[Snipe]

i am straight cutting canola, and feeder house is plugging between the bottom and top chain. the straw is usually a bit tough. i do have all feeder house mods done but still have 8 inch drums; would 7 inch drums help solve this problem? this is in a 98 R-72 thanks

 

[pj]

First thing to try would be to see if you can take a Half link out ot the rear feed chain. If that doesn't help I would then suspect the rear feed drive belt must be slipping a little, A new belt could make a world of difference even if the one on the machine does not look bad.

 

[btren]

If your header auger has flighting extensions on try taking them off. I never straight cut our canola but in swathes with green uncured straw it helped to take the extensions out. Also make sure your idler on the top feeder chain belt is not skipping off the belt. I had that happen a couple of times.

 

[Snipe]

i do have 7 inch tension drum and yes pj it looks like belt was slipping a bit as its very shinny; the last time it stopped belt was off idler. also front of rear chain is about 1/2 inch of floor is that about right. thanks snipe

 

[nddan]

Snipe,

Let's start at the beginning. Who's header (front) is on machine? Just to let you know I had a couple different machines far outside our area that had either factory tilted or floor tilted with our kit that were plugging and jumping. Don't know what machine you have or if you tilted with our kit? When you did the kit and if tail end of front feed was shortened by 3" would tell me alot. To get back to a couple machines mentioned above that I just couldn't figure out. Ends up they both have new Mac dons (sorry Mac don) and they did not feed combine properly at all. This almost made the guys get rid of their Gleaners. Mac don finally came out and set them up with proper orbit motors ect. to feed the Gleaner. Header is of the utmost importance.

Basic things to check if you allready have the feeder mods as per my instructions. If you have corn varible header drive be sure it has been greased well and cycled threw full range weekly. Make sure front set of corn varible sheave have proper clearance between them. Make sure feeder belts on right side are tentioned up properly and not flot spoted which will cause idler to jump every time flat spot goes around pulley. Slip clutches were tore down to see they are well greased and not rusted up from lack of grease. Slip clutches full of small and large springs. Slip clutch removed from rear in later years but must have belt tentioned to prevent premature slip. Much overlooked main problem is the tention of rear feed chain. The spring must be keep at less than 5" or you will have problems with front plugging. Four strand chain systems call for something like 4.9" and that is also a must for 3 strand systems when feeding is being stressed. Also check your drum stops on rear to see they are allowing maximum lift with your 7" drum. Thanks for any additional info.

 

[Snipe]

Dan i have a 30 foot honey bee, i installed your kit this is second year with it and tail end is shortend 3 inchs i have no vary speed, slip clutch was torn down and cleaned and is full of double springs; i didnt install pipes over springs but i keep them at 4.9 inches with 3 strand chain; drum stops? [wheat rear] is how it is set, its on a 98 R-72 thanks snipe

 

[pj]

Nddan is right on about the header.
A sharp sickle is number one for getting a smooth feed into the machine.
You may be in a crop condition that requires you to just drive faster than one would think wise to get a more even feed into the machine, (don't pull back on the hydro untill the engine beeper souncls off). Had that happen one year in green stem beens where the slower I drove the more the header fed the machine in bunches.
Keep in mind that I have never run a draper head.

 

[nddan]

If anyone has did anything special to properly fit Honey Bee up to Gleaner it would be good to know. Transition between header and feeder must be smooth. The diameter of which the feed chain runs on a 7" with W-ring guides is very similar to 8" without. You might see if you can turn blocks to get higher lift of drum or modify drum blocks per instruction sheet. If you still have slip clutch on rear chain you might mark it and then run awhile to see if it is sliping from time to time. Rear slips out a few clicks and things will jam up between chains. You'll notice the front clutch is what will slip out completely when rear slows down. This part of the reason Gleaner removed rear clutch plus they created an extremely strong rear shaft setup when removing clutch. The belt now acts as slip clutch similar to what we had on earlier rotaries of the past. Next thing is they speeded up the chains in '07 by 20%. This could be what you need to handle your situation. Kit number is 71412570 which includes pulley 71374737 and belt 71368809. Another thing that comes to mind is do you use rock sump, or standard flat door closed in normal manner, or hump fastened to flat rock door. Also have you transitioned any standard helicals with steep pitch to prevent second pass of material over the feed chain or installed any rotor sweeps?

 

[Snipe]

i installed new belts and took half link out of front chain; no more plugging, i think back belt was slipping as it was very shiney

 

[pj]

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear things are going as they should be.

 

[nddan]

Thanks for report snipe. Glad it was easy. I must report a bit about the Mac Dons I mentioned above. I don't know drapers or their models but I'm told they were recent models put out in last couple years D50 or D60. Both them machines that are now working extremely well with the header fixed. They both needed kits that were introduced I believe in April. The kit number I'm told is B5404. It included some curved plates for behind feeder auger, strippers to bring straw in further, I believe some more flighting for auger, and spring hold downs for auger drum. Another problem was found on both Mac Dons. Ends up they both had wrong pump that runs center apron. It is a piggyback pump and has no flow control so needs to be matched to the proper speed of combine shaft. It should have 11cc displacement for Gleaner and I believe Lexion. Others us a 16cc pump. If you have one of these heads be sure you get this checked out for it will look like header is working fine when in fact it is slug feeding the combine. That slug feeding makes a perfectly well tuned machine seem like a piece of junk.

 

[Snipe]

as we are talking about headers how do the 5100 agco headers work on the R combines?