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L2 problems

8K views 23 replies 6 participants last post by  dave7060 
#1 ·
Started doin wheat a few days ago with our 1977 L2. We have been having trouble with the cylinder slowing down. The belt from the main shaft pulley with the electric clutch to the right pivot pulley gets hot. We put belt dressing on it but it didn't help. We put a Jober belt on 2 years ago and had trouble with the cylinder slowing down in tough beans but not with the corn and now were having trouble with the wheat. It always use to just thump it through but now the cylinder slows down. We bought a new Allis Chalmers belt and are going to put it on and hope it helps but we are wondering if the electric clutch is slipping and the whole combine is slowing down but none of the tattle tale lights come on. If we are running the cylinder about 1300 rpm and it slowed down to about 850 rpm would the tattle tail lights come on? Is it the belt or the clutch? Any help is much appreciated because I don't like running the combine like this.

Dave
 
#2 ·
Look at the bottom of the groove in your drive pulley on the clutch. If it is shiny then that pulley is worn out and the belt cannot grip the sides of the pulley. A new belt only helps for a little while. If I'm right the older L-2's didn't have a torque sensing drive but had a tightener pulley on a spring loaded arm like the G's. Belt slippage due to a worn drive pulley was a common problem on our high hour G's. Let me know if I'm wrong about the drive system...
 
#4 ·
Got the wheat done and the new belt did help some but it sounds like the pulley is worn out.
gleanerman-your right, it isn't torque sensing. I'm at home now but when I get a look at the pulley and get a chance I'll let y'all know what I find. Thanks a lot.

Dave
 
#6 ·
If its just the belt that gets hot it must be slipping....guess I would look at the tension on that tightener arm next.. as cylinder speed is increased the arm has to come up higher... If it works OK at slower cylinder speeds, ie: beans but not wheat, maybe there has to be more tension put on the spring. or, maybe the pivot point on the arm is seized up. Unlikely, but it has happened on a machine stored outside. The tightener pulley runs on the underside of the belt.
 
#8 ·
gleanerman- The Cylinder works fine in corn, but it didn't in beans or wheat. We know the belt tension arm isn't seized because to change pulleys we pull it down with a come-a-long to loosen off the belt and is stored inside every night.

belfordwest- When we get the combine out we will check that.

Thanks for the help and when we get back working on it I'll keep ya updated.

Dave
 
#9 ·
Another thought.....when you bring your cylinder up to maximum speed as in wheat, you have to slow the cylinder down by at least four turns on the speed control or the belt will be riding on the pins in your pivot hub and slipping there. More turns if the variable speed hub is not shimmed to specs.
 
#12 ·
Still thinking about your problem.....a drop from 1300 rpm to 850 should trigger some warnings, especially the chopper if you are using it. new cylinder bars might help if they were really worn but usually that condition is accompanied by a lot of complaining at the cylinder or plugging. A slipping electric clutch will give off a very noticeable bad smell.... Does your machine have a RPM readout on the cylinder speed? I'm thinking back to my "G" Gleaner days again where the cylinder speed adjusting knob would slowly rotate in the cab especially at high cylinder speed settings. This was caused by a bad or dry bearing in the oter half of the pivot hub pulley. It would create enough drag to change cylinder speed but I don't recall whether it went up or down. If you are running at 1300 to start with and it went higher you don't have a lot of pulley surface left to drive the cylinder... I'm grasping at straws here, but something unusual is going on...........
 
#13 ·
Works in corn,,, problems in wheat and beans,,, use to just thump it through,,,, measure the height of the rasps on the bars, course I don't remember the depth anymore, I'm thinking they are 11/16 or 3/4 deep new?, but I do remember, if they look like good bars for a deere or massey they are worn the Gleaner bars are much deeper. In my mind a slipping thresher drive clutch would set off the alarms as the whole threshing unit would slow down. The OP says the machine slows from 1300 to 850 but is this now the constant cyl speed or does the speed vary back and forth? Obviously if this is now the constant cyl speed the bars idea is out,, but if this thing is hopping back and forth in rpm on the cylinder and the elevator or front raddle alarms are not going off then it sounds like only the cylinder and the beater are slowing down. Only reason I'm going on with the cyl bars is I had a similar problem with an L, corn no problem 2nd gear full hydo,,, beans and small grains problems,, thumping/slugging, erratic cylinder speeds. I guess without being there we are just grasping at straws?
 
#14 ·
We have new cyl. bars coming because we had the wide space ones in, then went to narrow and we don't like them, so we will put new wide space ones in and see what happens. When we were combining we were running the cyl. at about 1250-1300 and it would just slow down to 900-850 and then go back up to where we had it set, some times not as extreme. We didn't notice any smell from the clutch. None of the warning lights or the beeper came on either. On the L2 you have a round disk with a knob that pulls out and locks the disk in place so the speed can't back down by itself. Hope this helps y'all

Dave
 
#15 ·
Just curious but what size headers and ground speed are you using? I'm guessing your explaination of the cylinder speed means empty no load 1250-1300, and at times loaded speed drops to 900-850? I only ran a 15' header in beans but I would run out of auto height control response before I ran out of cylinder capacity with that size head in dry beans. I have no experience with wide/narrow cylinder bars,, I ran OEM, so I'm guessing these are aftermarket? What about the concave is that OEM or aftermarket also? What does it look like? Just for kicks what does a set of cylinder bars go for these days?
 
#16 ·
We are using a 15 foot head and the spedo don't work but with the hydro trans. and the manual in 2nd, we were running about 5- 5 1/2 on the scale on the lever which we always ran before with no problem. We were running the combine full while the cyl. was running 1300 but it would just go down sometimes when it hit a tough spot but normally it would just go through with out the cyl. slowing down. The concave is original but a few years ago we did put in filler plates, my grandpa welded them in but we made sure it wasn't warped before we put it in though. The wide space cyl. bas from Agco are about 1600 bucks, I don't know what the narrow space ones run for price.
 
#17 ·
Yeouch!!! Prices for the parts on these things just keep going up and up!! Back in the day, probably 15 years ago I paid around 700 for a set! It's the same old same old with agriculture, all the inputs go up and the revenues don't keep pace. 15 years ago I was getting 24 bucks an acre to harvest, and fuel wasn't 4 bucks+ a gallon. Guess that's why I quit.
 
#19 ·
Yea,, they seem to get ya no matter which way you go,, but hey as long it does the job. They are a good machine in my opinion, easy to work on, easy to set up and they do a good job. What engine do you have in it? Mine had the 426 it was a beast,,,, had to change it once, we were going down the road and with no warning BOOM,, blew big time,,, rod left go? took out half the block and everything inside the engine,, pieces went through the bin and into the cab! That was EXPENSIVE! At the time AC wanted 8k just for the block!! I ended up buying a tractor that didn't have a cab and a bad power director for the 3500 engine, swapped the injector pump and some other stuff to get it back running,, what a project.
 
#20 ·
I bet that was a lot of work. Its got the 426 D3500 too, only things we've done to it is adjust the valves, a tappet cover gasket and injectors and injection pump. We don't know how many hours are on it because it doesn't have an hour meter but I'm afraid to think about how many are on it.
 
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