove the nuts and washers behind the bushing. These hold the transmission onto the bar. Lift the transmission off of the bar.

Installing a New Bar

  1. Remove the nuts and washers on the transmission mount studs. Slide the transmission onto these studs. You may need to open one of the adjusting pins to make space for the bushing.
  2. Put the washers and nuts back on the studs, and tighten the nuts. The dome of the washer should face up. If you aren’t sure which way to put them on, place the washers on a flat surface. If they don’t rock back and forth, the domes are facing up.
  3. Torque the nuts to 100 ft-lbs.
  4. Tighten the adjusting pin you loosened earlier. Once it makes contact with the drive bushing, loosen it by 1/8 of a turn. Hold the pin adjuster in place with the 10 mm wrench, and use the 22 mm wrench to tighten the locking nut.
  5. Fit the skid shoes to the bar. This is easier to do if you mount the transmission to the tractor. Place the block under the bar to raise it off of the ground. Use the 13 mm socket to bolt the skid shoes to the bar, then use it to set the skid angle. This angle controls the mowing height.

We’re Your BCS Headquarters

Whether you need parts for your two-wheeled tractor, or you want to pick up one of these versatile machines, visit Shank’s Lawn. We’re an authorized dealer for BCS, as well as Vanguard, Honda, and Kohler, so we can service everything on your tractor. Visit our shop at 4900 Molly Pitcher Highway in Chambersburg, PA to see our tractors and attachments, or see what we have in stock at www.shankslawn.com. Not in the area? We ship parts and accessories across the United States and Canada.

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