NH 268 baler problem

Hi,

I left my baler out overnight and it got rained on, soaking the bales that were in the chamber. When I went to bale a couple of days later, the first bale kicked out, but then the PTO shear bolt went. When I got looking, the needles are still in the bale chamber, and the safety kept the plunger from going all the way back and sheared the bolt. Now I'm stuck in mid-tie and I don't know what to do. How can I get the knotters to finish their rotation and allow the needles to drop out of the chamber?

Just so you know, I removed all of the hay from the baler, so I know there's no hay blocking or preventing any parts from moving.

Thanks
 
One of a couple way to maybe fix that. Install a new shear bolt and try to rotate the flywheel backwards and see if the needles go home. If not then try to move the needles by hand back to home. Never worked on that model but have many others and have used both ways but depends on what the baler was which worked
 
Thanks for the response. I replaced the shear bolt and tried turning the flywheel backwards, but it doesn't seem to move the knotters. The manual talks about tripping the knotters and rotating part way through the cycle, just not sure how to get it to go the rest of the way.
 
Is the knotter trip tab beside the clutch stuck? something is not letting the knotter shaft turn otherwise your needles would be moving. Look at your knotter trip lever system something there is not right. bjr
 


Look for a sheared needle lift shear pin. You can move the needles to home position by hand or clean hay out of bale chamber to make turning flywheel(with new shear bolt) easier in direction pto turns to power needles back home. After hay is removed from chamber you'll need to move plunger head stop momentarily out of the way so flywheel can complete rotation.
 
I haven't heard anyone say anything about the other shear pin that is located on the knotters. Everyone assumes that there is only 1 shear pin and it is located on the flywheel. Look real close on the gear that has the chain on it that runs the knotters and you'll find another one there. I've had to replace them on a couple of 268s when they plugged. Let us know what you find. Keith
 
I've had to stand on the bale chamber and kick the drive rod over top dead center before I could pull the needles back down. IIt's been along time since I've done this but have had this happen before. Never sheared that shear pin before but it does have one. The 268 was a good baler but I've had to go to round bales for lack of help.
 
What casenut said.Just make sure there all the way in home position.If there not the latch won't clear.

Another thing is go ahead and cut the twine out of the needles.Makes cycling easier.After you get everything back in order rethread the needles.
 
My thought is your shear pin was ready to snap anyway and did. You should be able to rotate the flywheel forward and complete the knotter cycle - at which time the needles would move out of the bale chamber to the home position. I would think that if the plunger is getting into the stop, you've got a timing issue.
 
(quoted from post at 04:54:10 09/16/14) I would think that if the plunger is getting into the stop, you've got a timing issue.

If needle lift shear pin shears leaving needles protruding in bale case then PH stop should stop PH but baler would still be "in time".
 
Thanks to everyone who responded. The fix was, as several suggested, to simply move the knotters through their cycle by manually turning the flywheel forward. I had been trying to turn it backwards in the hope that I would "undo" whatever bad thing had happened that prevented the knotters from cycling in the first place.

Tx Jim was correct, there is a safety which prevents the plunger from entering the bale chamber if the needles are still in there. I had to manually override this safety by moving the stop out of the way of the plunger in order to get everything moving forward.

Once the knotter cycle had completed, the needles moved back down out of the bale chamber and life was good. Went back out and finished baling.
 

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