Hesston 5540 Baler

I've been having trouble with the tying mechanism on my 5540 round baler. When I trip the cross-tie mechanism, the twine tubes cycle out properly with minimal actuator ratcheting, but on the return, the actuator cuts out short of the home position, so it continues to feed twine. A second flip out and in of the switch returns it home, but is kind of unhandy to have to watch each tie, rather than watching in the mirror for the twine to stop moving. Any suggestions as to a fix other than replacing the whole cross-tie circuit board? What I recall from the last time I had the control box open, was the components were not replaceable.
 

It's been a long time since I had that setup on my 5545, you can adjust the on time to compensate for the short stroke. I believe I had mine set where it would ratchet for 1/2 a second or more when it free cycled.
Twine tension and any resistance in twine arm movement that causes additional drag on the motor will cause it to short stroke and shut off before it cuts the twine.
Check the twine tension plates, make sure the twine arms move freely, some new balls of twine are tight the first bale or two, this gave me the most trouble, I would pull 20-30 ft of twine out of a new ball an toss it to get the twine to come out more freely.
I suggest you mount some type of mirror on your tractor to keep watch on the twine tying, seemed like on mine the first time I didn't look back it would mess up.
I only baled a few hundred bales per year with those old Hesstons but I'd have a stiff neck at the end of the day every time I baled with one.
No way I could look back every bale with the 1000-1200 rolls we now make each year.
My present baler doesn't miss tie very often but I have mirrors on the tractor pointed at the twine indicators and I glance at them every time it raps a bale, it's more from habit than necessity now, but if there's one fussy bale in the field it's from the one time I failed to look in the mirrors.
 
I had the adjustment knob turned to where it would ratchet just like you say, which was at the limit of its adjustment. Adjusting in the opposite direction makes the problem worse. For years, I left the adjustments the same without touching them, then last haying season I started having troubles. It doesn't seem to make any difference it timing of the arms with where on the twine ball it is pulling from that I can tell.


I definitely agree with needing a mirror. I added one to my tractor after the first year I bought the baler. Watching over your shoulder makes for a sore neck!
 
I had a 5545. Is it possible as simple as the twine cut offs not being sharp enough? Mine used to
wear grooves behind the tension plates and that would sometimes make the twine not have enough
tension to get cut off properly.
 

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