Bought a Little Rhino... need advise on fasteners/pins

[S854]

Just got home with an older Servis Little Rhino... $275 off CraigsList...


I'm looking for some direction on which pins to use to replace the redneck pins currently on it... in particular, the "tilt" pin...



The blade came with this bolt (red arrow) stuck in the hole, with the keeper (green arrow) holding it in place... I needed to loosen the nut (blue arrow) to allow the keeper to rotate out of the way to remove the bolt so I could tilt the blade... the keeper is somewhat difficult to rotate (I use a small hammer to rotate it) but when the blade is banging away against our rocky driveway the keeper rotates on it's own.. I've "lost" the bolt a couple times now... I could tighten the nut down to keep the keeper from rotating but that seems like a bit much compared to the other pins which allow the blade to offset to the side or angle one way or the other... what does the original Servis pin look like and how is it kept in place?

Which brings me to another point... the pin for the offset...



This pin with the silver "half-dome" collar... seems it may be the correct pin for it's position, although I need to drive it in and out with a hammer it seems that tight fit is what keeps the blade arm from pulling directly on the pivot shaft, which isn't quite as stout at the pin... yes/no?

The final pin is the blade angle... the current bolt in place is rather loose and the locating holes on the blade are somewhat hogged out after years of use... I'm thinking a smooth pin would be a bit better rather than the threads of the bolt...



I'm thinking a pin like this:



So... what say you? Leave it and deal with it or replace/modify things a bit?

 

[Treesanddust]

We have the same blade, only yours looks like it is in much better shape.
They came with 2 pins up on top that were smooth steel bent into an L shape, with round piece of metal (washer shaped) on the shaft to keep the pin up off of the tube of the blade so that you could grab the horizontal part of the pin to remove. These used a cotter pin underneath to keep it in place.
The tilt pin was almost the same only the "washer" or round part was half-moon shaped with the "washer" part offset of the L part of the pin . It was inserted into the hole with the handle pointed up, then the pin was turned so the L part was facing down. When this happened the round part would be underneath the metal tab that you have that is slightly askew. From the factory that tab should be straight down and tight, it didn't move, the pin was inserted and turned so that the round metal ended up wedged behind that tab to hold it in.

I'm calling it a washer just so you can get an idea of the design, it was really a custom round piece of steel welded to the pin.

The trick is finding pins that fit as tight to the holes as possible, it is the movement back and forth rather than the threads that cause the holes to enlarge.

You might try contacting Servis-Rhino to see if they still have any of those tilt pins available, they are a very custom part.