Combines TX66 with 973 flex head Need Help

[Cowboy]

The mods were for the earlier models that didn't have the adjustable faceplate to set your angle on the feeder house.You should have this and should probably tilt it ahead more.I have taken every second wire out of the concave in the area that is covered by the deawning plates.This made a big difference in capacity and less cracks.(Be sure to tack weld the wires or they will fall down)There also is an update available with different ramps and stonger spring for the torque sensing cylinder drive that will allow you to run the cylinder slower without near as much belt slippage.Settings are pretty staight forward with seives open ,air at max and rear separator on slow.I usually go about 4.5 mph with a 30' 973.Adjusting reel as close as possible without cutting of fingers is the trick to feeding.And yes you really will kick the Deere's butt.

 

[tx68]

Check your guards. They may be wore down in the area where the knife slides over them on the sides.If they are rounded in this area the knife will not cut as well in some conditions. I square them off with a hand grinder and it makes it work much better. I do this about every 300 hours twice then get new guards. Mine are due to be changed soon. Keeping the knife area clean also helps when travelling fairly fast. There are rubber paddles available from New Holland that clip on to the reel fingers to help swat the piles of crop into the auger. They help some but we put an air real on in front of the regualar reel and it is amazing. No need for the rubber belt paddles now.I left it on in wheat because we had no down wheat this year and it made tough straw flow in very evenly. Very little slugging and always a clean knife. Jim

 

[Doc]

I changed the guards and sections last year when purchased. They were completely wore out. It still doesn't seem to cut clean. It's leaving standing plants that are kinda stripped but not cut. Also doesn't seem to be cutting as low as the Deere flex. I think it's the double cut sections. A change to regular sections helpIJ

 

[tx68]

I changed a couple of our combines over a few years back to double cut (razercat) knives. It cut much better than the singles. I cant say if the newholland single cuts are beter because ours always had the double cut knives on it. These previous combines had the knife running right on the ground and it cut good but our tx will only cut down to about 1.5 inches which misses a few soy beans depending on the variety. We dont have the tilt mechanism on out feeder housing. There is an advantage to this in that it never brakes the sections out of the knife like the old machines. I used to change a half dozen per day. Also it is much harder to pick up stones now. It has room to just ride over them now instead of rooting them out. If it does get one behind the knife I can now see it easily because of the air reel and they can sit there for quite a while because there are no slugs of beans to knock the stone into the auger.

 

[Cowboy]

You could try removing some of the shim plates to reduce clearance from the guard to knife section ,it helped on mine.