NewHolland 68 Help

Hi guys it's Bryce. Alright, I have decided to fix up this NH 68 Hayliner that I have sitting in my meadow, however I need your help. I need a list of what I should do before trying to use the baler. I am only 15 and have never set up a baler before, so please bear with me! It has the two cylinder Wisconsin Air Cooled on the front, it is stuck, really bad! I have no problem getting the engine fixed, but the rest is just a puzzle to me. The engine runs three V belts around the flywheel and then around this other little pulley (for engaging and disengaging.)I think that I will probably sand blast the entire unit and prime and paint it the original colors, is there any risk to doing that, and does anyone know where I can find the original decals? Any help would be appreciated, I would also like to find some original manuals if anyone has them! Thanks, Bryce

Well, much depends on what you intend to do with the baler...if you intend on makeing hay then ditch the air cooled engine and add on a pto shaft. These are / were very good machines, be sure to check the plunger guids, probably will need to be replaced. You could invest a pile of money real quick if you buy new parts, so I would look for a donor machine or consider a newer model to repair / restore. I think the 269 model has the very same knotters, ect. other parts are not the same though.

Going through the same process with a super 66 with my 4H club.

I'd suggest doing it the way we are.

Get it all running and working before investing too much time/money into it.

If you can find a pto drive, that greatly simplifies things. You can still run it with the engine once you get it going - but the pto drive will prove whether or not the whole baler's worth saving - before you go spending time and money on the engine.

you should be able to pick up a pto clutch and shaft setup pretty cheaply somewhere. Not sure exactly what models you can pull from, but I put a 68 shaft on our 66 with no trouble.

Evaluate the innards. If your bale chamber is rotted out, or you have other major areas of rot - consider very carefully that you can buy an old WORKING baler for very little money.

Needles can be a pain in the butt to find - if you need one, look around now (again, before spending time and effort).

How are the tires? That's a heavy machine, questionable tires will make your life miserable. But if you need to buy new ones - might be one of those things that makes the project not worth pursuing.

If you can cheaply get it spitting out consistent bales, then you should decide if it's worth sandblasting and painting.

Of course, if you're emotionally attached to the baler and you just want to get it prettied up - by all means do what you have to do. But for me, I don't like to take on a project unless I KNOW it's not going to be a money pit.

Only way I will ever sand blast any thing is to take it apart so sand does not get into bearings etc. As for the engine if it does not and has not had water in the cylinder fill it with ATF so it can soak while you work on the rest of the machine

Well, I am the second owner of the machine, and I knew the man that had it before me very well. He passed away and left it to me. I am restoring his Ferguson to-30, and would like the baler to go with it. If I am going to restore it, it is going to be original. I will keep the engine. Tires I am not concerned about, I can handle all of the engine stuff, but I don't really know anything about the inside! My dad wants the Wisconsin as a stationary engine for him to play with regardless of whether or not use it on the baler, so I think that we will fix it up even if we don't fix the baler. I already know where there is a parts machine, but how do I know if it is better, or even worse than the one that I have got? I will try to upload a picture later. Thanks, Bryce

My dad had a 68 when I was kid (in the 60's) and it had the Wisconsin engine on it. I can still hear that thing surging in my memory. Dad put a PTO shaft on the baler and used it a long time before replacing it with a Massey Ferguson baler.
I have a Wisconsin engine off a NH baler that an old farmer friend gave me a few years ago. I rebuilt it, just so I could hear that distinctive sound again. Now it just sits in my garage. If you're interested, I would be willing to set you up with it. I'm glad to know that a young fellow like yourself has such a keen interest in old machines.
Good Luck and God Bless

I am just in taking a break from baling hay with an Old NH271 baler I pulled out of a fence row years ago. When I got this baler the thing had sat long enough every thing was pretty much freeze up but I just kept messing with it and it now bales just fine. Been using parts off a 68 to keep this 271 going by the way

Heres a few pics I had on my camera. Let me know what you think! Thanks, Bryce

(quoted from post at 15:41:19 09/09/13) Heres a few pics I had on my camera. Let me know what you think! Thanks, Bryce

Click to expand...

Oh man, oh man...memories. I spent many summers behind my neighbor's NH Hayliner 68, and my dad's super 68. Great balers.

I remember them being picky about how much hay is being fed into the chamber. The 68 liked it moderately full, the super 68 liked it chock full of hay (big windrows). We fought the 'banana bales' real bad some years.
They also liked horsepower - dad's 50hp IH wasn't as good as neighbor's 80hp Case.

That one looks pretty good if it's been sitting outside this whole time! Looks like original wheel on the chamber side maybe?

Good luck! I hope you can get it going!

I still use a Super 68 PTO drive, Good old baler. Bought mine long time ago from an Uncle that retired, had very low usage compared to newer ones. He was a small dairy farmer. that one you have looks like a kind of tired old girl but I'm sure it will fix up, there just isn't all that much to them. It depends on what you want to do with it. I completely rebuilt mine about 10 years ago, was able to get every piece from the local NH dealer. I would try to get the owners manual from a dealer or on line. If you plan to use it when finished in fine or short hay replace the straight teeth in the pickup with the newer style curved ones. it really makes a difference. Good luck on your project.

That old girl looks pretty rough but so did this 271 I use. I just did around 100 bales with it and missed 2 which for a fence row baler not all that bad

good baler to learn on. i would find another, with a drive shaft, and lose the motor, run it with any tractor over about 35 hp.

If you go over to the N tractor site, they have a manual for a Super 68 you can look at. The plunger bearings are the difference I can think of right off between a 68 and a super 68. I have a 68 myself that was bought new by my grandfather and originally had the Wisconsin motor on it and pulled it with a TE-20 Ferguson until they bought a Massey 165 in 1965 and converted it to a pto drive. I just rebuilt the knotters on mine and put new wedges in the chamber. Parts are easy to find for these machines. New Holland 67 parts will work and I think some 69 parts will also. A 67 had a short tongue and pto and a 68 had a long tounge and pto otherwise they were the same. I know a 69 was long tounge and the knotters are the same. It may be their pickup has another bar in it or something. You can also take the pto shaft of older Massey balers too. I have seen them installed on New Hollands before. I would roll the flywheel over by hand and check the gearbox out and check the bale chamber out and see if it is rusted through anywhere. If its pretty solid I would think it would be worth fixing. You can get most any part you want for them. I think the decals aren"t available anymore although you might find some NOS ones somewhere. I can take some measurements and photos of the original decals on mine if you need me to. Then you can just go to a sign shop and have some decals cut out of vinyl.

You can get the decals from probably any sign shop if you have the original dimensions. However, I was able to get them from Inspirations Vinyl in Altamont, IL a couple years ago when I started on mine.

The Wisconsin engines are pretty simple to go through since they are air cooled, so that"s where I started with mine. There are also still lots of parts available for them on ebay. I'm still working on the rest of it (other projects have moved ahead of the baler unfortunately, but I'm hoping to get back to it soon).

Would you be able to get me in touch with them? Were they custom made for you, or did they already have them made? Also, was it the entire decal set, or just a few new holland's? Thanks, Bryce

That would be awesome if you were willing to part with the engine! Shoot me an e-mail and we can discuss it if you would like! Thanks Bryce
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It was a complete set, and they were made for someone else (he just kept the patterns). The email address I have (replace the * with an @) is InspirationsVinyl*usa.com, and I dealt with Dan.