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I have had the cylinder removed for about a month on our 740. Ordered a sunnybrook but before installing it, wanted to change a few things. My main focus was the impeller. Even with the wear kit and flow kit, I still get build-up of material on the back and top side of impeller in the mid section. This material wears on the impeller and definitely hurts flow and efficiency. To me, it is obvious that the build up, only occuring in soybeans, is because the stem going through the machine sideways, gets wrapped around the rotor nose and can't decide which rotor to go into. These long, stringy stems that are cross-ways just hang on the nose, and do nothing but cause other stems to hang up. So to take care of this, I cut a groove in the impeller about an inch deep and 1/2" wide. On the nose of the rotors, I welded two corn head cutting stalk roll knives together. In doing so, when the impeller is feeding the rotors, material in the middle will be cut in half, one side going to one rotor and the other side to the other. I feel confident in this modification working but time will tell.
Another area I tweaked with the cylinder out was the "ceiling" of the machine above the APS and cylinder. My machine runs pretty quiet while running empty, but once I enter the crop and the material starts to be threshed, the grain noise becomes very noticable. Based on the "ceiling" being shiny from material, I am assuming what I am hearing is from grain and material being slung around and hitting this sheet metal. What I did was cut out cardboard with many holes in it and hold it up to the ceiling. The ceiling has two supports underneath about an inch lower than the sheet metal. I took expandable foam and filled this 1" void between the cardboard and upper sheet metal. It will be an interesting trial and maybe short-lived, as card board and foam isn't the most durable material. What I liked about it is it wont have voids that can fill up with material such as stems and dust, and if it falls down, it won't cause harm to the combine.
The next area I changed was a gap between the back of the pre-concave and the front of the round bar concave. The front of the rb actually has a keystock on the leading edge. That is fine, but there is no holes in front of it for grain to fall through. This looks like a prime area for seed damage, especially in soybeans. I pop riveted 2"x3/16x 56" flat metal IIRC. It made the floor smooth for better seed protection.
The last item I changed here was the back of the concave where the bent bar bolts on to the top, just below the impeller. It had a void where crop definitely speared into instead of a smooth flow. I found this void to be useless again, as there were no holes for grain to go out of. I just filled this area up with bondo. It may not last very long, but I feel this round bar concave may not be used much longer as it isn't very "round" anymore from soybeans. The mid section is looking pretty flat.
To wrap all of this up, I did one other change to the rotor grates. I feel the smooth round grates aren't aggressive enough to get the crop to tumble and release the grain. Part of my theory is based off of the axial flow design and its effectiveness of using a small area. I bought some "t" bolts from Mcmaster Carr that fit the exact spacing of the grates. I welded some 5/16x6" keystock to it so it sits down on the grate from the inside. All of this is secured to the grate with a serrated 1/2" bolt. All of it can be installed from below the rotors laying on the shaker pan. ( I relocated the sieve light back to another hole. By doing so, dropping the shaker pan only requires removing 6, 13mm bolts and 1 minute.) I installed five of these in staggered pattern on each rotor. Disregard the torch grooves that are shown on the pictured keystock. I forgot to grind some weld down and only had a torch for that one.
BTW, the sunnybrook runs smoother than ever (in the shed anyway). When tightening the bearings for the cylinder, make sure the cylinder spins freely while tightening the bearing taper. If the cylinder turns hard when tightened, redo and hold the cylinder to one side of the machine or the other with a pry bar. It seems possible if you don't do this, the pre-load on the side of the bearings could cause pre-mature damage.
Critique away guys!
Another area I tweaked with the cylinder out was the "ceiling" of the machine above the APS and cylinder. My machine runs pretty quiet while running empty, but once I enter the crop and the material starts to be threshed, the grain noise becomes very noticable. Based on the "ceiling" being shiny from material, I am assuming what I am hearing is from grain and material being slung around and hitting this sheet metal. What I did was cut out cardboard with many holes in it and hold it up to the ceiling. The ceiling has two supports underneath about an inch lower than the sheet metal. I took expandable foam and filled this 1" void between the cardboard and upper sheet metal. It will be an interesting trial and maybe short-lived, as card board and foam isn't the most durable material. What I liked about it is it wont have voids that can fill up with material such as stems and dust, and if it falls down, it won't cause harm to the combine.
The next area I changed was a gap between the back of the pre-concave and the front of the round bar concave. The front of the rb actually has a keystock on the leading edge. That is fine, but there is no holes in front of it for grain to fall through. This looks like a prime area for seed damage, especially in soybeans. I pop riveted 2"x3/16x 56" flat metal IIRC. It made the floor smooth for better seed protection.
The last item I changed here was the back of the concave where the bent bar bolts on to the top, just below the impeller. It had a void where crop definitely speared into instead of a smooth flow. I found this void to be useless again, as there were no holes for grain to go out of. I just filled this area up with bondo. It may not last very long, but I feel this round bar concave may not be used much longer as it isn't very "round" anymore from soybeans. The mid section is looking pretty flat.
To wrap all of this up, I did one other change to the rotor grates. I feel the smooth round grates aren't aggressive enough to get the crop to tumble and release the grain. Part of my theory is based off of the axial flow design and its effectiveness of using a small area. I bought some "t" bolts from Mcmaster Carr that fit the exact spacing of the grates. I welded some 5/16x6" keystock to it so it sits down on the grate from the inside. All of this is secured to the grate with a serrated 1/2" bolt. All of it can be installed from below the rotors laying on the shaker pan. ( I relocated the sieve light back to another hole. By doing so, dropping the shaker pan only requires removing 6, 13mm bolts and 1 minute.) I installed five of these in staggered pattern on each rotor. Disregard the torch grooves that are shown on the pictured keystock. I forgot to grind some weld down and only had a torch for that one.
BTW, the sunnybrook runs smoother than ever (in the shed anyway). When tightening the bearings for the cylinder, make sure the cylinder spins freely while tightening the bearing taper. If the cylinder turns hard when tightened, redo and hold the cylinder to one side of the machine or the other with a pry bar. It seems possible if you don't do this, the pre-load on the side of the bearings could cause pre-mature damage.
Critique away guys!
