Super A Sickle Bar Mower A-21 / A-23 Question

I am in the process of rebuilding my Sickle bar mower that mounts on the rear of my Super A. I am going to be using it to cut about 20 acres of hay this year. I have replaced all the knives and some of the hold downs. After doing some research and checking my sickle bar I have found that I believe most of the rock guards are bent. When I first thought of bent I assumed bent enough a person could tell but after looking I assume you guys mean bent could be 1/4" low or high or something which isn't that obvious without a level. SO tonight I used a level and found almost every other guard was off. So I assume the cutter won't cut real well like that. I did try it though and it really didn't do too bad but I found it bound up fairly easy (of course this is before I read that you shouldn't be in first gear when using a sickle!)

Ok all that aside! My question is. The gentleman I got the mower from gave me 3 brand new OEM guards. I can actually read the part marks. The guards on the sickle I cannot. The guards he gave me are MC2043 and MC2041. Which I read in the manual is for a "weed" bar. So when I go to my dealer should I ask for those or should I get the "regular" guard which is listed as an MF989?

I have also had people tell me to get IH double guards and put on it?

Lastly I have seen people recommend sickleservice. Can anyone comment on their products? Are they are good as Gen. IH? Obviously I would think a bit cheaper? which is good when you are buying 28 of them.

Thanks for the help with these guards or suggestions what I should buy! Mark

scotty

Unfortunetly my guards are neither straight or sharp at the location of the ledger plates. Thus I have pretty much just decided to get rid of them. I am sure I could spend time bending them back but they still wouldn't be sharp. All the plates are rounded at the top edges. I know you may be able to replace the ledger plates but I have looked mine over pretty hard and cannot see any rivet in the top or bottom that I could remove to get the plate out. Now on the newer OEM guards I got with the mower the rivet is obvious in those ones.