Combines Side of 9600 cracking

Have a 9610 with approx 500hrs. Same thing. Cracked all out around straw chopper drive and higher up. lots of other older 9600's with same problem in the area.

If I understand where your talking about that seems to be a pretty common problem and it's usually a tell tale sign that the chopper is out of balance. I had a crack appear farther forward as well along the side that I had to take a straw walker bearing out and jack the walker up so I could get in there and weld in a plate to cease the crack from continuing. I'm just going to bronze weld that light tin where the crack is around the chopper drive and then put a plate around it as well before fall harvest. For as much money as that machine cost you think they could of used some heavier tin for crying out loud

I repaired a 9600 with the problem you discribed. It was severely broken out on the side sheet above the lH rear walker bearing. I released all tension on the chopper belts and pulled everything back in place and welded it on the out side (tried to make it look decent)and put a rienforcement plate on the inside next to the walker. There are two braces for the intermediate drive one to the rear and one up above. Neither are anchored to any side support on the machine just pulling against sheet metal. And therein lies the problem. I welded a bracket on the machine side support ahead and above the chopper drive and installed a brace back and down to the head of the existing brace that goes up and attaches to the machine side wall. That way it is anchored to a solid point on the machine. With the extreme tension they have on those belts it is not to surprising that the sides do crack out from vibration etc. I hope this is not to confusing