John Deere 246 planter question

BigDanT

Member
I have a JD 246 planter that I recently put together. It seems to work well except the marker arms will not come down all the way, they stay about 6" off the ground. This planter came out of a fence row along with a mate, together I was able to make one good one out of them. Anything I can check that might be keeping the arms from reaching the ground? Thanks Dan
a158650.jpg

a158651.jpg

a158652.jpg
 
I have two of those planters, one has part of the herbicide setup with it the other has the bottoms for the fertilizer hoppers. I got the operators and parts manual off ebay, cheaper than Deere I'm sure. Once you let the planter down it should let the marker down, I had to experiment a little to get mine going. They should go down when you let the planter down in the planting position. Don't do much with them anyway.
a158659.jpg
 
half...I got my manual off ebay too. I planted a couple acres of plots last week and like you said, don't really need them but would like to have them working all the same. This thing was rust frozen so some part of the frame may not be working but i cant find it.
 
No I dont think so...the locking tap would not catch and the curved rod would not ride on the roller. Also the markers are the hoe type and the hoe would be facing up.
 
before you do any adjusting on the markers take the planter out into the field.
in soft ground the swords are going to be about 5-6" lower than they are setting in your storage location.

if the swords are lower the rear drive wheels will be up higher and therefore the lift arm will be lower.

worth a shot, many thousands of these planters were used all over the US

my dad bought a new one it worked great.
 
You need to let the front down lower into the ground. If you run the shoe too shallow the gauge wheels will not pivot up high enough to allow the markers to go down.

The gauge wheel frame pivots maybe stuck too. The wheel frame pivots up in the back and down in the front to allow the marker to drop. Then when you pick the planter up the weight of the gauge wheel on the rear of the frame pivots the front up and lifts the markers. You left lift roller/arm is adjusted all the way down now. To fine tune them you loosen the carriage bolt and slide it up or down as needed.

So like I first posted. Either your carrying the front too high, have the top link too short to allow the back/gauge/packer wheel to move, or the gauge wheel/packer wheel is stuck.
 
Wellmax...thanks again for the manual, that's exactly what I needed. With that and your others ideas maybe I can get that plow to work. As far as this planter goes I'm with JDSeller, I think the pivot must be frozen. I had the planter set so the runners would drop the seed at 2 inches and the markers were still 6 inches off the ground. Oh well...never anything obvious with the things I work on.......Dan
 
dan if you really want the markers then go for it am sure you will determine what is holding them up.

I found that I just follow my tractor tires and can keep the rows fairly straight. As long as you are using a one or two row cultivator you are good to go.

picture of my John Deere planter made in the late 50's or early 60's
does a good job, model 25 B

small 2 row planters in good shape are like buying gold this time of year.
a158792.jpg
 
Sorry i'm late on topic here, but did you find the reason for the makers not completely making soil contact?
If not i can share a photo of a 246-247 that we just bought and was used last yr. the Row makers will make contact with ground.
Could it be possible the row makers are miss matched?
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top