[bwdbrn1]

Well...since we don't have a Jari forum, I guess I'll just throw it in here.

You guys know I posted a thread about having run across a Briggs and Stratton with foam in the tank. I can happily say today that...

IT'S AHLIAVE!

The CLR had done a fairly good job of getting the tank cleaned up. If this is the engine I'm going to leave on it, I might have to do a better job, but it's good to go for now for a test run at least.
I put the engine all back together with the handful of gaskets, springs and what nots that I got the other day. A bit of fresh oil and gas and a few tugs and it fired up. Ran really well at full throttle, but surges at anything slower than that. Also confirmed that the oil seal on the PTO end of the crankshaft needs to be replaced. It looked like grass must have gotten caught up in the PTO shaft and augured its way under the seal. So I've put together a new list of things to get, and I'll be off to get them today if they're in stock locally. But my tool box kind of says how I feel about the engine that came on this mower.

The green fender, as Jari calls it, is made of fiberglass.

Lifting the fender off lets you at all the things that spin and whirl underneath. You can see how robust this thing is made. I've replaced all of the belts and there is a third one that transmits power from the engine to the mower that isn't in these pictures.

I'm very happy to say that for being a machine from the mid 70s, I havent' had any trouble in getting any of the nuts and bolts to turn free. More to come as work goes on.

 

[Austen]

Nice work!! :ThumbUp:

It's fun and interesting to see what's underneath the cover. You're right, it really is well built. The frame tubing looks very robust and so does the pulley systems.

I sure hope that we get to see a video of it in action at some point!

 

[bwdbrn1]

I sure hope that we get to see a video of it in action at some point!

Me too!:sidelaugh

 

[DrBailey]

Me too!:sidelaugh

I will third the action video, Thats a new one to me.:2th:

 

[bwdbrn1]

Well, here's the latest on the Jari.

The old sickle blades were well worn, with at least one missing and a couple that were broken. This one has a 36" cutter, which takes 17 blades, all of which are riveted onto a bar. I checked around but could not find sickle blades to fit other than through Jari, so I looked over their parts list and saw that they sold the bar with the blades already riveted in place. Not having to have to cut each of the old off then rivet the new ones on sounded like a good idea, so I called Jari and placed an order for one all ready to go. Here's the old next to the new.

The whole sickle bar head is a pretty heavy duty affair.

And you want to make sure you don't get your fingers anywhere near the cutting area!

Here is the cutter bar attached to the front of the mower.

I said I wasn't really happy about the Briggs and Stratton engine that was on the mower, and it was a replacement engine at that. I was lucky to locate a used Honda GX160 for it, and with a little bit of effort, got it cleaned up and running, though there is still some tweaking that needs to be done to both the engine and mower.

We all wanted to see it running, so here's a sneak peek video of it's maiden run.

 

[Five Points]

Way to go B1! I'm behind the eight ball on fixin something between you, greenspot and doc!

 

[Austen]

You've been busy! Great work!! :ThumbUp:

That's a really nice new cutting bar, it's always fun to replace broken parts like that with new ones and get a machine in optimal operational condition again.

That's great that you found a new Honda engine to repower it. It looks great on there, just like factory. Did it require much work to mount it? It's going to be a very nice reliable machine now too!

Thanks for posting the video! I can't help but imagine this machine being the star of a horror movie with the blade going and all. Lots of character.

You'll definitely have to keep us updated in the spring when you're able to put it to work.

 

[Mark / Ohio]

Good work B1! :ThumbUp:

How is it for vibration? Always thought the sickle bar would give you a good massage running one all day trimming a electric fence line for example. Come to think of it, might have been steel T-posts that led to the demise of a couple of the original blades.

 

[bwdbrn1]

Thanks guys.

The Honda bolted right on, which made me really happy. In fact, they offer the Monarch with either a Honda 6.5 HP or Kohler 7 HP engine now.

With the Briggs that came on it having been a replacement engine itself, I'm curious as to what the original height from the base of the engine to the PTO was. Probably pretty close, but hard to say for sure. The owner's manual says that if you wanted to slow the forward speed down, to replace the original 4" pulley on the engine to a 3", and go from a 30 1/2" belt to a 29 1/2" belt.

This one has a 3" pulley, and the belt comes in right around 29". The replacement belt I got for it is a 29" but I'm at the extent of adjustment to tighten the primary drive belt, which is what makes me wonder about the placement of the original engine PTO. I couldn't have been that much different.

You can see in the movie that it's pretty slow. I think even the sickle is a bit more leisurely than it should be. Part of that comes from the fact that the belt isn't tightening up as it should, and there is quite a bit of slippage. I was using the old belt rather than putting the new one on for it's maiden voyage. I'm going to get a 4" pulley and see what that does to the equation.

