Ask the Mechanic

Steve Thompson, Contributing Columnist

READER: I have a 346 John Deere wire baler that I bought used that is giving me trouble. The previous owner told me that it came right out of the field, but before he put it up for sale, he welded the broken right needle near the tip and made sure the needle kept the same arch as the other needle.

The baler occasionally misses bales on the right side, and when it misses, I have never seen a tying system do what it does when it breaks bales. On the right side of the tying system, the cutter and holder hold and cut both strands of wires that are brought up by the needle rather than one wire. The twister hook grabs all three wires as it turns -- the two that the needle brings up and the one that was held and crimped, and then released to be in the twist. This leaves three wires in the twist.

The "mechanical engineers" at the coffee shop say the roller in the needle must be bringing up three strands of wire rather than two strands because the wire in the roll is tangled. That is not the case. The wire runs from the wire box, through the wire guides and past the needles as a single strand. The dealer said the twister hook might be out of time. Nope, hook is in time. I have yelled at this baler, but it did not help. I give up! I am now a YouTube mechanic.

STEVE: What you have going on here is a really rare opportunity that most have never seen (opportunity being the new corporate word for problem) and one that is difficult to diagnose. A twine baler can have a similar problem, but the twine disc can have two strands of twine in the twine disc.

What is happening with your wire baler is that when the welder repaired the broken needle, he, no doubt, got the needle back in the same shape as the original, but I bet he strengthened the needle by building up the front side of the needle (see photo accompanying this article). The bulge of weld in the front of the needle will occasionally allow the wire on the front side of the needle to slip out of the groove in the front of the needle. When it does, it falls into the cutter/holder with the other strand of wire on the back side of the needle that is correctly placed to be cut and held. Now, as the tying cycle begins, two strands are cut and released, and as the hook grabs them and the single wire that was released on the other side to be in the twist, you have three wires in the twist.

Reshape the groove to its original shape and depth in the front of the needle. This will leave the wire on the front of the needle far enough away when the twist is being made that the twister hook can't grab it, because the wire will now stay in the groove in the front of the needle and leave it "looped" out of the way of the twister hook.

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-- Write Steve Thompson at Ask The Mechanic, 2204 Lakeshore Dr., Suite 415, Birmingham, AL 35209, or email mechanic@progressivefarmer.com, and be sure to include your phone number.

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