[AT] Mott flail mower problem

[Mike]

I have been using an ancient Mott flail mower lately for some field
mowing. This is a 60" pull-behind that must date to the 1950's (It came
to me with a Farmall AV that the PO used to use to mow his field.) It
works well enough, but lately, the idler pulley that keeps tension on
the belt comes off. I had installed a new 5/16" NF bolt and washer to
hold it on, but the idler turns counterclockwise and managed to undo the
bolt. An image can be seen at
<http://public.fotki.com/mikesloane/other_machinery/mott-mower-idler-pulley.html>

The gearbox also leaks fluid, but I can live with that for now and just
keep adding 90 weight periodically...

Steve Offiler suggested that I use Loctite blue to keep the bolt on, but
that seems a little extreme to me - I may need to change that idler some
day, and Loctite blue is relatively permanent. One problem is that I
don't know how Mott configured the setup originally - what fasteners
were used and if they were special or just ordinary hardware. It is a
wild shot in the dark, but I wonder of anyone has a similar machine that
they could take a picture of and/or any of the user manual pages.

Any thoughts?

Mike