Put a lot of knuckle busting into the New Holland 68.
Replaced the bushings in the knotter drive sproket - what was wobbly enough to potentially throw a chain is now rock solid.
Replaced the bushings in the pitman arm where it connects to the plunger. It too was much looser than I realized, until we replaced the bushings.
Replaced the knurled wheel and trip arm. No trip arm slipping on a bump.
Replaced the wooden plunger bearing/slides and the jack screws used to adjust them and plunger with respect to the bale chamber.
Chased every threaded hole we encountered with a tap.
Used anti seize everywhere - LOL!
Sharpened the plunger knife and adjusted it to the stationary knife per the manual.
Added a extension to the bale ramp to get bales up in our wagon.
Added a brace to the baler/wagon hitch.
Sharpened the knotter knifes.
Still have more to do - but there are only so many hours in the day! Next up is:
Replace the flywheel bushing - needs it bad.
Replace the crank bearing the gearbox end where the plunger pitman attaches.
Replace every u-joint and the carrier bearing in the drive shaft.
Check/replace any suspect bearings in the pick-up.
The hardest part of this refurb was getting the plunger back into the baler. I had to use a 4x4 and sledge hammer to drive it back-in. I knew this going in and read somewhere one person used a come along to pull the plunger into the bale chamber. Once I got close enough to the crank, I hooked it up and used the tractor PTO to pull the plunger the rest of the way in. As many know, I bought a new JD 5055D to go along with my fine MF50 diesel. Many things swayed me to the JD. One of them was a manually engaged independent PTO vs one that is actuated full on with a switch. I wanted the ability to feather on an implement rather than slam it on. Believe me when I say, I was very gratefull for that manual PTO engagement when drawing the plunger into the bale chamber. Once the PTO took over, I let it run at idle. Even with oil, I got a bit of smoke, burnt maple smell and baby powdery dust as the wood slides wore-in.
I was able to run the baler at 540 rpms, it was quite and operated great. Inspite of needing a flywheel bushing, I didn't break any shear bolts - and I ran the baler hard.
Banana bale problem is 95% gone. Only encountered a banana bale/looser twine on one side of the bale when I encountered a light wind row. To remedy this, I adjusted the ground speed to get more hay into the baler pick-up and that seemed to cure it. I've studied this NH68 like a final exam and feel that even if everything is adjusted, refreshed (or the baler was new), the best adjustment for a banana bale is a full pick-up of hay.
Another problem that has gone away Is bale tension. Last summer, the baler did not like a tight bale - it made the banana bale problem worse. Now I can crank the tension down on - no problem. I set the tension such that the string put a nice visible crease in the ends of the bales.
Bale length - even with the new knurled metering wheel, my bales were somewhat inconsistent in length at times. It is not drastically bad by any means, but sometimes a 36 inch bale might be 40ish inches. I attribute this to just a big wad of hay went into the bale chamber just as the metering arm was about to trip - and that wad was the extra length.
Bale "looks": we are getting a much better bale than ever, but it' still a little ragged vs what I see coming out of a newer baler and especially a Hesston/MF inline baler. Nothing wrong with the NH68 bale, but I'm selling everything and the crisper the bale, IMHO, the better it sells.
So the NH68 is up and going. I think it is a very good baler, requires a bit of attention when baling to prevent a tad of banana bale effect, i.e. full pick-up of hay and gives an OK, but not always great looking bale.
We're done baling this spring. Next action will be July/August-ish time frame for the 2nd cutting.
Before I forget, while the NH68 is considered a low capacity baler, the real limit (we found) was the stacker on the back and their ability to keep up! I could bury my boys if I mashed the baler. Somehow, though, I think they will get the hang of stacking and the capacity of the baler will be the limit - we'll see.
Thanks for everyone's help on this NH68.
Bill
Replaced the bushings in the knotter drive sproket - what was wobbly enough to potentially throw a chain is now rock solid.
Replaced the bushings in the pitman arm where it connects to the plunger. It too was much looser than I realized, until we replaced the bushings.
Replaced the knurled wheel and trip arm. No trip arm slipping on a bump.
Replaced the wooden plunger bearing/slides and the jack screws used to adjust them and plunger with respect to the bale chamber.
Chased every threaded hole we encountered with a tap.
Used anti seize everywhere - LOL!
Sharpened the plunger knife and adjusted it to the stationary knife per the manual.
Added a extension to the bale ramp to get bales up in our wagon.
Added a brace to the baler/wagon hitch.
Sharpened the knotter knifes.
Still have more to do - but there are only so many hours in the day! Next up is:
Replace the flywheel bushing - needs it bad.
Replace the crank bearing the gearbox end where the plunger pitman attaches.
Replace every u-joint and the carrier bearing in the drive shaft.
Check/replace any suspect bearings in the pick-up.
The hardest part of this refurb was getting the plunger back into the baler. I had to use a 4x4 and sledge hammer to drive it back-in. I knew this going in and read somewhere one person used a come along to pull the plunger into the bale chamber. Once I got close enough to the crank, I hooked it up and used the tractor PTO to pull the plunger the rest of the way in. As many know, I bought a new JD 5055D to go along with my fine MF50 diesel. Many things swayed me to the JD. One of them was a manually engaged independent PTO vs one that is actuated full on with a switch. I wanted the ability to feather on an implement rather than slam it on. Believe me when I say, I was very gratefull for that manual PTO engagement when drawing the plunger into the bale chamber. Once the PTO took over, I let it run at idle. Even with oil, I got a bit of smoke, burnt maple smell and baby powdery dust as the wood slides wore-in.
I was able to run the baler at 540 rpms, it was quite and operated great. Inspite of needing a flywheel bushing, I didn't break any shear bolts - and I ran the baler hard.
Banana bale problem is 95% gone. Only encountered a banana bale/looser twine on one side of the bale when I encountered a light wind row. To remedy this, I adjusted the ground speed to get more hay into the baler pick-up and that seemed to cure it. I've studied this NH68 like a final exam and feel that even if everything is adjusted, refreshed (or the baler was new), the best adjustment for a banana bale is a full pick-up of hay.
Another problem that has gone away Is bale tension. Last summer, the baler did not like a tight bale - it made the banana bale problem worse. Now I can crank the tension down on - no problem. I set the tension such that the string put a nice visible crease in the ends of the bales.
Bale length - even with the new knurled metering wheel, my bales were somewhat inconsistent in length at times. It is not drastically bad by any means, but sometimes a 36 inch bale might be 40ish inches. I attribute this to just a big wad of hay went into the bale chamber just as the metering arm was about to trip - and that wad was the extra length.
Bale "looks": we are getting a much better bale than ever, but it' still a little ragged vs what I see coming out of a newer baler and especially a Hesston/MF inline baler. Nothing wrong with the NH68 bale, but I'm selling everything and the crisper the bale, IMHO, the better it sells.
So the NH68 is up and going. I think it is a very good baler, requires a bit of attention when baling to prevent a tad of banana bale effect, i.e. full pick-up of hay and gives an OK, but not always great looking bale.
We're done baling this spring. Next action will be July/August-ish time frame for the 2nd cutting.
Before I forget, while the NH68 is considered a low capacity baler, the real limit (we found) was the stacker on the back and their ability to keep up! I could bury my boys if I mashed the baler. Somehow, though, I think they will get the hang of stacking and the capacity of the baler will be the limit - we'll see.
Thanks for everyone's help on this NH68.
Bill