A couple Gleaner L3 questions
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Topic: A couple Gleaner L3 questions
Posted By: CrestonM
Subject: A couple Gleaner L3 questions
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2017 at 3:50pm
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Ok...guess I'm just bored with winter and am thinking of the coming harvests this year.... I've wondered for a while, and I know you guys can help me out. I'm trying to figure out how to set the L3 to perform the best it can. I have a few questions and "what if" situations, so I'm hoping I can get the solutions before I'm in the field scratching my head. As always...any thoughts/opinions/advice are appreciated. Question 1: There has always been some wheat loss with the L3, and never a prefectly clean sample. I know there has to be some loss. I don't think you could ever get a 100% perfect bin sample without some loss, but I want to minimize my loss. If I have someone throw a piece of cardboard under the combine while I'm cutting, then we analyze what's on the cardboard, how do I tell if the grain is carried over the shoe or carried over the straw walkers? If it was from the shoe, I would say either open up the chaffer a little bit more or dial down the air a bit (depending on how much chaff is in the bin already). But if it's carried over the walkers, what do you do? I've heard some people say you can raise the end of the walkers up to help, but I've never done that. There's also the question about balancing shafts. The combine throws chains, and I've always blamed it on my uncles' refusal over the past 30 years to oil the chains daily. The big shoe sprocket on the left side of the machine is pretty worn I think. The chain has a lot of side-to-side movement. They put a new fan double sprocket on a few years ago, and the chain is pretty tight on that one. Not much side-to-side movement. However....that's not the chain that always gets thrown. The chain that always gets thrown is the chain that links the bottom clean grain elevator shaft and the fan. Since the fan sprocket is new, I'm wondering if maybe the clean grain elevator shaft is out of balance. How do you balance a shaft? The sprocket is worn, but it's not as bad as the shoe sprocket I mentioned earlier. A guy told me once maybe the sprockets were not aligned properly, and I guess I need to check that. Is there a proper way to do that, other than eyeballing it? Also....we've put new chains on, and that doesn't do much good. I know the worn sprockets turn a new chain into a shot chain really fast. I'm just trying to figure out what my next move should be. I want to make this combine great again. We're going to have wheat, milo, and canola harvest this year, so it'll be a busy year for the ol' girl!
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Replies:
Posted By: Mike NEIN
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2017 at 3:57pm
| When we had our L2 dad always walked behind or to the side with a scoop shovel and caught it coming off the shoe and looked it over. |
Posted By: CrestonM
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2017 at 3:59pm
That's a good idea!
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Mike NEIN wrote:Posted By: Auntwayne
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2017 at 8:53pm
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Grain will bounce off of the flat cardboard Creston. Something with sides to hold in your samples....like a large cardboard lid !
------------- Dad always said," If you have one boy, you have a man. If you have two boys, you have two boys". "ALLIS EXPRESS" |
Posted By: Ron(AB)
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2017 at 12:23am
| I would use a straight edge, like a square or a new piece of angle iron, to check the alignment of the sprockets if it throws chains and the sprockets, chains are good etc. |
Posted By: Leon B MO
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2017 at 9:28am
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We use a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of diesel and used engine oil, we oil the chains and grease faithfully every day. If the tooth of the sprocket it sharp or you can see wear, it's time to replace it. Otherwise, it will just ruin a new chain. We do lots of preventitive maintenence (sprockets, chains, bearings, flighting, high wear areas), maybe we could get by without spending quite as much on the old L3's but once we get in the field, they are very reliable. Leon B ------------- Uncle always said "Fill the back of the shovel and the front will take care of itself". |
Posted By: jiminnd
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2017 at 10:05am
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We used to use what we called a hog pan, that has sides on it. Also you need to check before that back of the combine, you may be losing some at the head, especiaaly if you are picking up windrows. Just my opinion but I don't think you will lose any over the walkers unless it is wet straw. ------------- 1945 C, 1949 WF and WD, 1981 185, 1982 8030, unknown D14(nonrunner) |
Posted By: GM Guy
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2017 at 12:11am
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well, in wheat you can basically eliminate one thing from the settings: worrying about walker loss. It is non-existent on a L/M series combine. On the L/M series, it is possible to get a perfect sample with zero loss, but you will lose some capacity. We will dial in the shoe by catching a sample by hand or with a shovel while someone else operates the machine. To check for loss at the feederhouse (wore out wear strip leaking grain, etc.) bring it to a stop, lift feederhouse, let clean out, shut down seperator, back up. get out and check for grain on the ground anywhere ahead of where the shoe cleaned out. To fine tune the sieve setting after getting the chaffer dialed in, we monitor the return elevator contents (the joy of the return system of the Gleaner conventional) and monitor bin sample, and fine tune it from there. As far as throwing chains, that is not common nor normal, it needs diagnosed and fixed. how sloppy are the chains, and how hook toothed are the sprockets? like said above, lay a straight edge to it and make sure the sprockets line up. Also, take care in keeping the shoe drive chain adjusted, if it gets sloppy that is hard on stuff and might contribute to a twisted shaft. ------------- Gleaner: the properly engineered and built combine. If you need parts for your Gleaner, we are parting out A's through L2's, so we may be able to help. |
Posted By: shameless (ne)
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2017 at 2:54am
| what's wrong with your other combines? give up on them already? them are all that were used before the sp combines came out. and they always got done with the harvests! |