JD 336 Baler knotter problem

[Jim Manley]

Just bought a 336 baler. One knotter never misses. The other knotter will bale 40 and miss 1 then might bale 6 and miss 2 or 3. Have sharpened cutter and adjusted wiper. Am using 170 plastic twine. The knot seems to be frayed some instead of cut clean like working side and when it misses the knot is not wiped off and the knot is pulled down into the knotter. When the next bales starts it breaks the twine because it is in the knotter. The knotter that has trouble is on the right looking at the baler from the rear. Does anyone have any advice? Would changing to sisal fix the problem or a lighter plastic twine?
 

[RodinNS]

It still sounds like a dull twine knife... If you hold string over the knife will it cut with modest direct pressure without slicing? Twine tension could also be an issue... might need to increase it a bit on the bad side and see what happens.

Rod
 

[Tim(nj)]

My Hesston 4550 is like that. For some reason the tension plate on the right twine box needs to be a bit tighter than the left box, otherwise it will do what your Deere is doing.
 

[Roger in Iowa]

Is the wiper arm tension to the bill hook correct. May not be wiping with enough force between them. Smaller twine would be worse.
 

[Case Nutty 1660]

had one do this for a customer a week or so ago the twine disc tension was to tight on his try backing it off a 1/4-1/2 turn and see if that helps
 

[Loosehandle]

I wouldnt use plastic.
 

[haysaver]

2nd dull knife
 

[GordoSD]

I think the correct twine for that baler is 9000. And why not try sisal.
The fact that the knot remains in the billfoot indicates wiper arm adjustment needed. Did you adjust EVERYTHING according to the manual?
 

[RodinNS]

A hung knot can simply indicate that the twine wasn't cut... Could also be several other things related to tension.
I do use 9000 in mine but ti could be adjusted as easily for 10000 poly.
I do not and will not use sisal because the crap we get here is so inconsistent that proper tension can't be maintained and that leads to a lot of slips and broken bales. I could plan on 2-3% breakage with sisal and '0' breakage with 9000 poly...

Rod
 

[Ken Macfarlane]

My JD 336 did this when I got it, the twine disk tension and timing were out. My early knotter doesn't appear to have adjustable twine disc timing like shown in the manual so I left that.

I also had to set my needles closer to the twine disc than the manual says, I think the needle frame bushings are a bit loose and it would hang the twine in the wrong spot for the twine disc to pick up.

I've baled almost 50,000 bales since those adjustments with only knife sharpening and needle brake adjustment.

Plastic or sisal doesn't matter although my 336 when it was having this problem.
 

[WyoDave]

170 is just the knot strength of the twine and is most likely 9600, and that baler will bale with it, no problem. Since we're all just guessing, I'm going to guess, too much bill hook tension. Improper wiper arm adjustment, or tucker fingers out of adjustment. Could also be too much twine tension, or bales that are too soft. Also, forget sharpening the knife. They're cheap, bolt on a new one.
David
 

[JohnS1970]

Have someone turn the baler over by hand and compare the knotter that's acting up to the one that's tying while you watch through one cycle. This will often narrow down the problem. Our 336 started doing what you are describing on one knotter this summer and I found a worn wiper arm shaft and bushing. The knotter that was tying had the arm replaced at one time while the one acting up was (I'm sure) the original. You can shim the arm to minimize the slack but it was too worn allowing the arm to "hang" too low and the wiper wouldn't always clean the knot off the billhook. I gave it a couple whacks to bend the arm up to wipe the billhook with more pressure. It would still miss maybe once every 800-1000 bales but it was near the end of hay and a thorough going over is on the agenda this winter.
 

[Rexalot]

My Oliver 520 had a similiar problem, twine would break every few bales. Same style of knotter as your Deere. Upon investigation I found that the tails of the knot where getting hung up in the billhook jaw, and the twine would break as the next bale was formed. It would either pull apart the knot or break right at it.

I did all that everyone above suggested, wiper arm adjustment, twine tension, checked twine disc timing, and bill hook tension, etc.

The problem ended up being TO MUCH tension on the bill hook. I backed the nut all the way off and turned it in a turn at a time until I was forming a good knot again.

Good luck.