NH68 Update Knotter Stop / Needle Yoke Rod Questions

My youngest boy and I dived into the NH68 this evening. The goal was to figure out why, though the timing marks on the knotter are OK, the plunger wants to hit the stop as the needles are making their way to the home position as the knotter cycle is completed AND to figure out why the needles are coming into the chamber when the plunger is some 3ish inches past them vs the 1/2-ish per the manual.

Having someone to rotate the flywheel so we could give it a look-see is very, very helpful!

The big thing that jumped out at us was the pick-up side of the knotter shaft - the lever that cycles the needle yoke/yoke rod was out of position at the end of the knot cycle. There was an offset towards the front of the baler vs the back - opposite of the manuals I have. When the knotter cycle starts, it pushed the yoke further towards home as the offset straightens and then pulls the yoke/needles forward to the knotters. The plunger is heading to the rear the whole time. This would probably explain the needles being late into the chamber and late coming out of it.

So to fix this, I think I need to set the home position with the yoke rod to the left of center per the manuals I have and then reset the timing marks on the knotter. However, if I do this adjustment, I think I will also need to adjust the knotter stop, so when the knotter cycle is complete, the needles are in the home position and the yoke rod is offset left center as mentions above.

I can see the knotter stop via and trip lever mechanism is mounted in slots such that the stop can be moved front/back. However the manuals speaks, in addition to the horizontal movement, also vertical movement.


Questions:

1. Anyone had their yoke rod out of position as I describe above and if so, how did you fix it?

2. Knotter stop - am I anywhere close on this? Have you made this adjustment and any advice to go with it, including vertical adjustment?

I think we're close and will try it again tomorrow with a full day of daylight vs a few hours tonight.

Somehow, I'm begging to think that when I get through learning/studying these knotters, I might be able to work as a New Holland mechanic on them - LOL! I just hope my boys are soaking this stuff up. One of these days, they might bethe ones on this forum answering everyone's questions like mine, except on their 75 or 100 year old New Holland 68 baler!

Thanks again for everyone's help!!!!!

Bill

I've been following your posts on this for a while. I'm not familiar with a 68, I have a 273 but I would bet they're somewhat alike. It looks to me like your entire needle cycle is late. Entering late and not quite getting home in time to retract the plunger stop. Have you checked the position of the knotter shaft lever in relation to the shaft? Broken or missing key?

On the lever that lifts the yoke rod, I loosened the clevis that holds the lever onto the knotter shaft and the bolt on the end of the shaft too. I gave the lever a fair number of taps with a light ball peen hammer to see it it would move - it didn't. I believe the key is intact, at least on the yoke rod lever side.

We'll revisit this tomorrow.

Thanks for the help!
Bill

Your "knotter stop" needs to be adjusted as you suspect.

Bill, you need to find yourself a parts baler so you can make 1 good one out of 2 bad ones. I can't imagine how what you describe could happen unless someone really bunged that baler up or someone took it apart and put it back together wrong. I can't help with fixing it, but getting someplace you can look at a "correct" baler might help. Someone might have busted it and put in parts from a different (wrong) baler or something too.

The knotters and needle arm are driven by the same keyed shaft. If all three timing locations line up, as you said, there is no way for them to come out of adjustment short of a broken key, one end or the other.

(quoted from post at 11:01:40 08/24/14) The knotters and needle arm are driven by the same keyed shaft. If all three timing locations line up, as you said, there is no way for them to come out of adjustment short of a broken key, one end or the other.

Click to expand...

That's what I'm thinking. Sometimes when a key breaks it jams itself into the metal nearby and feels solid.

If the last person changed the knotter timing so the home position was incorrect but the knotter clutch halves appeared to be in time, the exact symptoms that the OP has would exist. He's already said the needle bail crank arm is not oriented correctly. The home position has to be set correctly, the knotters have to be re-timed, Fedder timing checked, and all will be as it should. Said this in an earlier thread but nobody wants to hear it.

Firstly - thanks everyone for your comments.

My youngest boy and I dived into the baler, we set the needles entering the bale chamber with respect to the plunger, adjusted the knotter stop, re-set the timing, adjusted the needles with respect to the knotter per the manual, greased what seemed like 100+ zerks, threaded the baler with 9000 New Holland sisal twine, fired-up the MF50 diesel, engaged the PTO and with some old remnant loose hay, fed it into the baler and made bales - yippie!

The first attempt at threading, the LH knotter failed to pick-up the twine, so we re-set that. The path from the twine box to the needles was not bad rusty, but not shiny either. Got that all cleaned-up, the twine tension set and it tied every knot after that. We must have ran the same hay through the baler and made about 30 or more bales. I believe the MF50 is going to be a good match for this baler.

We need to set the bale length, density and got some banana shape to deal with too. Actual field conditions will probably be different than feeding and re-feeding old hay.

In addition, the knotter knife is very sharp, one of the twine disks needs a slight tweak. I need to move the plunger and it's knife over to close the gap, but looking at those adjustment bolts, I am sure one or more is going to break, so I'll order new hardware before I touch it.

All in all a good day. Thanks again everyone for the help!

Next up is the MF32 sickle bar mower.

Bill

When you are just checking knotters, feed enough hay in for about a onr foot long bale and then manually trip the knotter.Once in the field as you say, set the length and the density.