So far as vibration, once it's put into motion it does shake a good bit. You guys might remember that I have a Garden Way sickle mower, and it shakes like the dickens when you put the blades into motion, but I don't think the Garden Way is as heavy, and it has rubber mounts on the handle bars! I was looking for a Jari back when I got the Garden Way, but couldn't find one. What are you going to do with two of them, you ask? Well, I'm going to do a side by side comparison, keep one and pass the other on to a friend of mine who has a use for it on his farm up north. At this point I'm leaning toward the Jari because I'm think the blade guards out front would be more suited to where I'll be using it. The Garden Way blades are right out in the open and would be more suited to less rocky and timbered areas.

Here's a video of an old Jari advertisement. You can see it goes along at a pretty good clip.
http://www.jariusa.com/historyfiles/giowa.html

 

[Austen]

Love the video! It is really neat to see them in action, they are quite entertaining to watch.

There are a lot of cool design features about them like how they will not take out foreign objects such as rocks like you explained. I really like the dual wheel feature, that is pretty cool and the machine itself doesn't look like your average machine either which makes it even more unique.

Next up you should find a Jacobsen Motor Scythe.

 

[DrBailey]

Wow thats one hungry machine, thanks for the Video.
Your doing some top notch work. very interresting!:ThumbUp:

 

[bwdbrn1]

Thanks Don. I worked on it some more today, and I think I've got it all dialed in now. Only thing left to do is some more clean up on it, and finish putting the Briggs and Stratton back together for a Craig's List posting.

I replaced the 3" pulley on the engine with a 4". A 30" belt was just too long, and the 29" seems to work perfectly. This has allowed me to tighten the main power belt and the blade belt so that they engage yet don't allow it to creep when they are disengaged. Plus, the change in the speed of the sickle and the forward movement is improved dramatically and it's only running at about half throttle.

Jari 36" sickle mower - YouTube

All I need now is some tall grass to try it out on.:ThumbUp:

 

[bwdbrn1]

I did a little work on the Jari today. In it's standard set up, it will cut at about
1 1/2", which in my thinking is a bit short. The company offers a set of adjusters that fit on in place of the original skids that are found on the underside of the cutting bar.

These adjusters allow the height of the cut to be varied from 1.5" to 4.5" The set I'd ordered came today, so I put them on, and now it's ready to head out and do some serious brush cutting.

I have to add that the folks at Jari are wonderful to work with. I called them last Thursday to place the order for these adjusters, and asked if they could have them delivered on Wednesday. I came home from an appointment today,(Wednesday) and darned if they weren't sitting on my back step. Says a lot about Jari, and the Speedy Delivery Company that delivered them.

 

[Austen]

Looking goood!

I really like the look of those adjusters. Had you not described their function, I would've guessed they were guides or bar-end protectors of the sort. It seems like they actually have more function than just being adjusters from looking at the pics.

I'll bet you can't wait to really try it out now!

Thanks for the update.

 

[Capstan]

That's awesome!!

I love Jari mowers, and I'm more than glad to hear they're still in business and that the design hasn't changed a bit... I heard somewhere they closed down ages ago but It seems I was wrong.

Great Job bwdbrn.

Oh And
"Cap10323 Subscribed to you on YouTube"

-Capstan

 

[bwdbrn1]

Looking goood!

I really like the look of those adjusters. Had you not described their function, I would've guessed they were guides or bar-end protectors of the sort. It seems like they actually have more function than just being adjusters from looking at the pics.

I'll bet you can't wait to really try it out now!

Thanks for the update.

That's awesome!!

I love Jari mowers, and I'm more than glad to hear they're still in business and that the design hasn't changed a bit... I heard somewhere they closed down ages ago but It seems I was wrong.

Great Job bwdbrn.

Oh And
"Cap10323 Subscribed to you on YouTube"

-Capstan

Thanks guys,

Actually, they call those things fence protectors/height adjusters. They are intended to guide along the edge of a fence to keep the bar from cutting into it but I thought that was a little long winded to post.:ThumbUp:

There have been some changes made to them, I'm sure to satisfy safety requirements. The older models like mine have two levers, one for activating the cutter, which must be activated to make the wheels work as well, and the other lever activates the wheels. The new ones still have the lever for the wheels, but now there is a smaller lever on the handle bars to put the cutter bar into motion as well as the wheels, so that when you let go of the handle bar, the whole thing stops. The old ones would keep going until you reached up to disengage the levers.

Capstan, I'll have to post more on youtube!:mow: