Hay baler -- Bale chute plugging up

OK, I've done it again... bought a very inexpensive piece of ancient equipment and am trying to get it working well enough to get through a couple of seasons until I can upgrade to something better.

I have a McCormick IH #45 baler. I guess that's a confession. :?

I've read very mixed reviews about them, especially about the knotters having problems.

I think my knotters are OK, but I can't be sure because while the first two bales it makes seem to be tied OK, they never come out of the chute, and the third one never gets tied. As more hay goes in the bales begin to hump up, and the hay gets jammed tighter and tighter without a bale ever coming out the back.

I have tried cranking the chamber tension cranks all the way out but this doesn't seem to help. It appears to me that the trouble is nearer to the twine boxes. There is a pair of chamber wedges there and the manual says these can be removed under "adverse baling conditions."

The fact that this baler is far from new and that those wedges don't look like they've ever been moved makes me reluctant to wade right in with that approach.

So... my question: Is there something else I should check before going the wedge removal route? Has anyone else seen this problem?

Thanks.

John

How rusty is the chamber?

I would remove all wedges and bale hay until the inside of bale chamber got shined up enough that bale weights get below the weight one desired.

Lots of people don't like IH balers and the model 45 tops the list. I have a 46 and it works pretty good overall. I don't know what was different on a 46 from a 45. I firmly believe anyone with an older IH
baler needs to get a manual first. Its been huge help in getting mine to run correctly. What happens to the string on the bale that never gets tied? Did it tie and then break or never tie. Also the hay should
be getting cut on the twine box side as it is pushed into the chamber. Do the bales look cut on that side. Is a little hard for me to picture what is happening on your baler as I have never seen it happen on
my 46. I can think of lots of reasons why a bale isn't tied but can't picture a reason the hay wouldn't push through he baler.

Could be wedges, could be rust, probly it is threaded so your tying the bale to the baler.

Try baling without the twine, just see if the hay will run through without trying to tie. Let it polish up the chamber a little. Could be the twine not being cut and holding the hay back enough to jam.

Rust and twine in improperly.

Pull the bales out of the chamber and inspect the bale chamber. clean out ant thing stuck to the chamber. If it's rusty, try painting it with a rust converter or graphite paint and run it to were off the rust.

I am betting this is the issue. As loose as the first bale always is on an empty chamber I doubt its friction causing your problem even with a lot of rust.

How tight do you have the chamber
adjustment? I'm not familiar with IH 45 but
with new holland and once run a model 68
that must have been stored out side with hay
in the chamber. It was rough but it would
always bale good.

Can only repeat the others, you got a baler that sat outside or rusted up badly in the chamber, and really loose first bale should come out
anyhow, you have something wrong with the twine or some catch in the chamber that is wrong to keep the bale from coming out?

Run without twine and did you loosen, not tighten the bale chamber, and so forth. You cleaned out any old hay of course before you began?

I personally wouldn't mess with the hay wedges since they are a long term part of the baler when it is functioning properly. You need to fix the
short term problem, adjusted wrong, twine wrong, rust, a bolt missing and creating a misalignment, or some such?

Paul

Could there be a slip clutch slipping too much, keeping the plunger head from pushing the hay out?

May have to take out the some of the bale chamber wedges or retarders.

(quoted from post at 13:01:10 05/19/17)

I personally wouldn't mess with the hay wedges since they are a long term part of the baler when it is functioning properly. You need to fix the
short term problem, adjusted wrong, twine wrong, rust, a bolt missing and creating a misalignment, or some such?Paul

Click to expand...

Way back when I sold new sq balers bale case wedges were an option not necessarily a long term part. Type of hay & moisture content would determine if wedges were required to make a heavy enough bale. Wedges I installed were held in place by 2 bolts which made them easy to install/remove. I find it difficult to believe that wrong twine routing is causing the problem but I've been wrong before.

Sounds like your hay is not hay yet. Not dry.

Hi, we had an IH 45 from about 1955 thru 1961 then traded for a 46. I am trying to recall if it had 4 chamber wedges(2 on each
side) or only 2. I remember we removed 2 of the wedges. As others have said you have to get the rust off the the bale chamber.

JimB

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

What I did:

Cleaned it out thoroughly. (Yes I had cleaned it out before trying it, but I did a more thorough job this time.) It had a little rust, but it didn't seem like a lot.

Backed off the knotter hook tensioner 1/4 turn.

Then pulled out the twine and ran it without which worked fine. (Except for not tying of course.)

Re threaded with twine.

Then I made about 16 bales of hay before the rain put a stop to the day's entertainment.

So, I appreciate all the good advice. Given the way I shot-gunned it -- basically trying everyone's advice at once -- it is hard to say what did it, but I think the root of the trouble was indeed the twine threading.

My advice to anyone else in my spot would be "even if it is threaded right, pull out the twine and rethread it." "When you do, don't just reach in there like I did the first time, get a good light and crawl under there where you can see what you're doing. The fingers have several different 'ins and outs' for the twine to follow and they have to be right."

Or at least that's what I think I learned.

Thanks again!

John

Thanks for coming back with an update! so few do! Updates help others!

Thanks for the feedback!

Went to a neighbors house as a kid, they had a swing/slide set, wow! We tackled the metal slide and - stuck. Couldn't even shake ourselves
down the slide. Their mom smiled, and got 2 pieces of wax paper. (Everyone had wax paper back then?)

The first two kids sat on their piece of wax paper and slide down, kinda slow but made it.

After that the oxidation was off the slide (you couldn't see any it was so light, and back then I was too small to know what oxidation was....) and
there was a little bit of wax on it to lube it up, and we spent hours zipping right down that slide.

I would guess the very light rust played some part in it.

Paul

Take a look at the tension rails, especially the bottom one. I had one bend, and no hay would come out.