Hesston 540 Rear Gate Not Staying Closed

[Mullen]

My dad purchesed a '99 Hesston 540 round baler yesterday and we can't seem to get it to bale.

The hydraulic cylinders that open and close the rear gate won't keep it closed completely. It will lock then the cylinders back off an inch or two, the sensors pick up on this and won't allow the baler to start.

We thought it may be air in the hydraulics, but after bleeding them it still does the same thing.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[chh]

I am not familiar with your miodel of baler, does your baler have the self contained hydrualic system or does it operate the rear gate off of the tractor? On the self contained system you could be low on fluid, clogged filter, bad pump, bad control valve or one or both of the cylinders may be bad. If the gate runs off of the tractor, it may be a faulty control valve(if it has one) or a bad cylinder or cylinders. The only baler I ever had do this was doing it because of a bad cylinder, but it was obvious because it was leaking around the seals. The only other cause I can think off right off would be the hydraulic quick connects actually letting the fluid go back into the tractor causing a loss of pressure.

 

[Mullen]

Thanks for the reply, chh.

It uses the tractor's hydraulics, but we haven't had any problems with them before. My dad seems to think the cylinders are bad, so we may try getting them rebuilt.

 

[Dill]

I'm not familiar with that baler, could you try running it with the hydrulics not attached just to make sure the baler is functional?

 

[Mullen]

In case anyone is wondering, it was the seals on the insides of the cylinders.

After the cylinders were broken down, one seal just crumbled off and the other needed replaced.

 

[chh]

Glad you got it figuired out.

 

[jimmysisson]

Often true, the simplest answer is the correct answer.
Jim