mf 10 baler stopped knotting

However, I towed it home and last night took it to the field it threw a junk bale, a good one and then nothing but junk. I noticed it would occasionally have two strings on the left and twice I had to pull out twine wrapped around the hook. Nothing has helped. The right side appears to be knotting ok although the last time I stopped, it was loose.

It does appear to be knotting on the left but the twine is cut or broke.

One thing I did that may have screwed it up, is stop the PTO to check the unit and clear grass. After that it would not start until I was ale to turn back the flywheel by hand so the unit could obtain enough momentum to go through the plunger cycle. Would this have messed up the timing. My guess is no as far as the knotter is concerned as it is activated by the clutch when the bale length has been reached.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The previous owner claimed he had it for 15 years, it ran great but at 60 he is tired of picking them up off the field and purchased a kicker unit. I have no reason to believe he sold me junk, but either something went to out of adjustment in the move or it does not like my field. It has not been hayed in years and even my mower complained about the grass quality as it clogged often. I have read that windrow quality is an issue with these units and that could sure be an issue here as well. Hopefully not as I need to clean up this field to start to have good quality stuff.

Thanks

The other MF 10 was undergoing that level of treatment. This one was purchased as "field ready". I have 20 acres that I need to hay and out of desperation I bought this one and pushed into the field with ony a minor "look over" prior to service.

I may have to surrender and have the local farm repair service come up and do it for me so it is ready for this weekend. As a mechanical engineer and one attempting tractor restoration this is not a desired situation and a bit embarassing.

I just braved the rain and played some more. By hand feeding and tripping the knotters early, I did get both sides to tie although very loose. The only change I made was checking twine tension - a recommendation from posts in the archives. Its a loose 6" long bale but it is a bale:)

Then I feed too much wet hay and jammed the plunger and snapped the shear pin. No more experimentation today. Which is ok as we are expected to get 2" of rain, severe thunderstorms and a remote chance of a tornado.