Dang combine gremlins.....

So cruising along great in the corn a few days ago with the Gleaner M3, getting close to 4 mph with the 6 row head, corn is really dry.

Now a slip clutch is going. Slowed down to 3mph, but still the slip clutch.

Get dark out, dew comes can't even notice it yet and the machine just says nope, gonna quit now, slip clutch won't catch.

Its the rear slip clutch on the right side, runs the return elevator and the walkers.

Last two years my corn went down bad, I was running most of the whole plant through the machine, dont even remember that slip clutch ever going off. My beans this year the water hemp got out of hand, it was a struggle to feed that gosh awful mess through, but not a single whimper from that slip clutch ever.

Return elevator is clear, can look up it with a flashlight at night, nothing loose, nothing catching, middle board looks smooth and intact.

The walkers are hard to inspect underneath, but appear solid, free, don't clash, I cannot find any roughness in a revolution.

There is no slam, grind, noises, or wobble. The slip clutch often grabs and works fine as the combine slows down to a stop or when starting it up, there is no sudden stop or issue. Its as if the slip clutch is just weak. There is no sudden stop of things, it just slips out and slows down the walkers and return elevator.

But nothing has moved or shows any sign of movement on the shaft, clutch, etc.

The jaws of the clutch look fine, no rounding or wear.

Spring looks fine, not broken.

No bearings in the whole system are warm or wobbly.

I have three washers under the slip clutch spring now. Helped, but when dark ess came last night, it just shut down, chatter chatter chatter.

It's become a worse issue three days in a row now.

I've run these old Gleaners since 1980, I suck at hydraulic and electrical stuff, but mechanically I can take apart and put together with a flashlight in my mouth, and know what is wrong before I get out of the cab when something is wrong.....

This has me totally stumped!

Now I can't even figure out mechanical stuff any more, I'm getting old and feeble.

15 acres or so to go, rain coming, and it can't make a slip clutch work or figure out what is stopping it.

Why do I do this for a living?

Paul

Because you enjoy it. The freedom to be your own boss, do things the way you want. You'll feger it out.

Have you tried turning the walkers by hand?

The alternative is not so great either - always beholden to other people. And you know how "people" are.

I know nothing about the Gleaners, but is that clutch belt driven? The belt is not slipping, eh? Or does the slip clutch make the "chatter" when it is slipping?

One other idea; if the bores of either part of the clutch, or the shaft, for that matter, are wobbled out, it will not hold, due to the teeth not staying fully engaged. If there are 50 teeth, and only 25 are grabbing, the torque will make them slip. Or, if there is run out betwixt the teeth, same issue - cannot tranfer the torque.

Best of luck - hope you are able to beat the rain!

Since you took out the jaws, you know they"re not cracked, but with today"s yields, I"d question any wear...try new jaws. How about spring length? Collapsed a bit? And I"m sure you know the limits of adding washers....too many will keep the jaws from opening enough to slip, and cause some real damage. With the chain unhooked, is it hard to spin the return auger...tight bearing? Some internal steel contact?

had the one on our F3 feeder beater do the same thing, work flawlessly until I got into a field of beans that the stalks were a little tough then it started, took the clutch apart and couldn't see anything wrong except I couldn't set the spring gap to spec,after a little head scratching I noticed the two shims someone had installed under the nut I removed the complete assy, and put the shims on the shaft behind the clutch, tighten it until the springs had the correct clearance, the problem was the shaft had worn the back side of the clutch housing enough that the front was bottoming out on the shoulder of the shaft stopping it from compressing the springs enough.

According to my parts book, the spring should have a free length of 3 1/2 inches, 2 inch outside diameter--part number 71156702. The jaws are 71169579 for the splined one and 71169578 for the pinned one, if you need to replace them---same part for an L or M.The correct spring length when tightened should be in your manual---mine is in the combine now, or else I would have it for you. hope this helps.

Ben

Once the slip clutches start slipping you either have to tighten it quick or replace. They wear like a mother QUICK when they are slipping.

You mentioned getting dark and not working. Your crop is getting too tough to thresh. It's time to stop. Once the wind lays down here conditions can change fast. Especially tonight. We are supposed to have rain tomorrow. Tonight I ended up stopping at about 7. Suddenly that combine was really working hard. The sample moisture may not spike much but you will end up slugging her tight if you keep pushing it.

Huh.

Never seen husks wound up like that, tighter than plumbers faucet caulking rope.

Really couldn't get much dug out, no room in there to get it, never seen anything wound up that tight.

Paul

Paul, mine did the same thing last year, could not figure out what was making it slip, I removed the nut and spring put another washer on and tightened the nut back and it ran great after that. Still don't know what caused it to slip but after adding the washer its been good ever since.

Wow - that does not look like fun.

At least you found the problem.

4 walkers, 8 spots kinda wound up more or less.

I can access 2 of those 8 spots with a carpet knife, and even those are not letting go, those husks are broken down into grabby fibers and grabbing together into one heck of a fiber gasket rope type thing. Seems like its packed itself deep into the come of those areas, cutting the visible stuff it won't even let loose.

The other 6 spots, man, I donno how much I need to take apart to get to.

Never ran into that before.

Got the news on my tractor hyd pump this fornoon (posted in the Ford section) man this low budget farming gets interesting sometimes.

Paul

I was up to 4 washers on it..... It had to work or bust and see what the problem was can't sit there and scratch my head all day long, at least I finally spotted the problem. With more washers the slipping when the dew came became more pronounced, and I was looking for more of a crop issue than a mechanical issue. So the washers helped me figure it out some. That spring appears set fairly light, whole lot of travel allowed how its spaced out.

Paul

Remove the grain pan and take one of the walkers out---might be easier than trying to hack away at it through the side panel.

Ben

bet ya got a bearing out somewhere,,,my returns rattler was going off a bunvch on the 750 masssey,. bearing was bad and occassionalluy lokin up ,.. took the belt off and flipped the trap open .. and ran without the recleaner all last week ,. hardly had any grain making it back there anyway,,.

Don't grease the darn things they slip real easy when you do. If you think they are not working, take them apart, make sure it isn't rusted solid, put it back togther and go to work. They slip easy enough with no grease.

Got the crop out, finished yesterday.

Was a buildup of husks under the walkers on the front walker shaft. The previous 2 years my corn blew flat, I ran so much material through the combine, never a problem. This year perfect corn, very high yield, very dry conditions, and this came up.

Odd.

Very hard to see the issue, about impossible to get to it. As we got some light rain the issue stopped showing up; with just a few acres left I didnt look again, just kept going the past couple days and got it done, the slip clutch never bothered.

I will have to check things out before next years oats harvest, that nothing is actually wrong. Since all sides of all the front walker bearings were wrapping up, I'm thinking there was some unusual stalk conditions issue that caused the problem, and things are mostly ok.

My clue was the third evening it stopped up as the dew came in, it made me look more for a crop flow issue rather than a mechanical issue. That was a frustrating 3 days of trying to piece it together! I can't emphisise how little room and how hard it is to even see that front walker arm on this machine, with the bottom pan under the walkers. Very different than my f series of combines, look in the back and everything is open and visible.

Anyhow, got er done! Thanks to all for the thoughts, lots of good ones here.

Paul