I had a lot of problems with my old IH mower (don't know the model). I found the clearance between the cutter teeth and the ledger plates was totally out of adjustment. The clips that keep the bar and cutter teeth held forward ( I don't know the name of them) were worn and the bar was riding too far back and the grass was packing up under the teeth. I loosened the toe caps and slid them as far forward as they could go and retightened everything. I did adjust the toe caps so they held the teeth tighter to the ledger plates too. For this adjustment I used a 16 oz. adjuster (hammer). I loosened the toe caps, put a piece of round stock under the arch and struck them a few times to move them and retightened them. Then I took a good look and those that looked too tight I struck in the middle of the arch to back the pressure off. Finally I found that a number of the rock guards looked like they were totally on the wrong angle. I used a 2 pound adjuster on them. A good number of years as a carpenter helped with accurate swings. I struck them from the underside a few times till the clearance looked to be around 10 thousands of an inch or less. There is some risk of breaking the rock guards off as they are cast, but by doing it with gentler blows I moved all the errant ones but for one, it broke. I picked up a new one from Tractor Supply, installed it and went mowing again with TOTAL success. This process took a while but was totally worth it. One other thing I did do was check and repean a number of the questionable rivits, especially those on the pitman end. Loose rivits are death to those parts and they do seem to loosen with time. Now I can mow just about anything I want with no clogging. I hope this helps. I'm no mechanic and had to learn by trial and error. These methods I used may not be correct, or conventional, but I have had success. This process took lots of patience and time, and I share it with you to tell you how I got there.
