Gleaner M2 / Series 3 head update!!

I had several posts looking for advice on feeding / plugging issues on my new to me Gleaner M2.

Well I finally finished my soybean harvest and I learned several things.

For anyone having problem feeding short beans, and feeding in general along with or without plugging the feeder beater.. Or just plugging the feeder beater in general here is what I did.

I took apart the feeder beater slip clutch....
I ended up replacing the jaw set even though mine didn't look terribly worn. After comparing mine to a new set I figured I would try a new set and what a difference it made!! I inspected the springs and reassembled with a new lock collar on the bearing behind the beater drive sprocket.
After replacing the jaws ( and setting the proper clearance) I never once plugged the beater.

Second, which I think made the biggest difference.....
I mounted a piece of 3" flexible corrugated field tile behind the cutter bar on my Series 3 head.
This made the head feed 1,000% better. The the beans fell over the tile and the auger picked them up quickly. Most of the beans I cut with this setup were longer, but I did cut some short beans and they fed very well.
The combine ran very smooth after I installed the tile behind the cutter bar, it seriously ran so smooth that I had to keep looking behind me and make sure beans were running into the bin.

The combine operated amazing after these modifications and I hope that someone can attain some help from my post!

Good work Joe!

Gleaners are fairly simple to work on. Another thing
you might want to check are the rubber bushings on
the cleaning shoe. They are easy to change. If they
come apart while combining they can cause a
headache..

could you possibley get pictures of the tile installed??

I should have taken some photos!!

I already removed it to clean the head up for winter storage.

I drilled one hole out to 3/8" in a 3" conduit clamp and used a screw on the other side.
The tile fit perfectly on the knife back.
I used the guard bolts to mount the front of the conduit clamp.

Ive read of people using conduit or PVC, but I don't feel that will flex enough.

I -must- remember to order a set of slip clutch for my M3 this August when they have their sale. My M3 was good, but a year of flattened corn made it slip all the time. Like you say it looks good, but that time 2 years ago in the down corn had to have worn it down.

Got one closeup pic of mine on the iPad to share. This is actually a spare head, yes it needs knife/guards......

Paul

I was having the same problem with the feeder beater clutch slipping on an F3 and there didn't appear to be enough material under the beater to cause the problem, I took it apart and didn't see anything wrong except someone had put shims under the retaining nut to try and increase the tension, I got to reading the manual and it give the distance between housings to get the proper spring tension, I had a lot more than the book called for so I disassembled the clutch again an noticed the shaft had worn into the assembly housing, the shims that had been installed under the nut didn't help because the end cap shouldered up against the end of the shaft when tightened,so I put shims on the shaft then installed the clutch assembly, kept increasing the number of shims until they moved the housing out enough to get the correct gap between the housings once it was tightened down, since then it has only released when truly choked