combining oats with the #80 International

Swathed my oats last Wed. with the #36 MF swather, and started combining yesterday with the #80 that I bought in June. The oats is a cover crop over alfalfa and grass seeding, so I had to cut it pretty high. Was surprised that I didn't choke the cylinder yet, since the grass was pretty think in the windrows in some places. The #80 seems to be getting most of the grain, and it looks pretty clean in the tank. About 1/2 done with the field, looks like I should be able to fill a 150 bu. wagon from the 4 acres.

Noticed when looking at the pictures I took when it was running, that the feeder housing chain jumped a link again on one side. It was like that when I bought it, and last week I took the head off and adjusted the chain and changed connecting links. Not sure why it would jump a link on one side again. When I laid the chain out flat, two of the bars had a small amount of twist. Maybe that along with maybe too much slack? I had tightened it until there was no sag in the chain. Will loosen it up and get the bars running parallel again before finishing the field today.

One chain is stretched. It will keep self-adjusting each time you reset it. Only cure is replacement.

You say you tightened the chain until there was no slack. You actually want some slack in the chain. Many feeder chains are ran too tight. It may also be possible one side is tighter than the other. Mike

Does the entire chain with the slat bars need to be replaced as a unit? Or can just the chains be replaced? Wondering what the availability of something like this is. I bought a parts manual, but I don't have it in front of me now. I think it showed the links for attaching the bars as a separate number, but I don't think the links where the bars are attached were easily removed from the chain.

I would expect you could replace just the chain.

Any bearing bad that you aren't aware of? I had a bad bearing but couldn't tell because of the tension on it when it was idle. Once I watched it run I could see right away what the problem was.

What area of Mn do you farm in?
I"m in south central MN, but don"t farm.

I'm west of the metro area, near Buffalo.

Looked at the feeder chain when I went back to the field yesterday, and the slats are running straight, so it doesn't appear that a chain jumped a link. Every time I shut the PTO off to unload, turn, etc., they appeared to be straight too. Not sure why they looked crooked in the pictures I took the day before when it was running. Maybe a chain jumped and corrected itself? It's a mystery. Will look into changing the chains before next year anyway.

Finished the 4 acres and pretty much filled the 150 bu. gravity box. Will be grinding it for the cows and finishing steers, mixing with ear corn.

Only had one big breakdown. Was finishing a sharp turn at the corner of the field with the PTO off. Flipped the PTO switch before I had finished the turn, and THUMP! Twisted off the 2nd U-joint on the front drive shaft. Took it off and ran home to look for something similar. Found that the front PTO shaft on the MF #12 baler is the same length and same spline size, so I put that one on and was back in business, only down for a 1/2 hour.

Sure is fun watching the #80 work, wish I had more combining to do. Next year I think I'm going to plant a 10 acre field of either straight oats or barley.

For chains for that old of machine Larson Imp. in Cambridge is a great place to go. They have thousands of new chains in 2 sheds that they got from the distribution warehouses scrap and saved. I just got a new clean grain elevator chain for my case 77 pull type there last week. They didn't have a case chain, but they had one with the correct chain and I just had to cut 1/2" off the rubber paddles. I guaranty they will have the correct chain, but you may need to cut the bars off and switch them.

I was combining oats today with my AC 72. I'm just west of Delano.

Greg

Have a look at the backside of the links in the chain. If they are worn very flat, they will start to open up. You can replace just the bad links, but at some point it is faster to replace the chains and just reuse the slats.

Greg