JD 24 T blaer, Knotter assembly fracture question

Just finished timing the feed arm and knotter function on a 24 T that I'm bringing back to work .

Dry run all went as expected, turning by hand counter clock-wise as manual indicates. No interference of needles, and they presented correctly to knotter. Knotter functioned thru all of its' movement, needles returned to home and knotter clutch reset to position awaiting next star wheel signal.

Fed twine thru per directions, tied loose ends to case brace, and again turned flywheel counter clock-wise with release of of star wheel. Needles came up presented twine to knotters they grabbed it and needles returned to "home".

Went to back of case and pulled the twine on left (flywheel) side and it had been cut and was correctly awaiting ram and material, went to right side pulled twine and it was jammed. Looked at its' knotter and saw that the knotter frame had fractured at two points on the frame web. Lower left side fracture was directly across from lower mounting bolt, second was on upper cross frame just below shaft.

Any thoughts on why this might happen?

The fractured frame appeared to be of a newer style material, smoother surface on casting, not the older "cast iron" type. I have a second 24 T that I scavenge parts from and it has both types of frames.

Fx

Too much clearance between intermittent gear and
pinion gears for twine disk and bill hook? Washers
on main shaft determine clearance. Washer it tight.

Roger

Took your info and reassembled with knotter from my parts unit. Tried to keep the knotters fairly tight by using combinations of the multiple washers riding, on the main shaft the knotters ride on and as close to the driven iron casting they receive geared timing from.

In slowly turning the flywheel while watching the knotter drive assembly I noted a tremendous side force to the left on both knotters, actually trying to bend the cotter pins and shear them off. NOTE: the casting that broke yesterday had sheared off the cotter pin to its' left (flywheel side).

Thoughts on what I need to change in setting these up?

Thank you for the fast response this morning.

Something is not right. Is the teeth in the intermittent gear full of dirt or debris? What is causing the force toward the flywheel, and on both knotters?

Check OM for clearance, if any, between the intermittent gear(s) and pinion for billhook and twine disk.

R

The cast drive gears that the knotters get timing from are clean on inside, will completely clean and check all knotter moving parts tomorrow.

Nothing appeared to have excess or sloppy movement of parts, and dry cleaned accumulated dirt from all areas. Will solvent clean and reassemble.

Will update, in mean time any thoughts appreciated.

Fx

Anytime you break a needle or a knotter frame you have to check the needle frame to make sure its not bent or twisted. They bend easy and almost impossible the straighten. If you close one eye you can look across it and see if the thing has a twist. Not sure if that would be causing the issues you have going on.

DraftX

Thank you for the suggestion. I looked at the needles as they come thru the bottom bale case slots and they present evenly there. Also at the top of movement near the front of knotters they appear to be even fore and aft, left to right and height in alignment to knotters.

When you speak to the needle frame, are you indicating the back horseshoe section or as the arms go forward, or both.

I will check this out from all angles anyways.

Thank you, big mystery, need all the clues I can receive.

Fx

yes that U shaped pipe that the needles bolt. Get down on one knee , close one eye and sight across them from the side and they should be parallel to each other.