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Sep 02, 2023

Combine repair adventures not for faint of heart

Published: August 24, 2023 Opinion Δ gform.initializeOnLoaded( function() {gformInitSpinner( 46, 'https://www.producer.com/wp-content/plugins/gravityforms/images/spinner.svg', true

Published: August 24, 2023

Opinion

Δ

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You’d think that with such a spindly crop, harvest would be fast and easy. Instead, for me at least, it’s been a season of fix and repair daily, if not hourly.

We got a new-to-us combine last fall and we kept the better of our two much older combines. What could go wrong when you have the nicest combine to ever grace the farm and a second combine as a backup? As it’s turning out, lots can go wrong.

When a shaker bearing went on the newer combine, it was the type of repair you have to expect. Shortly after running to the city for that bearing and installing it, a shoe arm snapped off and it was back to the city for another part.

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There are three main ways of accessing land: cash rental agreements, crop shares, or crop shares with inputs (a joint venture). Each of these options has benefits and drawbacks.

Since the bottom half of the arm was missing, we didn’t realize that we’d also lost a sensor bracket. Without that bracket moving back and forth with the arm, the sensor wouldn’t work. Steady intermittent beeping in the cab wears on your nerves.

Starting the combine was another issue. Sometimes it would fire right up and other times it would just click and not turn over. After enough attempts, we always got it going, but it was clear the solenoid on the starter needed replacement.

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Cat engine in this combine. Took about a week to get the solenoid. Kept using the combine until one day the starter just wouldn’t engage. Solenoid replacement is easy, I was advised. Ah, but no one told me there’s a trick with Cat engines.

You remove the bolts expecting to pull the old solenoid out and it only comes part way. How do you undo whatever is holding the plunger when it’s inside the assembly.

YouTube to the rescue. One specific video was a Mexican fellow speaking Spanish and although I couldn’t understand him, I could see the end of the assembly has a cap that unscrews so you can get to the nut holding the plunger.

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This required climbing up the side of the combine, but it worked like a charm. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. The feeling was short-lived.

Nicely into the chickpeas, I pushed the button to dump the hopper. A few bushels came out followed by grinding and a bang. Consulting the instruction book, apparently a shear bolt needed to be replaced in the cross auger. That shear bolt was in the hopper filled with chickpeas.

The chickpeas were drained out a small port on the side of the hopper and down a tube into a Batco conveyor. Once the cross auger was accessible, the shear bolt was replaced. Should be ready to go. Unfortunately, not.

The cross auger turned, but nothing else. After a great deal of wasted time trying to figure out the problem, we discovered the cross auger shaft was twisted right off just behind where the shear pin was installed.

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We decided this was a job for the dealership and that they could do a full-service check at the same time. We’d just finished the last half of harvest with the old standby combine.

It had blown a radiator fan bearing, but we finally got the Cummins engine parts and got it all back together. And we had to employ the local air conditioning expert to rebuild that system when it failed and left us sweltering in the cab.

We’ve had many more misadventures, but I’m out of space. We’re limping along. I hope your harvest is more trouble free.

Kevin Hursh is an agricultural journalist, consultant and farmer. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

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