JD14T baler newbie needs guidance

[Hiptfarms]

Hello all.
I bought a JD 14T baler and have been getting acquainted with it slowly. The guy i bought it from got it from a neighbor who said it had been shredded for over 20 years. I figured for 300 bucks it would be a good learning experience if nothing else. Anyway, I bought the manual and have been trying to figure it out. Not much luck so far.

Things I have done:
Changed the gear oil
New sisal twine
Tried to sharpen the knives
Had to weld a spot on the one twine arm because I saw a stress fracture in the bend closest to the knife


I ran a small amount of Bahia through it to see what would happen. I picked it up and seemed to pack it okay but no ties. So I have been looking it over and realized that one of the upper hay dog springs is sort of rusted together and the hay dog had no resistance. I took that spring and the spring from the tucker finger shaft (it looked stretched) and went off to town to find replacements. I have tried HD, Lowes, Tractor Supply, Carquest all with no luck. I did find one spring close to the tucker finger size but it seems stronger than the original one. So, my question is: Do these springs need to be exactly what was there initially or will ones similar to the originals do? I can get them from John Deere if I have to but $17 for 1 spring seems awfully steep to me. Any suggestions?

Also, I have noticed that the tucker finger cam shaft roller is about 3/4 to 1 inch away from the thingy it's supposed to rest on. I have read that it is bendable. I'm a bit hesitant to bend it without some guidance. How do you do this? Also the two pieces at the bottom of that shaft don't both touch the back channel that goes across in the bottom of the knotter area. Are they both suppose to hit squarely back there?

I hope I have described my situation well enough for you all to give me some guidance. This is the first baler I have ever encountered up close and personal, so to speak! Btw, I'm a 40 something year old woman whose only other mechanical experiences have been working with a few small engines (chainsaws, rotor tillers, etc.) so be patient with the terminology.
Thanks, guys.

 

[Tx Jim]

Before you try to bale any more bales be sure that the plunger head stop is free to operate correctly and that it's spring is in good condition. Here's the spec's on the hay dog springs.

 

[Hiptfarms]

Thanks Tx Jim. I forgot to mention that the guy I bought it from had been running it while he was working on getting it to tie. He demonstrated it before I bought it. He said he came up on a faster sq. baler cheap that already worked so he bought it. He hadn't tried long to get this one working, or so he said.

One thing I saw right off was that he was running round baler sized twine through it. He also has replaced a couple long springs with 2 shorter ones to try to take the place of the original longer springs. One place he did that was the pickup idler and the other place was the plungerhead safty stop. They seem to be strong enough but I still feel like they should be replaced with a single spring each. What do you think?

Thanks for the heads up on checking that spring. I was wondering if I can't get a spring already cut to the appropriate length, can I buy longer ones and cut them to the correct length? Or, would I be better off just breaking down and paying John Deere for their high dollar ones?

Thanks again.

 

[Hiptfarms]

Also, did I post this in the appropriate forum? If not, how would I go about moving it to the haying forum?

 

[Tx Jim]

Only way I know to swap forums is for a forum moderator to change it. I think this forum is fine. As long as the springs have enough length & tension that's fine they don't necessarily have to be GREEN.

 

[zzvyb6]

I P.M.ed you with my list of things to check and change. We want to see results so check back in !

 

[Hiptfarms]

Will do as soon as I get the correct springs. Thanks for the input.