HELP! NH 311 baler bound up in feeder. Fixed but now won

It looks like my feeder tooth spring broke and when it traveled back to shove hay again, the tine came up over the guide bar and wedged on its way to push. It scored up the aluminum feeders and bent one all to hell. Not exactly sure how that happened. I bent everything back and threw an old spring on to keep the teeth pointed down on the return travel. The shear pin on the big front flywheel broke so I replaced it. Went to test everything out and the slip clutch right before the big flywheel is slipping. It's acting like something is still bound up and I've looked all through the drivetrain, gears and chain and can't see anything sticking out at me. Of course I've got hay on the ground all raked and it has to be baled tomorrow before rain. Anyone seen anything like this and have an idea? Thanks a bunch!

Now that I think about it, it WAS working fine. I wanted to see if I could back the arms out a couple inches so I went to turn the flywheel. First I turned it the wrong way and it traveled easily and moved the arms half an inch forward. Then I couldn't muscle it backwards at all so I put a prybar on the flywheel and got it to move the arms about an inch and a half backwards. This wasn't enough and I couldn't get it any more so I pulled the guide bar off. I didn't think anything of it but could I have bound something up doing this? Now of course i can't move it by hand and it just slips on the pto.

So I figured it I bound it it with the prybar I might be able to free it that way. And I did. So I tried it out and it bound up again. When the big main knife closes its getting hung up on something. I think that's how my aluminum tines got so bunged up. I'll turn it by hand and see if I can get it cleaned up where the interference is.

Plungerhead safety stop engaged because needles aren't home?

Have you completely emptied hay our of the baler (totally) so you cans see what is happening? After you do, then turn the baler by hand...slowly.... to see what is causing the binding. It should be obvious. Be sure the needles are pulled back out of the chamber. Where in the plunger cycle is the binding happening? PS: running a baler too fast (above 540 PTO RPM) can cause feeder teeth damage.

I would be very careful using a prybar to turn a baler. Great way to do damage. best to clear the obsruction.

Clark out all the hay.Then check the plunger stop/needle safety.The needle brake may be loose and not holdling the needles in home position.Turn it by land empty before you put power to it.Ot should turn easy without a big bar.

As Hay Hay Hay and Delta Red have said you need to clean it out, but I don't clean it all out, I just clear it enough so that there is no resistance to the plunger head. Trying to take a short cut and not clearing it results in a lot more time and work and $$.

Sounds like you might have lost a plunger bearing and your knives are locking up.

It is very easy to check your safety/needle brake. Sometimes if you digested something big and awful it will trip the brake and you have to reset the baler back to where it works as designed. If the spring on the floating brake breaks and the thing swings freely can cause intermittent problems too. 9x out of 10 when I have problems with mine it is the needle brake and something caused it to engage. I broke a thrower belt in a perfect storm. It caused the brake to engage and I then broke a shear bolt at same time. Could easily be something else but checking the needle brake/safety and cleaning out the baler to see if you can find the original cause is your next step and best approach from my point of view. Oh I hate baler problems with hay down. Good luck. John.

(quoted from post at 07:44:01 08/18/21)
It is very easy to check your safety/needle brake. Sometimes if you digested something big and awful it will trip the brake and you have to reset the baler back to where it works as designed. If the spring on the floating brake breaks and the thing swings freely can cause intermittent problems too. 9x out of 10 when I have problems with mine it is the needle brake and something caused it to engage. I broke a thrower belt in a perfect storm. It caused the brake to engage and I then broke a shear bolt at same time. Could easily be something else but checking the needle brake/safety and cleaning out the baler to see if you can find the original cause is your next step and best approach from my point of view. Oh I hate baler problems with hay down. Good luck. John.

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Thanks all and John, you actually kind of predicted my second and third break down in 2 days. What a tough 24 hours. SO to give a small update, it looks like my main knife caught the guide bar and basically everything went to hell. I bent everything back, including pulling the guide bar out and trying to get that right. I didn't feel comfortable having the guide bar an 1/8" over the knife but if bent it up and more the feeder arm would crash in to it. After 2 hours if messing with it I didn't want to go through it again so I said screw it and I pulled the guide bar out. I later found a post on here where someone did the same thing along with a couple other changes on a NH 320 and called it his baler modifications. Either way, no more issues on that regard.

