Hay hay hay
Well-known Member
The pickup in my old NH276 (last built in 1976---42 years ago) was intermittenly stopping and slipping and finally it stopped and locked up.
Removed the pickup guard and found that the cam follower bearings were completely bad. Several were locked up, and one the entire bearing roller was completely gone. Interestingly, the pickup was not making much noise, not squealing, but I am old and half-deaf so maybe I just did not hear it. So I put in 6 new cam follower bearings (improperly, did not use the slot for tightening) and baled another 500 bales before it locked up again. Took the guard off again, bearings were OK but crawled under, used a mirror and a phone camera to find a very badly broken spot in the cam track that the bad bearings had caused.
Now the hard part, removing that cam is a nasty job, and one for a much younger man. Crawling around under that pickup is no fun. The new cam is only $131 + shipping from Messick's, but changing it is very difficult. Old hands and arthritis don't add to the enjoyment.
Here is my suggestion: If you have one of these balers once a year or so, take the guard off (about 5 minutes) and check the cam roller bearings before they go bad wipe out the cam itself. The standard pickup uses the same bearing so the same problem could occur.