Restoring an BCS 737

[ejnardahl]

Hi

I am a (very) happy owner of an old 737. Bought it with a large three rotor mower last summer for 3500 kr (about 600$) but havent had time to mess arround with it untill now. It is in quite poor condition and looks like it has been spending alot of time in rainy weather.
But is starts immediately. It kan shift gears and the PTO is spinning. The ACME engine sounds fine and runs steadily even in idle running. Some cleaning, rust removal and paint has now made it look very fine again.
I just bought a sickle bar (Ferrari) and is about to start using it for hay making for our Boer goats.

Questions:
1. The engine is old, so do I have to use leaded gasoline?
2. Acording to a manual I found on the net, the transmission holds 2 litres of oil, but I only drained about 1 litre fom it. I have filled 1 litre on it again and it now reaches the upper marking on the dip stick. What is the correct amount of transmission oil. One or two litre?

Best regards

Ejnar Dahl Jensen (Gl. Vesløs, Denmark)

[farmerboybill]

Nice looking machine you have there.

1. No. The 737 was built in the early 90's, so it' not exactly ancient. No lead needed.

2. If you drained it as it sits in your pic, you didn't drain all of it. You need to have it tilted back to get all the oil out.

[ejnardahl]

Thank you for the reply. the oil was not drained in this position. I tilted it both forward and backward to make sure that as much as possible of the old oil was out.
Have used quite a bit today... and this is really an awsome machine. Only wish it could drive a bit faster than third gear. When driving to and from the garage it fells a bit slow :-).

[mpapiary]

I just finished a 725 to 735 conversion on my tractor and it took just a little over one liter to fill to the upper mark also. I left it and have checked it several times - still looks ok to me. I believe that these are like most other transmissions and your better off not overfilling.

[wstr75]

Thank you for the reply. the oil was not drained in this position. I tilted it both forward and backward to make sure that as much as possible of the old oil was out.
Have used quite a bit today... and this is really an awsome machine. Only wish it could drive a bit faster than third gear. When driving to and from the garage it fells a bit slow :-).

Put larger diameter wheels and tires on the tractor to increase the ground speed. Look at the information on this page: Tractor Accessories

[JoeBuyer]

On my 722 I can barely walk fast enough in 3rd to keep up with it. I assume you have 4 gears? Do you need to have the engine in front to be in high gear? I would assume the engine towards you is considered reverse to the machine?

[ejnardahl]

No the fourth gear is blocked when reserved, but this is not a major problem.
I am now on the lookout for a hay rake, but they appear to be very rare in my country. I am considering to get an adapter that will allow me to use a tractor sized PTO and that way get acces to a all the used hay rakes for normal tractors. But I am a little nervous that my little 737 may not be able to handle it. And that the PTO gearing may be a problem. Any experiences?

[farmerboybill]

The fourth gear is only accessible in "tractor" mode. You'll need to find the sister model - a 605 - to get fouth in "mower" mode.

I think you'll have several problems with pulling a 4 wheel tractor-type rake. First, the tractor style ones have the PTO above the drawbar and you'll have the PTO below. Second, the PTO turns at 990 RPM on a BCS. The 6 spline PTO on a full sized rake will be 540 RPM. I have not tried to use one, but you should be able to find a ground driven bar rake in Denmark. I don't think you'll have enough traction w/o overloading the little BCS, but maybe...

BTW, I spent a little time on the island Romo when I did a foreign exchange program. I lived in the village of Emmelsbull Deutschland for a summer. Gotta say, I didn't see anything other than beautiful women in Denmark.