Combines R72 niggles

nico,what hours have you got on the R72IJ.What motorIJ What frontIJ After a lot of hours where the knife is driven from becomes brittle and snaps easy,all you have to do is pull the knife out and unbolt it and reverse the knife back that way the stressed end goes to the right hand side.Also make sure that the wobble box is right,how hot is it gettingIJsome run cool some hotter but you should be able to put your hand on it.We had a box that had new bearings put in by the dealer and he ended up pulling that box apart four times trying to find out why it was boiling grease out,and generally wrecking the knife.Before the new bearings it was fine,after it now sits in the shed yet all the dealer did was change the bearings,no fault on them.john

If it's a Cummmins, have the Cummins tech check the waste valve (actuator) that works with the turbo and fuel delivery. Bad diaphram was found on one of my 62's, replaced it, up to power now.

The 72 is a 1996 model with the M11 Cummins under the hood. 2500 hours and it should be very youthful. I'll get Cummins to check out your idea as there is a very definite power loss. A mate commented that he thought it seemed to be labouring,even in light going.Thanks for your input Bob l!

Yeah, johnboy the front is 30ft 400 series, and has done 2300 hrs.At 1150 hrs I was having trouble with the knife breaking. I checked the wobbler and found it had an extra wobble,on the change,that was almost imperceptable.I picked up an exchange rebuild,and the problem was vastly improved.Of recent I start the season with a new knife. This does help but inevitably the knife will break. The knife does tavel freely and the register is fine.I have just noticed a minute crack in the fabicated steel housing.I believe this to be a symtom not causal.Agco has suggested the insallation of a further two idlers to take the whip out of the knife drive belt.The wobbler doesn't run excessively hot- you can put your hand on it without burning it. I am now entertaining the idea of using a counterweight or flywheel bolted to the pulley.

G'Day nico

Might want to check condition of helicals and bars. I assume you have the bars extended to discharge. How are chopper blades or discharge beater blades. Serrated edge out on discharge beater will help with tough straw or maybe flip the blades if leading edge is wearing or bending back. As for your knife be sure wear plates are holding knife as far forward as possible without any binding. Heard of a guy one time breaking heads and he said he added a piece of wood under bottom of auger drive chain to keep the whip out of it and that cured his problem. You could check size of rear drive pulley for there are smaller pulleys that will slow up sickle a bit if you think that will help.

i have a SCH easy cut knife-the one with sickles alternating up and down. the guards for this system have space to double the knife back. i used 1" metric bolts to fasten sickles and 2 knife backs together and ground excess bolt flush to top of nut.this reduced breakage for me.

i have a SCH easy cut knife-the one with sickles alternating up and down. the guards for this system have space to double the knife back. i used 1" metric bolts to fasten sickles and 2 knife backs together and ground excess bolt flush to top of nut.this reduced breakage for me.