Baler All Tied Up

By Steve Thompson
Progressive Farmer Contributing Editor

Q: I have a John Deere 347 baler that’s developed a nasty trick. I can’t seem to get a handle on this one. It suddenly wants to tie with every plunger stroke. I worked on it for a while and helped it, but now it will tie after one slice after about every 20 bales. I walked beside it and watched it tie, and everything seems to be normal. I can’t figure out why it acts that way.

A: The only thing that will allow your baler to tie is for the trip arm not to be holding the trip dog that engages the needle drive gear. If the trip dog is held out, then the baler cannot tie. The adjustment could be so close that just before the baler trips to tie, the trip dog is engaging the needle lift gear, even though the baler has not tripped to tie, allowing the baler to tie. Then, on the very next stroke, the baler trips, and you have a bale with one slice of hay in it.

Another possibility is the trip arm adjustment is so close that occasionally the trip arm will miss the trip dog after it ties, allowing it to tie twice. Then, it catches it after it ties the second time.

The adjustment for the proper setting of the trip arm’s relation to the trip dog is located on the top of the bale case. If you loosen the metering wheel bracket on the top of the bale case, the bracket can be moved rearward (bale case is slotted). This will allow you to set the trip arm so it engages the trip dog about half an inch. This should fix your problem.

Note: Make sure you have the correct springs on the trip arm. They must be the proper strength. Also, make sure the metering wheel linkage works freely. By the way, all balers have this adjustment but may not be adjusted like Deere’s.

Q: I have a John Deere 5105 tractor that is giving me fits. It doesn’t want to start when the weather begins to cool in the fall. But after it starts, it runs well. Two people have told me the battery in my tractor was low and did not have enough power to start the tractor in cold weather.

After purchasing a new battery, I found out even good neighbors can give bad advice. The mechanic down the road told me slow cranking was normal for a diesel in cool weather. However, others around me have the same tractor, and it cranks great in cold weather. I hope you don’t drop the “I” word (injector pump) on me.

A: No, not the “I” word this time; how about the “E” word (easy)? The injection pump timing is normally around six to nine degrees before top dead center. However, this timing does not allow good starting under cold conditions.

To help with cold starting, a timing advance system allows the timing of the pump to overadvance the timing, allowing the engine to start easier. The timing moves back to “normal” once the engine warms.

A thermistor (temp sensor) is located in the thermostat housing of the tractor’s engine. It tells the pump when to advance timing. If it’s not sending the “advance” signal to the pump when the temperature is cold, the tractor is very hard to start. More than likely, your sensor is bad.

Sometimes when the sensor is bad, it will blow the fuse on the cranking circuit of the tractor (for those of you who are having this problem). This is a simple fix, and you will lose a little coolant, but that’s better than replacing a burned-up starter.

Q: My lawn mower started blowing black smoke after I mowed the yard a few times—and then it died. I took it to the shop, and they changed the plug and air filter. What makes the engine blow black smoke and die?

A: The air filter is doing its job by cleaning the air before it goes into the engine. But when it gets plugged, this causes the fuel air mixture to become too rich (too much fuel for the amount of oxygen available to burn the fuel properly), which causes the engine to blow black smoke (unburned fuel). This extremely rich mixture will foul the spark plug, and the engine then dies. The reason it does this more as the season goes along is because the mowing conditions become more severe as the grass and ground dry.

Write Steve Thompson at Ask The Mechanic, 2204 Lakeshore Dr., Suite 415, Birmingham, AL 35209, or e-mail mechanic@progressivefarmer.com

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