489 Haybine guards

I bought a 489 and it has some problems. What guards should it have on the knives? I know New Holland has a # and the after market is BU215. I see AGRI Supply shows FQ215 is there new # for the same part. I have FQ215 now and I'm having trouble getting the knife bar to slide back in. I loosened all the guards and it will let knife bar slide in. I tightened the guards and I can't move the knife bar. I have never done this before. Am I doing something wrong? Seems like it shouldn't be that tight.

If you are having trouble sliding the knife in and out my advice is this . Go to one end of the header , and look down the length of the knife. What you most probably will see is that some guards are bent up , and some bent down from hitting rocks. You can straighten these bent guards back into their proper position with a guard bender.
Now your next question will be ,"where can I get a guard bender?" That is simple, you make one. All you need is to find a length of pipe, about 4 feet long , that will fit easily over the front of the guard, while the guard is still fastened on to the haybine. Then cut a piece off of the pipe about 6 inches long, and weld it to the remaining long piece of pipe, about 4-6 inches from the end of the pipe. That is your guard bender. Now just establish which guard is bent up, slip the shorter pipe over the end of the guard, and the longer end will go under the guard. Now press down , bending the guard back into the appropriate position. If the guard is bent down , reverse the procedure.
In most cases , it is not really the guard that is bent, but the place on the header where the guard is bolted on that is bent. The knife rubbing against the knife will make it "run hard". And if some are bent up while others are bent down , just makes it that much harder as you can imagine.
If I have only made you more confused, I could take a picture of a guard bender that I made many years ago , and post it for you. Bruce

I've put quite a few FQ215 guards on my 479 haybine and they work well. Knife was a little tight to install but not overly so. Sure does cut good. I've got one of those guard straighteners too. A length of heavy square tubing that fits over the end of the guard. Apply upward or downward leverage as required.

Thank you sir, and yes a picture would be helpful. I have also noticed a kink in my knife bar so I'm going to try to fix that. Thank you

As others said you have to custom fit each guard by bending it. Get out your shim set (feeler gages)and use the 020 gauge, Try for that between the section and the ledger of the guard. Also if you have smooth guards you want serrated sections. If you have serrated ledgers on guards you should have smooth sections.
If the total gap of the inside upper of the guard is much over 0,175 replace it/

Thank you sir. I have never seen serrated guards. But I did buy serrated knives. I did shim the guard on power end of the bar. I didn't think I could bend that one very well. I took the kink out of the knife bar and all started sliding pretty good. I have it all back together now and I think I try it out Monday. I have more question if you don't mind, What are the 3 most forgotten greased points on a 489?

Thank you sir, I'm not so worried about having the wrong guards now. Got any tips on greasing a 489?

(quoted from post at 14:56:17 07/16/17) I have more question if you don't mind, What are the 3 most forgotten greased points on a 489?

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I never got a manual with my 479 so I don't know about the grease frequency on the knife head drive but I give mine a shot or two every time I use it. Just from memory I think mine has 4 grease points at that drive.

Thanks Rusty

JD made a lot of guards with serrated inserts.
Don't forget that new stuff, Chain lube/It sticks to the chain real well,

JD made a lot of guards with serrated inserts.
Don't forget that new stuff, Chain lube/It sticks to the chain real well,

It helps if you use the same maker guards all the way across. I have found that quality control is lax on some of the aftermarket guards.