273 square baler

[Saskfarmhand]

My baler doesnt want to tie. I fixed an old baler I got for free. Replaced needles and needle yoke. Tried it and it wouldnt tie the bales. Only would tie a single twine i think 2 twines go around the bill hook to finish the knot? I was checking and i noticed the actuating bar for the twine fingers was bent. I got it off and straightened it. Ill have to put it back on tomorrow and try it again because its too dark now. Would that cause it not to tie properly.Is it not catching the twines. Is there an online manual somewhere. I know nothing about square balers.

 

[Hoghart]

Hope you were able to get it going!

I have a 273, and all of the manuals, etc., and still cannot master the tying mechanism. I might as well be working on the space shuttle...I have no idea how it works, so I can't figure out what is messed up. Mine does fine for 3 or 4 bales, then misses a knot on one side. Then it will go 6 or 8 and then miss again. I have decided just to live with it.

 

[RDrancher]

Welcome to the forum Hoghart!

I ran an old 273 wire baler for a couple of years. I got real familiar with the workings of that baler (and chiggers) that first year! It kept missing a twist on one side, so I took it back to square-one and set the entire thing up from there. It still did it. It turned out that with all of the slop in the chain it was still slightly out of time setting it up by the book. After lots of tweaking I got it to function fairly well, but it would still miss a twist every 20-30 bales. Not sure how the twine is different then the wire setup (other than the knot setup) but I finally found the main culprit. The groove in one of the rollers that the wire feeds around had worn down and was actually pinching the wire from time to time. Once I replaced that roller I was only getting one missed tie per two hundred or so bales. That made baling a lot more enjoyable!