Combines Turret Auger Bearing Problems

Turret bearings and premature flight wear compared to the std unloader is a fact of life. Someone builds a shield for the bearings to prevent grain from getting past the brg shields. If they don't post ask again and I can get you the n. Seems to be a local problem. There has been no change in the system except to increase the size of the support bolt and the size of the hex shaft which can be done without too much labor. I would put in the new larger bolt by redrilling the outside and tapping out the inside. Make sure the pivot bolts don't bind the angle drive inner hsg. It is not something that was brought out too early. It is the about 20 year old massey system. The last field day I went to, a customer had a competetor's 'factory man' up against a combine and was eating him alive about the money spent on the unloader system. Anytime you take grain through 2 right angle drives and support that kind of weight the price is paid in durability over the std. system. I would like to see the entire verticle flighting 1_4" like the ends. I would opt for the new increased diameter unloader personally as long as one has an 8 row + head or 25' - 30' grain head. The std or new hy- capy. unloader should not be a problem clearing hoppers as is the problem with windrow machines. Of course conditions vary and with the Gleaner you can choose the option. Isn't that unique.

You are right about the verticle auger. With 1100 hrs mine had chunks missing when I took it out to replace the lower bevel gears ($850 set) It's too lite in the middle. The begining and end is much heavier. Have new R65 and the u channel off the rear door in the grain tank (to the rotor and rear conveyer) fell off (poor spot welds) It's fairly heavy and about 4' long. Anyway it went all the way out through the turret auger bent in circles. Have no way to see what it did to the augers without taking apart. Glass window at front of tank also fell out (glued to a piano hinge and hung from the top[. Caught it before it fell into auger as I heard grain running out between tank and cab window. No sign of bulges in the horizontal turret tube from u channel. I figure if these two things fell off for me they probably fell off for most other 65,75 owners, but I,m sure I'll be told they never heard of it before.

Not being that familiar with Gleaner, I can't remember seeing a Gleaner combine with a vertical unloading auger. Is this an option or on some specific models onlyIJ JD and CASEIHC I know have them, and they wear out all the time.

What bearing went outIJ If it is the one at bottom of vertical auger I would lean toward rotten wet acidic moisture that took out seal first than bearing. I would think a better drain for tank would be in line and instruct operators to open before it sits with any wetness for any length of time (yea right). I would be sure that heavy fighting all the way in vertical auger would be a big plus too. We've had no trouble with our turrets but highly prefer 14" swivel especially on the 72 or 75. Many have installed an extention on the 12" swivel which helps a bunch with the wide headers.

Your not alone with channel but I caught all ours during causual lookover and riveted back on before they come off. Heard of window but none loose hear yet. As discussed earlier our 65 and 75s ran as close as we could expect to perfect.

My 65 did run very well except for these two glitches. No bearings out or any down time in 300 hrs use. Neither of these things held me up for more than a few minutes, but they could have and I think the company should have sent out a warning so we could have cought it in time. It certainly could have tore up my auger to the tune of several thousand dollars. How did you know to check the spot welds. It's not a place I crawl into every day.

Even though time is very limited this time of year I try very hard to give machines a quick look over if near them. I saw that channel loose on one machine so I drilled spot welds and riveted it as I did to other machines when I got around to them. This fall was so busy that we had to rush predeliverys on these machines and still had next to no trouble. That surprised me and made me happy. Catch you later

We have occasional bearing failure on the bottom of the turret. We also have had bearing failures in the elbow. We have learned to check this area yearly and are filling the bearing and gear area with grease. We have found this system to be very expensive to maintain. One R72 has had two vertical auger's, an elbow housing,bearings,bolt that goes through the elbow [it broke and backed out and went through the grain tank when the auger was folded out],also the vertical tube started buckling. We had some thicker metal rolled and we cut off the top and bottom and rewelded it to the the new tube.A new one from AGCO was priced at 1300.00. It unloads slower and takes more HP. It has made us appreciate our ones with the standard unloader.We had two 1998's, which the one that we have experienced these problems has 1900 sep. hrs. Maybe the new ones has been updated to be more reliableIJ We will go back to the standard on our next purchase and put an extension on for more length.

We had the same problem with one of the two bolts that suspends the vertical auger, the bolt broke off...backed out and ripped a nice hole through the bin the next time the auger was swung out. I replaced both bolts with bolts 1_2" longer found there to be not enough threads going into the bearing casting with the original 6 1_2 inch bolts. I generally find the newer Gleaner combines to suffer from a lot of minor problems that could be prevented by using heavier parts and better workmanship.