JD 336 Baler Kicker

Hello.

My John Deere 336 baler has been breaking a lot of shear bolts in the flywheel lately. I go a little slower and avoid breaking them, but obviously would like to get that taken care of. The first thing listed in the manual is dull knives, just wondering if anybody else has had this problem and what you did to fix it.

Also, my kicker, a #30, doesn't work right unless I have it up at 5 or above. I wondered if anybody had any input on that. If I set it below five the pan will extend and kick the first bale and come back down slowly so the next bale ends up underneath it.

Any help you can provide is appreciated.

Broke a bunch in the 336 a few years ago, never from the knife or feeding too much material. Ended up having the wrong bolt in the knotter trip and the needles were coming part way in and letting the plunger stop hit. It was the source of great frustration. Mine misses knots on one knotter if you run too fast.

The spring in the kicker cylinder is probably broken, it helps bring the pan back into position quicker.

Pull up on the needle carriage to see if it has come back all the way up. If it sags down a little while you are baling the plunger stops will engage and stop the plunger.

Needle brake might need to be tightened. Loose brake will allow needles to drift back.

My baler breaks a flywheel shear bolt occasionally and I don’t know why. The needle plunger stop rod was getting the connecting link holes worn bigger, allowing the stop to hit the plunger pitman arm.so check all that.

On your kicker, I agree the inner spring may be cracked. I replaced both of mine.

Besides what the other guys have said, there is the possibility that your flywheel center bushing is shot and puts much more strain of the shear bolt. We just replaced that bushing on one of out 328 balers and it helped to reduce the shear bolt problem. If you replace that bushing be careful. You need to remove the flywheel and it weighs about 300 lbs. We used a portable engine hoist. If you can rock the flywheel left side to right side, then you have a worn out flywheel bushing.

The plunger knives can be sharpened and probably need to be. One is located on the cut side of the plunger head, and the other is mounted on the side of the bale chamber. Both can be removed without pulling out the plunger They are just bolted in. They act like the 2 blades of a scissors when hay is being fed. There is a spec for the distance the blades must be from each other, so they don't crash together. You make that adjustment with shims behind the blades. When I do not have official JD shims available, I make my own from sheet metal. Check your blade separation with a feeler gauge.

The distance throw wheel can be reset to whatever number you want to see, but I doubt that is your problem. I do suspect the return spring inside of the thrower's hydraulic cylinder is broken It can not be seen from the outside. Only by disassembling this cylinder can you find if the spring has broken, but it is a common problem with older balers.

We were running 4 JD square balers and one NH round baler on a field yesterday. It was quite a sight. The square balers were making horse hay, and the round baler was working on the lowland to make cattle feed and bedding.

Good Luck with your repairs.


Paul in MN

Are you breaking shear bolts with the plunger safety stop or are they breaking after a period of use (ie you bale for a while and then you notice the feeder fork is acting erratic, you turn the PTO off and the bolt is sheared)? If the latter, install a shear bolt and before tightening rock the flywheel. Over the decades the shear bolt bushing and the hole in the flywheel drive flange can get egg shaped and the bolt is moving sideways a tiny bit in use eventually breaking them. The flywheel bushing is replaceable and I welded up and redrilled the hole in the flange on our 336 a number of years ago.

I'll add to what other posters stated about checking needle brake & for worn hole that shear bolt fits in to check main slip clutch to be sure it's ""not stuck"". The slip clutch is designed to slip a minimal amount each time PH compresses hay.

My observation over the yrs is slip clutches are normally over looked when preparing equipment for initial service each year

Going a bit slower? Are you reducing ground speed or idling engine down? The baler needs to run at 540 pto rpm. Especially for correct thrower operation.

Good morning.

Thank you for all the responses. I really do appreciate the help.

To answer all the questions, I definitely think my flywheel is worn, both the bushing and the hole that the shear bolt goes through. I know those are problems but I know I have never sharpened my knives either so I got to do that.
When I bale now I use a lower gear but I still have my RPMs up high enough. Based on all the responses here I really think those are the two main causes of the bolts breaking, although I will be sure to check all the other concerns that people have brought up. Thank you for all of those, most of them I would not have even thought of.

With regard to the kicker, I had it in the yard with nothing in there and it was working fine from 2 to 8. It would kick when it was set at 2 and you could see it was a much softer kick and when I cranked it up to 8 it was really moving. As it is now it returns back in place when I use it at 5 or above, so I don't know how the spring could be broken? Maybe there's more to it than I know. The only thing I can think of is I might not have had my RPMs up high enough when I was trying to use the kicker at a lower setting. But thanks for all the suggestions there also.

If anybody else has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Thanks.

Two more possible causes for breaking shear bolts are hay not dry enough and too much side to side play in the plunger head. There are specs for measuring and adjusting side to side clearance in your manual. This also adjusts the critical knife clearance. WRT the thrower, they need to have the main hydraulic control valve cleaned every few years.

UP Oliver
If you haven't loosened slip clutch enough to slip then readjust so it doesn't slip excessively I recommend you do so. It won't cost you any $$$$ only a little time. 328 operators manual states springs should be compressed to 39.9 mm (1-9/16 in.)

Thanks Jim.

I will take a look at that. My baler was
used for a long time before I got it, and
I have never done anything to the clutch.
And I have never sharpened the knives, but
I will take a look at that clutch. I have
wondered about that.

Thanks.