[pioneer]

I tried everything I could think of last year. We bought a new 12 row corn head for our 75 and the head goes on level. 15 minutes into cutting the left hand side cuts 6-12 inches lower? I tried putting shims on the left hand side to raise it up with same results. The head is tight on the bottom and is lining up with the alignment pins and is latching like it should. I know I could adjust the level on the feeder house but I don't think I should have to do this. The combine has tall blocks (not that I think that should make a difference). Any thoughts or is this a common problem with 12 rows?

 

[mrgrothen]

Not sure if this may be your problem but it might be worth checking. I have noticed a problem with the feeder house pivot blocks that has not been addressed by agco. Recently when I removed feeder house on our R75 to install Dan's drop floor kit I noticed galling of both pivot block and pivot spindle. Machine only has 620 sep hours and has never had bigger than 8row narrow and 25' flex. It has always been greased but I don't think it helped a whole lot. When the chain was removed, I removed the pivot shaft for new bearings and at this time removed the spindles, did a little grinding and rotated them 180 degrees in order to put the unworn side to the front. I then noticed the pivot blocks have a grease groove that goes completely around. I believe this is the main problem as all the grease just goes out the back side that has the clearance and no pressure and the loaded front side gets little or no grease. Instead of putting in new blocks and not solving the problem, I took them to a local machine shop and had them bored .5 inches and a quarter inch thick cast bronze bushing pressed in and then the bronze bore was bored to the final diameter. I had them put lube grooves only in the high pressure zone attempting to put grease where it is most needed. Will know more about results after fall harvest. Neighbor is currently doing same thing with his feeder and his 01' R62 with about 1250 sep hours has more wear yet and he is currently having the bushings put in the blocks. If you have enough wear your feeder house could be tilting just enough to cause your leveling problem. The offset creates a surprisingly high amount of imbalance and the wider the head the worse it gets. Good luck

 

[orangeguy]

Do you always grease with the feeder house lowered?

 

[mrgrothen]

Probably eight out of ten times. Seems to be a problem as I have seen large numbers of galled blocks and spindles at the local dealership. I have some machining experience and an educated guess is the pivot blocks are made from some sort of free machining steel such as 12L14 and that tends to make a poor high pressure bearing. The spindles have some sort of case hardening but it is not very deep. Don't know the long term results of the bronze, and if there is a better solution, I'm open to suggestions as it is not cheap to have the bushings installed, around $265 for the pair.

 

[orangeguy]

Do you have lateral tilt on the combine?

 

[pioneer]

No lateral tilt. The head is normally greased in the lower position and daily.

 

[maninsilver]

Check your tire pressure. maybe one is low.