276 knotter one more time

[Erik OK]

This baler is about to drive me crazy, the left hand knotter ties perfect every time but the right side makes a knot with very short tails and as soon as the twine gets tight the knot comes undone. I've adjusted the knife arm travel to be 1/2" past bill hook on both sides, I cleaned out the hay and cycled it by hand and noticed that the right side cuts the twine much earlier than the left side but both have the same travel adjustment. I've replaced the knifes, put all new hay dog springs on, loosened twine holder tension but I still can't get the knots to hold. I first thought the billhook wasn't closing tight enough to grip the 9000 poly but the right billhook has less clearance that the left and it doesn't have any trouble.

 

[Tom in TN]

Erik,

On my 273, the tension on the "tongue" of the billhook is adjustable with a self-locking nut that compresses a spring that puts the tension on the tongue of the billhook to hold the twine on the billhook after the twine is cut.

You've probably checked that a hundred times, but I think if that tension was wrong, the knot could indeed be stripped off the billhook without the knot being fully formed.

Good luck. They can be really frustrating.

Tom in TN

 

[gwece]

Eric:

Hey, I am no knotter expert but I do remember having a similar problem back in 1989 on a NH 277 baler. Had two different baler mechanics follow the thing around for parts of two different days. Finally the second mechanic told me he thought the problem was the knife arms. I thought he was crazy, but went ahead and ordered them. He put on the new arms and the thing has worked fine ever since. I even looked up the bill. They were part number 603728 and cost $32.35 each in August 1989. Probably a long shot that this is the problem with your knotter, but if you run out of other possibilities, you might gamble on replacing them.

Good Luck!

gwece (Southern Illinois)

 

[Dick L]

I still think you will find your knot problem with the twine fingers. If you run it thru a knot cycle and watch both of them as they cross over the twine.
The one twine finger can be seen in the bottom right side of this picture.

 

[GordoSD]

I almost committed myself to a mental ward over this same thing. New to me 275. Every 4th bale busted, right side didn't tie. Strings hanging on the bill hook. Reread the manual. readjust everything. Finally tightened both of those nuts to "0" counted the left back to where it was, set the right the same. That was 5 years and 15,000 bales ago and I have busted about 2 dozen since and most of those were "changeover" bales.
Baler ticks with either 9000 poly or sisal.
Just scored 6 rolls of 9000 sisal off C/L , guy brought them to my house , for $5 ea. FARM OUT. That is 2000 bales. He was way po at his baler.

 

[wilder11354]

Check the pinion drive gear on bill hook for excessive wear(curved surface), and clearance of it to intermediate gear ( large gear) the drives the billhook pinion gear, and that it slightly or almost rubs on. If the corners of the pinion gear for bill hook are not square, and more of a bow from front to back your tails will be short. If not excessively curved, can remove a shim or two between right knotter frame and right intermediate gear. Will help with speeding up bill hook rotation.

 

[wilder11354]

its for a JD baler, BUT.. its the same knotter. scroll down to kknotter, billhook, twine disc adjustments... go thru it check clearances, plus there a knot symptom section that goes thru what mostly likely cause is of knot problem.
Untitled URL Link

 

[RickB]

Twine fingers are not involved in this problem.
Twine disc timing and perhaps a worn billhook pinion and too much knotter stack endplay.

 

[Dick L]

A little news for you. I had the same problem last year and I bought new and changed the bill hooks to no avail. I went thru first and second cuttings stopping to tie the right side often. I found a bent rod on one twine finger after reading the manual and deciding it might have something to do with it. That was only because the manual said so. I also had one of the brackets to that twine finger had been bent. Made a new bracket and it tied some better but was still leaving one end straight some of the time. After pulling the hay out of the chamber for the fifth time and turning the flywheel a few inches after tripping the knotter I found that the tip was not quite at the same position at the tip when it crossed over. I had been adjusting it before tripping the knotter. After adjusting the right twine finger at the end of the stroke to match the left it ties as it should.

Might be a good idea not to discount the twine fingers as I did and rip it apart several times and still have the same problem.

I am not at this baler so one can not be sure how every detail is set and what the problem is before found and reported. But my baler ties and you will not find where I ask questions here to fix it.

 

[Dick L]

I replaced the hay dogs and broken springs which helped to square up my bales. It still didn't get them as square as I liked. When I had the hay out of the chamber to work on the knotter problem I noticed that on the right side the center of the side restrictor bar was gone. I used a piece of angle iron to fab one to match the other side. The results is shown in the above post picture of the square bale. The bar I made shown below. With most of the bar gone the hay could not pack as tight as it could on the other side where it was all there.