IH 46 Baler help.

A buddy and I bought one of these, it doesnt look too clapped out and we havent run it yet but we were told it would miss a knot every once and a while.

I plan on cleaning all the grease off, sharpening the knives, getting all the chaff out, and putting new sisal twine in it.

When looking at it it has a blown seal at the gearbox output shaft for the plunger. That looks terrible to replace. Can I put a flowing grease in there to make it last longer before having to top off? Any recommendations?

When I operated the knotter mechanisim by hand and rolled the flywheel over, one tied the right knot the other had the loose end slip out. Also I was able to pull the good knot out of the duckbill foot thing(I'm not sure what that is called) the other one would not come out, I had to use a screwdriver and lift of on the top presser foot thing that holds the knot on that duckbill to get it off. Should I of been able to pull it out? If so do you think the duckbill thing is worn to square and wont let it ride up to the ramp to slip off?

I hope this makes sense. I am trying to figure this out as we have never had a baler before. I do have the operators manual, but I get lost in some procedures due to not knowing the names of all the parts.

I have a 46 and everything has to be right to work. You should not have been able to pull a knot off the duck bill without a lot of effort. However if its too tight the string will break pulling the knot off
the bill hook so the manual has a setting for tension on the knot. Its key to not breaking string. The next question is what did the previous owner mean by missing a knot. Was the knot tied and broke when
pulling off the bill hook or was the knot just missed. There are 4 hay retainers, 2 on top and 2 on the bottom, that has springs in them. I've had the springs fall out of mine and cause missed knots. They
prevent the bale from backing up when the plunger moves out. If the bale backs up the bill hooks can't catch the string to tie and it makes a simple over hand knot that isn't connected to anything. Another
problem I've run into with mine is todays sisal is crap. Its not uncommon at all to find thin places in it and it ends up breaking. I've always used 9000 twine but want to try 7600 as it is a lot heavier
twine. I'm down to only about a 100 bales each year so twine is lasting me a long time.

Im not sure what they meant by it. I doubt we will have a chance to try it in a field this year but I we are planning on sacrificing a few bales to rebale a few times to try and get it dialed in before real use.

Good luck. People either love the or hate them. When its working right it can bale hay faster than one guy can keep up with on a wagon. When its not working you don't get much done.

(quoted from post at 14:50:53 09/28/20) I have a 46 and everything has to be right to work. You should not have been able to pull a knot off the duck bill without a lot of effort. However if its too tight the string will break pulling the knot off
the bill hook so the manual has a setting for tension on the knot. Its key to not breaking string. The next question is what did the previous owner mean by missing a knot. Was the knot tied and broke when
pulling off the bill hook or was the knot just missed. There are 4 hay retainers, 2 on top and 2 on the bottom, that has springs in them. I've had the springs fall out of mine and cause missed knots. They
prevent the bale from backing up when the plunger moves out. If the bale backs up the bill hooks can't catch the string to tie and it makes a simple over hand knot that isn't connected to anything. Another
problem I've run into with mine is todays sisal is crap. Its not uncommon at all to find thin places in it and it ends up breaking. I've always used 9000 twine but want to try 7600 as it is a lot heavier
twine. I'm down to only about a 100 bales each year so twine is lasting me a long time.

Click to expand...

Well I looked under and both springs are gone for the bottom bale retainers. Any recommendations on replacement of those?

We had a 50 T that did that . Well upon investigation after many frustrations one side was out of time. K sheared Chain not timed it was along time
ago.
We got it timed and other maintenance, it would not missed . And stayed outside under a tarp ,Still ran flawless . I say ,if it only on side it’s timing .

Case dealers used to have them. They were one of the few items still available for that model. If you can't buy them some of the springs sold at places like Tractor Supply can be cut length and made to work as
long as you have at least one to compare to.