Changing 200 series flexhead "seals"

Well my old 213 flex head need the old steel "seals" behind the cutterbar changed. It's got holes in it, and is slipping out of the cutterbar.

Already have some nice new stainless ones ordered from Shoup, just wondering if anyone here has done this and has advice or tips on removing the old ones and putting in new ones.

I changed my steel ones to stainless steel last summer. The steel was rusting and getting weak where it slips under the backside of the cutterbar just like you are saying. First I removed the old panels. There are a bunch of carriage bolts with the nuts on the underside. They are especially across the back where it attaches to the metal under the cross auger. There might be one or two on each side towards the back. Next I had to loosen up the bolts that hold the cutter bar. I personally did not take the cutter bar off. I remember there were tabs welded on the bottom of the "seal" that kept it from pulling out from under the cutter bar. When you loosen up the cutter bar the tabs will clear and allow the "seal" to be pulled out. There might be a few of the cutter bar bolts that need to be removed that holds the bar the tabs hook to. I think you will understand it when you see it. Actually I think the tabs were pretty much shot on the old ones I took out. Once every thing is removed there will probably be 200 pounds of dirt under the seals and on top of the skid plates. I cleaned all of that up and gave the skid plates a good power washing. I think it floated better since all of the weight was removed. Then I put in a section of the new stainless steel. First I slid the section in under the cross auger and then pulled it forward inorder to slide in under the backside of the cutter bar. As you probably know these sections have a lifting effect on the cutterbar. So the problem is you have to now push the backside down inorder to put the bolts in. Pushing the "seal" down to bolt it up lifts the cutter bar. I think I used a 2" by 4" as a lever to push down on the new stainless steel panels. I wedged it in under the auger and pushed down. Might have braced it or put more boards on top of the 2" by 4" to hold it down. I did this project myself and had to crawl underneath so somehow I held the 2" by 4" lever there. Using a long centering punch you can line up the holes and install bolts. Maybe a longer bolt could be used as a starter to pull the metal down. Once pulled down with the long bolt the correct one could be used in the next hole, then the starter bolt could be taken out. I think I might have lifted the cutter bar some by putting a couple of saw horses under the cutterbar and lowering the head some. That makes it so the stainless steel sheets don't have to flex so much when installing them. It was a project for sure but it wasn't that bad. Grain does move easier off of the stainless steel over the old steel ones and I am sure they will last longer.

Thanks andy. I actually took off the old sheets without loosening the front cutter bar bolts......there was alot of swearing, now I have the cutter bar bolts loosened but they dont give MUCH more space for those tabs.

You're right once the old sheets were off, the dirt and buildup on the skid plates was HORRIBLE - I'll really take more time cleaning it out after flex mode for now on!!! No wonder it was getting so hard to bolt it into rigid mode.

Shoup's instructions want the stainless loosely bolted at the augre then pryed down into the cutterbar, which would seem VERY hard to get the stop tabs in properly. I also had someone tell me they took their entire cutting bar off. Your method seems to make the most sense, maybe Ill use some super long bolts to start with and switch to the normal bolts once its all flexed down.