Hay mowing with breakdowns

[Zachary Hoyt]

Today I had a field to cut so last night I hooked up the NH 461 haybine to the Farmall Hand today about 10 the dew had burned off and I went out to mow. About two hours into mowing the field the rear U joint on the drive shaft blew up, both yokes were broken. Looks like the cross failed and then the two yokes battered each other. Went to town, nothing to be had that will work. Came home, got the Ford 501 that has been sitting in the weeds since 2009, made a new pitman stick out of ash wood since the old one was rotten, greased it and got back out to the field. Broke a knife section, couldn't beat the old rivets out with a punch and 2 lb hammer so I drilled them out, replaced the section, back to the field and finished cutting at 9 PM. Not one of my best days, and now I will have to try to find driveline parts for the haybine. Does anyone know a salvage yard that might have those parts? Maybe I should just go back to using the sicklebar, seems like the haybine spends more time broken down than working.
Zach

 

[Formerly PaMike]

Frys Machinery in PA would probably have one. Any good "bearing house" or farm supply shop should be able to match up a yoke for you. You would have to weld it onto the shafts.

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

Thanks, I do have a decent tractor shop in town but they said the parts are only available from New Holland. One is a 1-1/4" spline that slides on a shaft and the other has a needle bearing in it for the shaft to spin when the pin shears, plus a flange. Looks liek the aftermarket suppliers don't make them.
Zach

 

[RayP(MI)]

Sounds abouut my luck, haying the last couple fields. Spending more time fixin than farming.

 

[old]

New Holland U joints are a sort of off size so you have to get the NH ones or rig up something. I found that out on my NH460 when one broke so I instead of paying the $75 plus to buy a new one I cut and welded one up and that was about 5 years ago. As for the section problem any more I do the bolts for the sections so if I have a problem with one I just unbolt and put new on and go again

 

[GordoSD]

How much maintenance did you pull on the 461 before you started mowing? Complete grease? Spray all chains? Bend and adjust all guards to .035? PTO gearbox lube? Pto shafts lube AND spray down with chain lube? Adjust belt idlers? Check tire pressures? Check knife/section register?
The old 1 ounce of pervention...

 

[PJH]

If you can pull the whole knife out of the mower, you can smack the back edge of the failed section and shear the rivets off lickety split.

Never drilled out a section rivet in my life. . .

Paul

 

[Walt Davies]

I hate the bolts you spend more time replacing teeth because og broken bolts than it's worth. Like he said one hit with a good hammer and both rivets are history.
Walt

 

[State of Jefferson]

You're not really hayin unless you've got a wrench in your hand...

Ben

 

[jd4204204010]

whenever our haybine is down waiting for parts, out comes the trusty JD #5 sicklebar to save the day every time. Less noisy too. Ground speed is faster on the #5 when set up correctly although 7ft-vs-9ft mathematics spoils any sense of real speed. And don't forget to also add the time used up by the noisy old Vermeer conditioner afterwards ... seems like a losing way to substitute for the haybine, but the method works, and works very well.. Egads! How did we ever make hay before haybines and disk mowers were invented?

 

[tjdub]

I've been through the horrors.

When I was a boy, I cut hay with a side-mount Koch mower on an Allis WD-45 and a side-mount Allis mower on a WD. When I got older, I cut with a IH 990, then progressed to a JD 1209. Well, it was pretty much the same drama the whole time: sickle bars.

When I became a man (and left the farm to go to school) then my Dad realized how much they sucked and went out and bought himself a brand new disc mower-conditioner (JD 925). When I bought the farm from him, the mower came with it. Apart for changing out the knives once or twice a year (30-min easy-peasy job), I never have to touch the thing even though it's pushing 20 years-old now. My only advice is this: If you aren't mowing through rocks, look at getting a disc mower.

 

[formerly ny bill]

zach, fry's phone is 570-546-3968. both neighbor and i have gotten parts from them. fast service and reasonable prices.

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

I did all of that except checking the guard clearance (I just eyeballed them) and putting chain lube on the PTO joints. I put two new belts and a new chain in it last year, the other chain was still good. I also put belt dressing on the belts.
Zach

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

Thanks, I'll give them a call today.
Zach

 

[keh]

Another trick to getting rivets out is to use a side grinder and grind rivet off on the knife side, grinding into the broken knife for good measure.

KEH

 

[mkirsch]

Yeah that's all well and good if you're not trying to replace the knife in the field...

You don't wanna pull the whole bar.
You don't have power tools.

 

[fixerupper]

Something's wrong with the bolts or cutter bar if bolts are breaking. There's a fine line between too loose and a wiggling section that wears out the bolt and too tight and a resulting broken bolt. I've worked on thousands of bolt-on sickle sections and not many are broken if tightened properly. Over-tightening is easy and that's a guaranteed broken bolt. When I tighten a sickle bolt I still get an uneasy feeling about whether or not I over-tightened it . Jim

 

[jackinok]

yep the joys of hay baling! seems like a pretty normal day in the hay field to me. The busiest guy around our place during hay season was always the guy doing the wrenching.

 

[old]

I have yet to loose a section due to having a broken bolt but yes you do have to check them about once a day or check them right before you start but then you also should do that with rivets on sections also

 

[rrlund]

Geez,knock on wood,but I just finished cutting 140 acres day before yesterday. I put about $500 in to the cutter bar on my Hesston 1120 before I started and I had the most trouble free year of cutting hay that I've had since I bought that thing new back in 1994.
I had a couple of new bolts loosen up on guards that I had to re tighten,but not one single broken knife section,no bent guards,nothing. I figured I'd club a missed stone in the the new seedings and mess something up at least,but I didn't. A one of a kind year that's for sure. Pays to do some maintenance before you start I guess.

 

[onefarmer]

Sounds about normal to me. If it isn't broke down, or your not repairing it. Your not using it.

 

[Ken Macfarlane]

Sounds like a normal day with a sickle machine. I went to a disc mower conditioner 3 years ago. We have some rocks be they are all firmly planted. About half the cost in blades per year than the old 489.

 

[Northvale - PA]

I've got a 461. But, you have to grease everything 2x while mowing. Otherwise, a bad joint will eat up the yokes, yes. Also, when you stop to grease, check for heat and damage. If its too hot to touch, you have a bad joint.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

I had a 461 , and my best advice is . Take it to an auction and sell it , and get a 488NH. You would not belive the improvments they made. No shear pin to start with.

 

[Hogleg]

Parked my haybine in the weeds this spring. Da*m think plugged on me for the last time. It broke a bottom roller and I said enough is enough. Bought a 190 ccm drum mower and have been as happy as a pig in mud since. No plugging and can drive 8 mph instead of 3mph. What a difference!

John