Last summer crashed 24T baler. Bent one needle, needle carriage, tucker finger shaft, and broke the boss on the intermittent gear where the roller that actuates the tucker finger goes. Spent the winter sourcing replacement parts. Bought a pair of needles off Craigslist for $100 and bought a needle carriage, tucker fingers and shaft, and new hay restrictors from Finger Lakes Equipment in New York (all new aftermarket parts). Swapped the left knotter and intermittent gear for right and vice versa so I could bolt the tucker actuator roller on and not have to buy new intermittent gear, same p/n from one side to the other.
Spent part of last week and Saturday getting everything fixed up and ready to go. Replaced all three chains with new ones since it's pretty cheap insurance against crashing it again from a failed drive chain. Got everything retimed per the manual.
Finally felt comfortable with adjustments to trip knotters and turned it over slowly by hand. Watched everything go a couple times and rechecked timing. Bet I tripped and cycled by hand 2 dozen times before working up the courage to put the tractor on it. Tripped at idle a few times and strung some twine through, cycled knotters again and broke up half a dozen bales to try it out. First bale tied on both sides but second missed right side. Would miss 3 and then tie one. Kept breaking and rebaling bales while watching. Knots were pretty ragged looking and twine in twine disc looked pretty ragged. Pulled twine knife off and sharpened it on a honing stone real good and it tied 2 more bales perfectly. Ready to cut hay now once we get a window opened up with no rain.
Getting that fixed was a pretty darn good feeling, I made an expensive mistake but learned an awful lot from the experience and have a lot more confidence I can keep this old baler running good all season. Planning on hand tripping knotters and cycling it by hand ever time I pull it out of shed and double checking the timing, made myself a little cheat sheet and laminated it to put in toolbox on baler.
Spent part of last week and Saturday getting everything fixed up and ready to go. Replaced all three chains with new ones since it's pretty cheap insurance against crashing it again from a failed drive chain. Got everything retimed per the manual.
Finally felt comfortable with adjustments to trip knotters and turned it over slowly by hand. Watched everything go a couple times and rechecked timing. Bet I tripped and cycled by hand 2 dozen times before working up the courage to put the tractor on it. Tripped at idle a few times and strung some twine through, cycled knotters again and broke up half a dozen bales to try it out. First bale tied on both sides but second missed right side. Would miss 3 and then tie one. Kept breaking and rebaling bales while watching. Knots were pretty ragged looking and twine in twine disc looked pretty ragged. Pulled twine knife off and sharpened it on a honing stone real good and it tied 2 more bales perfectly. Ready to cut hay now once we get a window opened up with no rain.
Getting that fixed was a pretty darn good feeling, I made an expensive mistake but learned an awful lot from the experience and have a lot more confidence I can keep this old baler running good all season. Planning on hand tripping knotters and cycling it by hand ever time I pull it out of shed and double checking the timing, made myself a little cheat sheet and laminated it to put in toolbox on baler.