Another of Pops' adventures with the NH 276 baler

Pops is my father-in-law...in his defense...I'm only saying this was his adventure; because he was baling at the time. Wasn't his fault.

Anyway, I'm at work yesterday...my wife calls. Says that Pops is almost done baling, but he just broke two shear pins in a row.

My wife and our oldest daughter (my cowgirls are hard workers and they try) were turning over the baler by hand after digging the hay out of the pickup.

They couldn't get the plunger to move.

They said that the needles were "falling" and activating the plunger stop. I told them to look at the needle brake; but that seemed fine.

After about ten minutes on the phone, we had determined that the knotter was trying to activate and it was moving the needles during the plunger stroke....the plunger stop was then activating....hence... broken shear pins.

So...the needles weren't "falling"...they were being activated.

But, after a few more minutes, they couldn't figure out why. We just agreed that there wasn't that much hay left to bale for today, and I would look at it when I got home.

I thought that the shear pin broke in the middle of a knotter activation and I would just have to get it through a cycle by hand..and everything would be fine.

Well...this morning I went out and looked at the baler.

Indeed, if you turned the flywheel...the knotters would activate
OK...so...why?
I looked at the star wheel and the knotter actuator lever...that was actually in the inactive position...

as in, the knotter had just made a bale and the knotter should be held off, according to the actuator lever run by the star wheel.

So..what gives? Well...the knotter clutch pawl (looks like a little brake pedal sticking down from the knotter clutch) had missed its stop on the actuator lever...

So...according to that clutch pawl...the knotter would try to activate all day every day.

Luckily, there is a little slotted plate on the end of the actuator lever that hits the clutch pawl...I had to loosen the bolt and slide the plate around a little bit to get the plate to a point where the actuator would hold the clutch pawl back when the actuator lever was in the "knotter hold" position and then let it go when the actuator lever went to the "knotter activate" position.

Turned on the tractor, fired up the baler...all is good.

I have no clue why this suddenly fell out of adjustment...the bolt was tight...but it's OK for now.

Just had Pops, my wife and my daughter puzzled for a while.

Sounds like you got it fixed. There is also a spring on that pawl assembly that, if missing, will allow the knotter to try to engage at random times. The problem I had was I did not even know it was supposed to be there to start with, so when it was missing, I did not know it. Had to look at a parts baler to finally figure it out. Check messick's parts list for the knotter, figures 20 and 25.

Garry