PETE
Guest
A late series N from a good home (82' or newer) can be a very good purchase. They are built very heavy and have a lot of hidden capacity that can be unleased with a little bit of work. As with all machines they have faults that can easily de-inventory your wallet. Here is my short checklist- -Seperator clutch pin wear and clutch plate bushing wear. Check the hydro belt (alignment) and the bolt heads on the hydro pully for wear from the belt tension spring. -Accelerator rolls need to be the new bolt on style and the chain drive have been replaced with gears. -Cage wear, especially where the bottom of the cage and concave meet. That is where the reverse bars do the most damage. -Concave, black iron or chromeIJ Newer style with rods between the bars or the older style webbing between the barsIJ Are you fairly mechanicalIJ If so, with the help of the "hyper mods" link and this site you can take a combine with a bad reputation and unlease the monster inside that will keep up with the big boys. Warning! There will be a learning curve transitioning from a cylinder machine to a rotor and there will be a time of frustration finding out first hand the weak points of the machine. Maybe Nebraska Gleaner can give his two cents worth as he has recently gone through the upgrade process. The nice thing is that the upgrading can be done in stages and the guru's on this site can guide you in that process. Bottom line is to start out with a solid base machine from a good home. look at the heads that were on the machine, with larger heads more material per clock hour passes through the machine causing more wear particularly on the concave and cage. Hope this helps, Pete Hinrichsen