[averagejoe]

How has the longevity of the upper feeder house bearing been? I am replacing some bearings on my machine mostly for preventative maintenance.

How long would you run the upper feeder chain shaft bearings. They are not made to grease, just curious if you would change them and when?

Another area of concern is the rotor drive splines from the gearbox to the rotors. These are greasable but I know they have not been greased as they should have been. I something that I should dive into?

Any other areas that you would attend to just because it maybe time.

585R about 1650 sep hours

Thanks

 

[SouthernSK]

Have you replaced the concave or rub bars yet? The wear on the splines will depend a lot on how abrassive your soil is. If you are in clay you may not have much wear.

 

[averagejoe]

Yes, new concave and added sunnybook a season ago.

 

[lextech]

Typically we don't see to many upper feeder house bearing problems. I would make sure the reaction and Variable speed sheave bushings are replaced. Run the machine for 1/2 hour to hour and temp all the bearings. If you can put an impeller wear kit in your machine I would recommend that. Check the APS caps and see if they need to be flipped or replaced. These are just a few things.

 

[averagejoe]

Thank you Lextech

Thanks Lextech, when I did the sunnybrook and concave I did APS caps also. It surprised me a little that new caps aren't really all that long either. Impellor wear plates have been on maybe 600 hours or so. Chopper knives are all new last summer.

I am mostly concerned about bearings, I know my wooden strips and metal pan in the feeder are worn.

 

[alfred123]

This is a Deere but we just this past week changed out the original feeder house bearings on our combine (3600 hrs) not because they needed it but because we had it all apart and the combine has 3600 hrs on it

 

[gm]

I have never change the upper bearings of the feederhouse but have done the lower ones on every model I've owned, usually around 1500 hrs.

 

[saskshafe]

If you have it apart, see if you can find replacement bearings. They changed mine this summer, sort of wondering why, and claas only sells the whole unit at about $800 dollars per side.

 

[Transaxial]

Feeder shaft bearings

I have noticed that at about 750 hours on new bearings and sprockets , the seals on the top 3 bearings were worn through from straw and chaff wedged in between the shaft and the straps that wrap around the shaft. I was changing the sprockets anyway, so did the bearings while it was apart. The bearings seemed good but did not want to take a chance. Also a good time to do all the guides and strips on the feeder house .
1500 hours is about the life of the rubber bushings on the sieve hangers

 

[SouthernSK]

If you had time you may want to pull the bottom pulleys off the stage one chopper drive. They pack the tube between the inner and outer pulley with grease to lubricate the inner and outter bearing. The factory grease in mine was hard and not flowing into the bearings. The outter bearing was running warm. If I would have had more time I would have tapped a grease fitting into it when I had it appart.

 

[rickfly]

if you get a small diameter drill bit and drill a small hole through the bearing seal metal, you can use a grease needle and inject some more grease into the bearing, roll the shaft over so the grease is put in a couple of spots, of course pull the grease needle out when rolling, and when done seal the hole with ultrablack silicone. you can get a lot of life out of bearings this way. it does not take a lot of grease. if you ever pop off the seal on a new bearing you would be amazed at what little amount of grease is from the factory. i know too much grease is bad as well, but seriously the amount that comes in them is pitiful... this is not a replacement for worn out bearings, but it will extend the life of many that are in decent condition..