Combines Concave replacement

The only adverse effect you might see is that cob chunks on the shoe might increase and might be a little larger. They shouldn't, however, be any problem to separate. If you're threshing small grains or beans, consider installing whitecap plates beneath the suspension wires in at least the first 3 spaces (4 reccommended). these can be tack welded in without danger of warpage if you maintain fairly low heat. Turn the concave so the bottom is exposed and drop them between the crossbars so they rest on the bottom of the wires. They don't have to completely cover the full width of the space, about 1 1_4" in width works pretty well. Hope this helps.

Its not that difficult to do but be sure to lay a couple of boards in on the grain pan before you take the concave loose. I think a couple of 2x4's stacked worked better than a 4x4 because if you need to drop lower you can pull one 2x4 out.

Definitly lay two 2x4's side by side to give the concave something to drop down to other than the grain pan. Remove the awning plates from below the concave first to make removing it easier. When you replace the rub bars on the rotors, do only one at a time so that you don't get the shims mixed up, this is important to keep the proper bar height. Also when replacing the rub bars I recommend that you buy the bolts by part number if they don't come in the kit. If the bolts are not treated with loctite, give each of them a coating of red (high strenght) loctite. Definitly torque the bolts to the proper torque, have to check for sure, but I think they go to 165ft-lbs.

The concave on the newer JD combines is harder to see than the old ones, and evaluating the wear can be difficult.If you can possibly get a straight edge on the front bars, I think the specs call for a maximum of 1_8 inch wear, that is the center can be 1_8 inch below the straight edge and still be serviceable. If mine was even close to that, I would replace it. If you have to replace it, get a St. John's hardfaced concave. Concave replacement is not easy nor fun, and more than likely if you get a hardfaced one you will never have to do it again. They are also slightly less money than a new Deere concave.

Do you think the hardened concave does not get the usual "smile" to itIJ

There are too things I am looking for on a concave on a conventional combine. How thin are the wiresIJ If they are close to half worn off, I personally think it is high time for a new concave, if not earlier. Second: How much of a smile does the old concave haveIJ I have to take the feeder house of to check this. Then I open the concave all the way and with the help of a second person pull a string across the first bar. The string will lay flat on the bar on either side but will show a gap in the middle, because the concave wears a lot more in the middle due to the way the material comes in. If a person harvests hard threshing grain and needs to close the concave to zero, there will still be a considerable gap in the middle. If you would only harvest corn it wouldn't matter so much. So it depends on the kind of crop you are harvesting, how soon you want a new concave. The feeder house has to be pulled of to turn or replace the sprockets of the feeder top shaft. That is the time to closely inspect the concave. If you put a hardened concave in like St.John welding makes it and try to harvest high moisture corn right away, you can get in trouble. The edeges on a new concave and especially a hardened one are so sharp, that they break the rather soft kernels of high moisture corn and turn it into silage. After the feeder house is off, replacing the concave is not so bad. After all the bolts are out, I take a come along and pull the front of the concave up against the cab floor, rolling it around the cylinder and it comes out. I have a fork lift ready to catch it. Installing the concave works the same way. I hold the front up to get the rear under the cylinder (with all cylinder bars in, but no filler plates). When the concave is in a little ways, I hook a chain to the back side of the concave a little ways down and lay it over the top of the cylinder and tigh it to a cylinder bar. By turning the cylinder, the concave rolls around the cylinder back in its place. After installing the bolts the concave needs to be leveld to make sure it squares up with the cylinder.

I would recommend loewan concaves for your 9610, Ive had better wear and more exact threshing using loewan, the bars are thicker wires are bigger and they simply last two to one over deere OEM. last time I bought one it was cheaper than OEM as well. All of theirs are hardened as are deeres but youll see the difference side by side once you remove your stocker. Check out there feeder chains too, they are awesome... Good luck

Of course, but it will take a lot longer. I had a St. John's in an 8820 and never had any problem with damaged grain. I never combined any high moisture crops though, so what you say about the corn may be true. I figure if hardfaced plow shares, sweeps, etc, last 4 times as long as non hardfaced, surely a hardfaced concave would last nearly twice as long, if not longer.

agree on the lowen.gs

Thanks for your advise, I will probably need to replace my concave after this season, which will amount to about 1500 sep. hours. last year was my first with a 9000 series machine, and I had a real nast vibration_growl but only when the cyl. gearbox was in low range. After randr'ing the gearbox and finding nothing wrong which didn't hurt my feelings since now I can just run that, the growl was still there. Service guy friend of mine at deere and I pulled each others hair for a while till he was talking to another tech and someone remembered there was a rubber bushing in the cast aluminum strut that the two speed pin goes through. I took it off, and sure enough it was metal to metal. Replaced the bushing and this eliminated the rather loud noise. Just fyi, but sounds like you probalby already knew about this! Can a cherry picker reach in there and lift out the concaveIJ I have a concrete floor to work on.. Thanks again. gs