Massey ferguson 565 combine good or bad?

[Exfarmer]

Hi,

I had a 565 for about twenty years! I changed it for a 29XP which was OK being a hydro but some of the parts on it were an absolute B****d to work on.
The 565 was much easier in that respect.
Cab was damn noisy though especially with field peas rattling around as well.

Some people have mentioned the wobble box may be a problem but as far as I remember it was a Claas part.
I had some trouble with hydraulic safety poppet valves at one point. They had a small nylon type sweat that could split preventing the circuit operating.
The vario pulley needs care But most of the stuff was basic maintenance really.
One of the motivations for changing it was that the second hand parts I was sourcing were often no better than what I had. Our machine was 1984 and that was around the end of production. All the breaker yard stuff had been well hammered already.

As far as i can remember the machine was a sort of hybrid between the 525 and the 665. The running gear and chassis were more of the 665 style but i think it was effectively one straw Walker narrower than the 665.

My old machine was sold in good order down to the West Country. However I think the transport lorry driver must have dragged it under every low tree between South Norfolk and it’s new home. Although some of the blame must have rested with the purchaser for sending a normal flat bed lorry trailer rather than a low loader.

A.

If they used a Claas wobble box on those French built machines, that would have no relationship to the older MF boxes. To be fair I Am certain that MF did upgrade the wobble box over the years and it was the earlier ones that gave them so much trouble. Our local dealer always had a couple of refurbished boxes on the shelf.

 

[David.]

Surely the Claas knife drive gearbox is common to the Dronningborg headers, and thus also to some of the Case AF models too that had the Dron header ?

 

[MF-ANDY]

Surely the Claas knife drive gearbox is common to the Dronningborg headers, and thus also to some of the Case AF models too that had the Dron header ?

Yes claas box in the 34 38 40 series dronningborg. No wobble box on 24 27 29 31 series.

 

[Bokey]

Hi,

I had a 565 for about twenty years! I changed it for a 29XP which was OK being a hydro but some of the parts on it were an absolute B****d to work on.
The 565 was much easier in that respect.
Cab was damn noisy though especially with field peas rattling around as well.

Some people have mentioned the wobble box may be a problem but as far as I remember it was a Claas part.
I had some trouble with hydraulic safety poppet valves at one point. They had a small nylon type sweat that could split preventing the circuit operating.
The vario pulley needs care But most of the stuff was basic maintenance really.
One of the motivations for changing it was that the second hand parts I was sourcing were often no better than what I had. Our machine was 1984 and that was around the end of production. All the breaker yard stuff had been well hammered already.

As far as i can remember the machine was a sort of hybrid between the 525 and the 665. The running gear and chassis were more of the 665 style but i think it was effectively one straw Walker narrower than the 665.

My old machine was sold in good order down to the West Country. However I think the transport lorry driver must have dragged it under every low tree between South Norfolk and it’s new home. Although some of the blame must have rested with the purchaser for sending a normal flat bed lorry trailer rather than a low loader.

A.

What hours had yours done when you sold it I'm only doing very small acerage so hoping I can keep er going but that's guna be my problem breaker yard parts will be same or worse condition that's on it sounds like you had good experience with em so that's good was the one you upgraded to a brown undercarriage machine then?

 

[Bokey]

I will take some pics of the header later so you can all tell me what it is I'm sure it's a French built thing so will that have mf wobble box?

 

[David.]

Let's have a picture of the knife drive gearbox.

 

[Bokey]

Let's have a picture of the knife drive gearbox.

 

[Bokey]

Sorry couldn't get a good pic of the wobble box took the wrong sized spanner with me took some pics an I thought you might like to c some of my other massey stuff I still use drill an fertiliser spinner il try again tomorrow for pic on gearbox

 

[MF-ANDY]

A "New Profile" table. Masseys own wobble box I believe

 

[David.]

Not the same as Claas one, I'm afraid.

 

[dynosoar]

I had a feeling there were some claas logo’s on the casting somewhere but it is a long time ago. I do remember loosing one of the bob weights on the drive and running with two instead of four for a while.

the 29XP was ok but seemed like the designers conspired against operator maintenance. I ran it for about three years and sold it on quite easily locally this time.
The 34 came from rock’s in good order. It has power flow which works well. I have had a few shaker shoe issues which are pretty well expected really.
new rasp bars last year, so i will have to get my money’s worth from them..
it has to cover around 70ha a year, it would be nice to have a bit more capacity as i only go in the dry and am without help usually but it always a question of cost which is why i run MF in the first place.

A