John Deere bale thrower.

[jhwis]

The pan is returned home by the spring my b inside the cylinder. It has to be at pto speed when tripped so the pan is thrown with enough force to compress the spring to return the pan to latch home.

What you are saying is true, but I don't believe that's his problem. The pan for whatever reason stays extended. I think there's a relief on that cylinder that acts up. Reset the lockout and pan returns to locked position. Like I said, it happened periodically on ours....not often enough to tear anything apart.

 

[Roger in Iowa]

What you are saying is true, but I don't believe that's his problem. The pan for whatever reason stays extended. I think there's a relief on that cylinder that acts up. Reset the lockout and pan returns to locked position. Like I said, it happened periodically on ours....not often enough to tear anything apart.

Relief only controls how far the pan throws the bale. If it throws and the pan stays up the spool is not returning to home position to allow oil to return and no pressure oil to the cylinder. Relief valve does not control oil flow only the pressure to cylinder. It dumps excess oil under pressure back to tank.
Moving the lockout returns the spool to home position.

 

[Roger in Iowa]

I have a Deere 346 small square baler with I believe a #30 ejector. last summer the pan would trip, but stay up in the air. What I did was clean and grease the detent cap held on by 2 allen screws, behind the number disc for bale throw distance that didn't do anything, I pulled the entire valve assembly off, brought home took it apart, cleaned it, looked for anything broken ect, changed the hydrulic oil in the tank on the thrower. I do have the manual for the thrower, although it is not very helpful. Put is back on, still does the exact same thing. I called Deere to see about replacing the detent cap, its $700.00, thats not a problem, but. I hate to buy it and find out that's not what's wrong with the valve. Any ideas or problem anyone may have had like this, thanks.

There is one other scenario that has not been discussed.
If the latch does not relatch when pan comes home the pan will lazily trip on next bale and the pan stay up because force was not high enough to compress spring in cylinder. The small cylinder on the latch receives high pressure from the throwing cylinder and the latch acts like a trigger letting the pan throw. Check the condition of the latch! It has to work properly!