So after singing the praises of my MF 124 baler on every thread about conventional balers it has now started to try my patience. Rather than releasing the knot as the next bale is formed the left knotter is holding on to the knot until it breaks. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to this, it could do it with every other bale or it could be 1 in 20. The right knotter was doing similar a few weeks ago but it seems to have fixed itself. Don't think it's a twine problem as swapping the twine didn't cure or move the problem to the other knotter. Any ideas? Not much in the operator or workshop manuals and I've never been brave enough to take a knotter apart yet.
are the brakes tight and the springs tight ad the knotters alll clean and the string has resistance for it to be pulled off the bill hook these are the first things to check IMO
Tip the knitters up. They can get a pollen build up in the roller track which bothers the bill hooks.
Are the strings a clean cut. The twine knives may need sharpening.
But your first port of call should be carefully consult the manual cos the factory settings are all given. And they work
Different knotter to our MF20 i know, but that decided to play up the other day, its usually faultless.
It started hanging the knot on the left billhook. At the same time the bales started to be a bit wonky. After watching it miss its 3rd knot i worked out the issue, so rediculously simple and nothing to do with the knotters.
the packer fingers sweeping into the chamber were worn just enough so the left side of the chamber wasnt getting as much crop as the right. Add to this is was rather rough straw what didnt want to feed smoothly
This meant when it tied, the left string was slightly slack, and as the stripper arm came across to pull the knot off, instead of the knot popping off the hook it just took the slack up in the tied string
2 new packer fingers, 700 bales that day and not one missed. back to how it should be.
IHC can be the same, but there is several holes in the top of the packer arm, moving in to a different hole depending on the crop, this gets a even feed
IHC can be the same, but there is several holes in the top of the packer arm, moving in to a different hole depending on the crop, this gets a even feed
MF has 3 holes for the main packer, and sliding adjuster for the ones on the pickup.
when the fingers are worn though, doesnt matter how you adjust them, when i measured the old packers against a new one there was 3" worn off the bottom tips.
always had to run our IH in the bottom hole regardless of crop, any other hole and it wouldnt work at all
There must be more than 1 version of the manual because all mine says is 'lubricate plunger inside bill hook barrel or have bill hook changed by your distributor' and that's for occasional broken knots not every other bale.
Different knotter to our MF20 i know, but that decided to play up the other day, its usually faultless.
It started hanging the knot on the left billhook. At the same time the bales started to be a bit wonky. After watching it miss its 3rd knot i worked out the issue, so rediculously simple and nothing to do with the knotters.
the packer fingers sweeping into the chamber were worn just enough so the left side of the chamber wasnt getting as much crop as the right. Add to this is was rather rough straw what didnt want to feed smoothly
This meant when it tied, the left string was slightly slack, and as the stripper arm came across to pull the knot off, instead of the knot popping off the hook it just took the slack up in the tied string
2 new packer fingers, 700 bales that day and not one missed. back to how it should be.
Now you say that I remember that problem when we had a 20, was cured when it baled it's packers. 124 has metal packer fingers and is making a solid, well formed bale so that isn't the problem