JD 224 WS square baler making bad bales, Help ple

Last fall, we finally solved the problem of the gripper not holding the wire, so failed ties. Resistor plates were worn completely smooth. How many bales of wheat straw (that's what the guy used it for who gave it to me) do you need to run through a baler to wear those resistor "bumps" smooth! So, it's old and well used, and I know there's lots more worn than I want to deal with, so as long as it's working, I guess I just deal with whatever fails.

Between 2nd and 3rd cuttings, I just replaced the pickup idler sprocket bushing. When I took the sprocket off - it was wobbling pretty badly - I found that the shaft had actually failed. It was slightly angled, and when I took it off, I found that the plate it is welded had started to bend and actually tear - 1" shaft welded into 1/8" steel! The baler worked, but once I put the new bushing in, no sense putting the sprocket back on that shaft. With the old bushing and shaft, there was a good 3/16" gap between the shaft and the pulley. JD no longer is able to get the shaft, so a kind friend with a great shop built me a new one. Installed and working great.

How many other parts are badly worn but still working, I hope to never get a complete count! :) The guys who do restoration are probably choking at this as I guess I'm one who needs it to function, so any workaround that keeps it working is fair game, even if it isn't painted green!

Afterall, what did they invent baling wire for if it isn't to use to hold old equipment together! :)

Chuck, WA

I also have a 214WS, and at one point was getting slightly curved bales. Don't know if it applies to your 224WS, but...

The obvious thing for me to try - being pretty much a greenhorn at this - was to play with the resistance adjustments. Looking forward from the back, the left side of the bales was a bit longer, so I cranked down a little more on the vertical pressure crank on that side. Now, that shouldn't make much difference since there's just the single channel pushing down at the middle with no side-to-side tilt, but after I did that, the bales were as straight as I could expect. It's also possible that the side adjustable resistor plates might be tweaked a bit - tighten up some on the side of the bale that's longer - or loosen the other side.

I don't know these are answers, but easy enough to try and in my experience, it did the job.

My most recent problem is that when I start up, I seem to break a few wires, then it seems OK for most of the rest of the cutting. The wires look like they are pinched too hard by the grippers, are weakened, then simply break at the pinch. Might try adjusting grippers a bit. If you've had any experience with that, I'd be interested.

Also, on your 214WS, how do you get the knife on the plunger out to sharpen? On mine, the bottom bolt doesn't clear the side of the chute at any location that I can see to pull all the way out. The only solution I could see other than trying to sharpen in place with an angle grinder is to split the pitman bushing and slide the plunger all the way out the back. To do that, resistor plates need to come out, and not sure what else. Surely it can't be that hard! Any thoughts?

Chuck, WA

I don't have any green equipment but I do have a New Holland 273 Hayliner square baler. When I first starting using it, I had terrible bales that sounded like what you've described. After messing with a bunch of adjustments, I inadvertently discovered that the real problem was that I was feeding small windrows into the baler. The baler was making 20 or more plunger cycles to form each bale. When I started raking multiple swaths into each windrow so that the baler only runs nine to thirteen plunger cycles per bale, they started coming out perfectly.

Is is possible that you are running small windrows? Might not be your problem, but it sure was mine.

Good luck,

Tom in TN