NDDan
Guest
Wear plates should be holding sickle forward as far as possible but not bind. Be careful for wear plates may have worn into sickle. Replace complete sickle to fix that or some have repositioned wear plate locations to buy themselves some time. Front point of sickle should be inline with front point of guard at each end of stroke. Hold downs should just clear sickle to be sure it is being held down in hard cutting. Some have steped up a size of drive pulley with good luck. Furthest rearward drive pulley is available in I beleive a total of five sizes from the 300's to now the 8000's. Check the size of yours and compare with what the parts book calls for. Might want to see how paralell the gaurds run to the ground. Some guys on this site have modified mount for skid shoes to allow sickle to run closer to ground and more paralell for a very close clean cut. Hopefully some one else will comment on what works for them. Good luck