The next problem was my first pulley for my kicker spit out its key for the shaft and made an awful growl up to the big front flywheel. So that took me a bit to find. The keyway was bunged but I stuffed a new key in. It tried to back out so I welded it and said Take that.

An hour later we had a broken shear pin. I was hauling a wagon up, wife was baling and said she didn't hear any noise so I threw another pin in and she slowly activated the PTO until BAM. Another broken pin. Turned flywheel by hand and it would.go back but was locked up forward. Took my a min to find where it was hitting but it was indeed the needle safety latch. Greased it, pulled the needles back and adjusted it to spec. No more problem.

I only do 3000 small squares a year, all with this NH 311 but I can't do 3 breakdowns on one field/500 bales. Has me seriously thinking about breaking the bank on a BC5070 Hayliner or something. The baler is coming up on 40 years old, maybe if I can just find a clean one half it's age and less bales, it won't be updated in design but shouldn't run in to so many "wear" issues

Well lets hope you keep on baling here. My NH 273 was wore out when I bought it 30 yrs ago. Eventually I had a good mechanic go through it and he cleaned up a lot of worn areas and some new springs here and there. But my thrower blew up sometime before I had it so some of my problems have been in the thrower and assoc drive/belts and alignment issues.

Couple trains of thought on getting different baler. You learned a lot about yours this time and hopefully corrected the problems. Once corrected it should run fine. If the plunger and blades get whacked the choice is of course yours what direction to go. I had mine out and sharpened and put back in. I got lucky and must of done it right as never had any problems. But at least you know what you have, buy new used and you get to start the learning curve all over again. Good luck. Small squares can be stressful and a lot of work. Amen. Regards, John. PS Keep that needle brake swinging freely so it can save the needles like it is supposed to do.

Devil is correct. There is nothing wrong with a NH311 for 3000 bales a year. Stick with the machine you know. With a newer baler you will
start learning all over again, learning, and fretting. Unless you buy new, the newer baler may even more worn-out than your old baler. Slow
down, pay attention, learn, fix and grease and adjust in the off-season. It pays of in the long run.

You can easily make a new baler have big problems trying to "power through" a small problem.

Thanks for the encouraging words, gents. Picked up some parts today and when I was scouring parts diagrams on messicks I saw my feeder bar has always been missing the hard plastic end caps on the little bearing/wheels that run in the tracks. My tracks are getting worn and looked like they were trying to blow out near the end so I was wondering if something was amiss but this is the first and only baler I've bought and we are first generation, mostly self taught. My wife worked as a wagon laborer on a hay crew so she knew more than I did going in to it but what a trip it's been keeping things running. Haven't had to post much, but spend time on the forums and always find help either through my own posts or others.

I have about 800 more bales to put up if the rain will give us a chance so fingers crossed the 311 runs tip top for us the rest of the way. Wife is not as patient as I am and she makes all the bales so it's life may be on the line ;-)

But you're right, I've been through the knotters and replaced parts and pieces all over. I thought I knew what I had which is one of the reasons the 3 breakdowns was tough to take but moneys tight so probably the devil you know is better than the one you don't.

Another potential problem you can ward off cheaply and easily is shimming those fibre slide gizmos that keep your track spaced properly. Please forgive me for not having the proper terms and call parts properly but the slide with the aluminum fingers that stuffs the chamber. There needs to be some lateral play but not to much as it can eventually bind. You can make the shims or buy them, nothing fancy. I do not know the dimensions recommended on what is to much slop. But that lateral play needs to be looked at. Most people don't look at it until the thing has a catastrophic failure. I personally think NH square balers are awesome but they are all getting pretty old so you need to watch for specific things they are prone to doing or wearing out. I can't go as fast baling with my worn out NH 273 if the hay is thick or tough. But it does the job pretty well. Once, I quit using it for about 5-6 years when I went back to making hay with it I had forgot many of my hard lessons. But with minimal care and find out what to look for it will keep on baling. If the baler is toast to begin with then that is another story just like any machine. A guy just stopped and wants to buy mine. With my health issues I have decided to stop baling hay as I put myself at risk. I have mixed feeling about some of this machinery. Like an old horse it may be time for it to go, but you still have that history thing. Regards, John.