JD 336 #30 Kicker

I got some advice awhile ago to clean the valve on my #30 Kicker I use on my JD 336 Baler. The kicker would kick a bale or two, then just not work. I got the valve off today, and am looking for any good advice as to how to clean it. Do I simply take everything off it I can, pull whatever I can out, clean it, clean the body and put it back together?

I'm just trying to avoid any headaches here as I got through this little project.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Can't tell you how but I will reinforce that you need to do it.

We find the common problem for us is in the tail end of the valve. It can be serviced without taking it off the baler. 2 screws hold a cup like thing to the valve body. If you take out both screws, you will have a loose gasket and what looks like a short little rod sticking out the end of the valve body. This little rod is about the diameter of a 16D nail (or maybe 20D?). The inside of the cup has 3(?) little balls like from a ball bearing. They are spring loaded to latch onto the side of the rod. Our experience has been that the balls do not move freely from maybe hay dust, water, rust, or some kind of crud. We clean this up and put it back on the end of the valve with a bit of hydraulic oil and it all works like it should. I have done this a few times out in the field in less than 30 minutes. The balls are trapped and do not come flinging out of their correct place. I don't recall if there is a coil spring also inside of the cup, but if you take it off gently, you'll keep things under control. JD wants a small fortune for the cup, and that is what drove me to experiment with the one we had problems with. The #40 thrower has the same deal. The little metal rod controls the movement and position of the spool in the valve body, so this is critical to the valve working correctly.

I think on the #30 thrower, you have to remove the numbered distance wheel to get to the cup. As I recall, the #40 thrower has a slot cut in the distance wheel to enable you to get to this without any other disassembly.

Best Wishes!

Paul in MN

Thanks Paul. I had done what you explained once a few years ago and that did the job. When I had problems this time, I did the same procedure again under that cap and I still had problems kicking. So I took the valve off yesterday to clean the whole thing. I hope it works.

Thanks again.

Exactly what is the kicker doing or should I say not doing? Please provide a sequence on when it kicks and what happens next.

Well, I share equipment with a neighbor, so this year I have only baled using his baler so far. So I have not used my baler since last year. If I remember correctly, it will kick fine once of twice and then it won't. The bales will just slide out of the kicker onto the ground. And I seem to remember the trip lever working fine all the time. I have a kicker manual and made every adjustment I possibly could and still had problems. I put a post out there last year on it and remember being told to clean the valve by a few different folks, so that is why I took it off.

Thanks for the response.

I have worked on a lot of 336 balers and #30 ejectors. I am not saying that the valve is bad, but have you checked the basics? To many times I have seen the simple things cause the problems. There are 2 springs that are part of the trip mechanism, are they good or are they cobbed up and hooked up incorrectly (there is one spring inside of the "connecting rod")? Also, on the upper end of the connecting rod where it attaches to the arm (the arm that you can manually trip the kicker)is the Roll pin tight or sloppy. I have seen this roll pin break allowing excess play in the trip mechanism. Also, on the latch that hold the pan in place there are 2 springs, these are common to break, check this out. If you need to replace them tighten them up until they are compressed 3.5". If these are broke it will allow the pan to "bounce" out of the latch when it returns to home position and the next bale will just over ride everything.