Saturday night I was picking beans and shortly after 10 the rotor clogged on the discharge end. It is stuck fast and will not turn. So we parked the machine and decided to wait until Monday evening (we are after 4pm farmers) to clean it.
I thought I'd post for suggestions on cleaning it out. I found one post on another forum which suggested getting out a pocket knife and needle-nose pliers. The only access I see to the discharge end of the rotor is via the door in the hopper.
Is your impeller/chopper still turning? Sounds like something may be wrong with your discharge system.
One thing you might try is put the rotor gear box in neutral and kick in just the machine and clean it out, don't worry about the header for the moment. While the machine is running slow the rotor drive variable all the way down. Shut off the machine and put the gear box into low speed. Now kick the machine back in. You will either spit out the wad or screw it in tighter.
If that doesn't work, drop the upper sheet metal on the left hand side and remove the stop sign. You should be able to dig out the wad from there.
It might be faster to remove the mounting plate on the LH end of the rotor and dig it out from that end. If that doesn't work you will have to pull the rotor...not that big of a job.
The needle nose pliers thing is sure to have a poor payoff in terms of time spent. I'd take off the grate on that side of the rotor, open concave all of the way, and try to start pulling the straw out when the grate is off. I've used a porta power: Torin Hydraulic Ram System — 10 Ton Capacity, Model# T71001L | Rams Ram Kits| Northern Tool + Equipment to turn the rotor backwards, works like a charm with the grate off, use some blocks and wedges to maintain the right angle. The grate is really fast and easy to remove if you are near an air ratchet.
I've never wanted to throw the thing in gear plugged, but a lot of people on this forum will claim that works too. That's for you to decide. An R40 would probably be short on power to do that I would think.
Our R70 would choke up on the discharge end of the separator, we changed impeller blades and the problem went away (granted that doesn't help to get your current plug out)
Cant imagine it is stuck tighter than we did our R42 in snake grass but things are possible. Our AGCO dealer has a 6 foot bar that is 1 1/4 by 1 1/4 which I do believe is the width of the opening of the grates. Crawled in behind the motor and inserted it there and then hung on it a few times while being behind one of the bars on the rotor. It moved 1/2 inch or so, and back and forth and voila. 10 minutes and it was free. Moved the chopper down and it popped out. Good Luck.
I don't know what it's pugged with but if it was green or wet it will be plugged worse on Monday. The green stuff will heat an swell making things tighter.
I plugged up one time when I cut through a green wet barley/weed patch. material wound into a rope around the rotor. We ended up removing sections of the cage, worked with needle nose pliers and were not making any time. I don't know one would pull rotor when its wound in so tight.
I ended up taking the access panel off and slicing the clog up with a sawzall. It took a couple of hours. The longest part was getting the rotor pillow block lined back up and bolted into the panel.
I notice it is slightly bent and it looks like the sharp edges are worn round. Not sure what I'm looking at as far as condition so maybe someone can comment on whether this could have caused the clog or not. I'd love not to have to do this again anytime soon.
I can't imagine what went wrong here. Concave set too wide, not chewing up the straw enough?? 3/8" is where I do beans. Cylinder speed less than 650 RPM ?? must be in high range. Impeller belt failure ??? Straw spreader belt failure?? I hope it killed the engine, because if it didn't you have oil on your rotor drive belt or a slipping separator clutch. I've never plugged one of those rotors...never. Plugged lots of throats but never the rotor.
Rule #1. adjust rotor speed in soybeans high enough to see grain damage...this might be 800 rpm. #2. Now, slow down the rotor speed until grain damage is acceptable. #3. If you think you're going to harvest soybeans at less than 600 rpm, you'd better be paying attention when the sun goes down and keep increasing the rotor speed or you will PLUG IT !
Rule #1. adjust rotor speed in soybeans high enough to see grain damage...this might be 800 rpm. #2. Now, slow down the rotor speed until grain damage is acceptable. #3. If you think you're going to harvest soybeans at less than 600 rpm, you'd better be paying attention when the sun goes down and keep increasing the rotor speed or you will PLUG IT !
Simple, take out reverse bar's, install 9 sweeps, last three half-way into discharge, then you can run rotor at 400 - 650 depending on condition witout plugging.
Your impeller blades look exactly like mine did on my R70. Worn and bent. Change them and see if that doesn't help with the discharge. The clog coming out of the back of the combine is all too reminiscent of what we were going through. If you clog in the discharge area it'll back up into the rotor, and from my experience it's a lot tighter plug that way
How bad of a job is it to get at the impeller? I had the rotor access panel off last night. Is it possible to change the blades through the same opening?
Finished up picking this morning about 2 am. I ended up running the rotor at about 600 rpm most of the evening. The R40 is a great machine (though it hates pigweed). Much nicer than the worn out F2 we were using.
We're ordering new impeller blades. Hopefully between it all I won't have to deal with a plugged rotor any time soon.
Thanks to everyone for the help.
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