IH baler knotters

have a IH 430 all twine baler , the right knotter keeps missing knots about every 15 bales or so. the left never misses. not sure what to do to remedy it. and k=one of the dealerships know what to do about it . they say IH is much different form JD or NH, and IH dealer has no one who is really experienced in any knotters. have an owners manual , need to find it back but if memory serves, its not too helpful on those.
thanks

Hi, can you tells use more how it misses?
Look in IH Baler manual there is a diagnostic section on the Knotter.
When it misses:
Does the twine reach all the way round the bale or is it shorter than normal.
Is there a knot on both ends or just a knot on one end?
Is the twine broken or clean cut?

JimB

Start with the simple things first:
http://www.polyexcel.com/TroubleShoot.pdf

The trouble is, that chart is no good for an IH knotter. A NH or JD knotter and that's a guide to start with, but the IH knotter
works a bit differently and is supposed to leave two 'ears' on the knot because the twine is cut differently.

Check bill hook and best plate next twine disk then knife assembly

Try NEW twine.....mine did the same thing until I replaced the twine.

how the knotter of square baler works.
how the knotter of square baler works.wmv

Take it to the scrap yard! Many years ago I bought a IH 430 baler at a dealer surplus auction. The baler looked almost new and I wondered why the dealer sold it at auction.
I found out why he auctioned it as soon as I tried to use it. First one knotter wouldn't tie and then the other. It would break one bale out of four. I called the local IH dealer and he sent his mechanic out to my farm and he arrive about 3pm and when he left about 7pm the baler worked even worse. I managed to get my hay baled because I had teenaged sons who rode on the wagon and would throw the unbaled hay off to be rebaled.

I got lucky, the IH dealer had a used John Deere 24T baler and he traded me even or almost as I paid $100 for the trucking. Don't fight those knotters, get a good John Deere or New Holland baler and make some hay! Happy Farming.

Try some poly twine if you're using sisal. Poly (plastic) twine solved 99% of my knotter issues on a NH. Inconsistent sisal twine was the problem.

Easiest thing to do is call SEVERAL different dealers (and ask your neighbors) if anyone knows of a decent baler man. Most likely he'll be in his 60s. You can fight one of those knotters for years and never get it to work right but the RIGHT baler guy will work on it for about 2-3 hours and it will work like a Sears sewing machine. Once correctly adjusted and timed they will run for years (decades on a small farm) without much more maintenance that sharpening the knives every couple years. You may have 100 - 150 miles of road time with it before you find a guy that really knows what he's doing but once they work they work well.

Don't let dealer give it to some guy who's going to read the manual and adjust it because he's the one available when you brought it in. All you'll be doing is burning through money at $100 an hour with no results.

Does this model have a feeder fork? Is it does , see if its lose or bent, check twine tension and try changing twine like the others have said.

I never became proficient on the all twine version of the IH knotter. I did install one on an older 400 series IH baler and worked on a few others but my main experience was with the original style knotter on the 45 , 46, 37 etc. With all the improvements IH made to them I had better luck on them than I did the all twine. If you could see a slow motion picture of the knotter cycle , like the one on the New Holland, a person would see what it does differently. First off it does not use tucker fingers. The breast plate finger has to position the twines in correct place for bill hook to pick up twine. Some times, easy fix, the bale twine slips past the breast plate finger due to a worn, bent or broken spring under breast plate finger. You can see that by watching bale form. If bale bounces back and forth in chamber with plunger strokes this will happen also. Very important to have good bale retaining dog working with good springs and sharp points on dogs. Needle placement of twine has to be near perfect . Needle should touch knotter frame as needle come up to stabilize needle vibration and very close over the top of disc. These things are easy to check. Other things more complicated. The difference between IH knotter and others is the knot on an IH is pulled off the bill by bale moving down the chamber. Only one twine is cut so knot stays on hook until pulled off. No stripper taking knot off hook. Leaves you with a double diameter knot (bow know) which is a stronger knot(when it works). Also, no short twine ends to get in knotter. I notice newer balers have an air compressor on them and shoot a shot of air to keep knotter area clean. Reminds me of a guy who had a 45 IH baler about 50 plus years ago. He had rigged up a little fan to flow area clean. It took more than that though on a 45. Biggest single problem with the IH knotter for lost knots, is, knife not cutting twine clean, leaving strands uncut and when bale pulls knot off hook, it pulls knot that was formed, apart. Easy to check also. Stop feeding material, allow auger to clear pickup so no more material comes into chamber, trip knotter and shut machine off. Then inspect that knot on the hook. Can learn a lot about them from doing that . I could go on but won't. The book on all twine knotter does have several potential areas to inspect according to where twine is cut of busted.