302 Baler Knotter Troubles

Hello all, I’m new here and I thank you for letting me join! I have recently acquired a property with some hay ground and bought an Allis Chalmers 302 bale chief baler. Last year being my first to ever put up hay I quickly learned that I know nothing! By the good grace of a couple of neighbors I finished the year, but this year I’m trying to prepare the baler by going through the knotter and changing out the worn out parts. Now that have said all that! My request is to those that have knowledge on bill hook replacement. I went through my local Agco dealership and they surprising sell sell parts for the old 302 , however the bill hook they sell for it is Agco part #700741640 and it interferes with the knife arm and has a slightly different shaped head. I did not think it to be wise to start bending or grinding on the swing arm, but thought I would seek wisdom for the folks here on the forum! Thanks in advance for any advice!!

All the Allis square balers (to my knowledge) used Rasspe knotters, same as New Holland and many others. There were many different bill hook options for these knotters: some to work with plastic twine, some for thin sisal, some for thick sisal. Maybe that's the case here. Usually the difference is how much 'point' there is on the tooth at the end of the pivoting jaw. Even so, I would think they should all fit if they were intended for that model of Rasspe knotter.

If you look in a manual about adjusting a knotters you'll see that they actually recommend using a pickle fork to bend the swing arm to just scrub the bill hook as part of regular inspection/maintenance. So it definitely might need to be done with yours, but you do have to be careful as you can break the arm if you try to reef on it two much.

First thing is to sharpen twine knife. A dull knife can cause problems.