I greased my 326 NI 2 row picker yesterday, I got to looking for a fitting to grease the front sprokets on the gathering chains.. no fitting.. a hour later I had the sheet metal off and the front sproket out.. still no way to grease the sproket.. are these made to run steel on steel with out lube? I didnt see anything in the manual on how to lube them. thanks!
All the NI pickers have those cast sprockets with the "cone" center and run steel-on-steel. When the set gets worn enough that the wide end of the cone sits below the rim of the sprocket, you replace the set.
I just looked at the 'nice' 324 picker that I use and keep in the shed and it indeed has steel-on-steel cones in the sprockets. So what was I thinking of? I looked at the parts 324 down back (the picker that preceded the 'nice' one in use), and somebody had taken the time and trouble to drill them out when they were worn, and bush them with bronze.
