John Deere 1050 Front Oil Seal & Other Stuff

[kleinhhl]

Hi all,

First off, this is my first post and first time working on tractors. I have worked on my Ram 2500 diesel truck. :thumbsup:

I just bought a John Deere 1050 with a Woods LC108 loader. It starts right up with no blow-by that I can see... no pressure to speak of from the crankcase breather or from the oil fill cap. It does have a front crank oil seal leak, a slight fuel leak from the injection pump where the fuel lines attach and a rather large leak of gear oil from the front MFWD axle area.

1. The tech manual says to take the entire front end of the tractor off to replace the front oil seal. It looks like I can just remove the hood, battery box and radiator/fan shroud and the radiator support without removing the whole axle assembly? I should then be able to get at the timing cover... fingers crossed.

2. For the gear oil leak out of the MFWD, the differential case breather tube was clogged with mud... I'm thinking mud daubers. There was significant pressure released when I removed the oil fill cap. I think the leak is coming from the area where the front differential drive shaft attaches to the front differential case. There is also a small leak out of the bottom cover of the left final drive housing. So, I think I'll have to replace the seals in those two areas... sigh.

Would post pics but I can't yet...

 

[Zebrafive]

I had one injector line leaking on my 2030. The sealing washers were only $0.14 each, simple to replace.

 

[kleinhhl]

I replaced the fuel pump o-rings tonight and the hardest parts were making sure the injector pump "plunger" hardware was reassembled correctly and bleeding the air from the fuel lines. Bleeding the fuel lines took a while until I realized there was another bleed screw on the fuel pump itself where the banjo bolt attaches the main fuel line. One leak down...

This weekend, I will replace the rocker arm cover gasket and adjust the valve clearances. I'm a little unclear if there are timing marks somewhere on the engine to determine TDC. Anybody know? The tech manual says to "crank" the engine until the first cylinder rocker arms are loose. Can I "crank" the engine from the crank pulley with a socket or something?

 

[chriswheeler]

Replacing the front crank seal is no big deal. When I rebuilt my 950, I changed that seal without to much fuss. Your 1050 is the same motor with a turbo. Seal itself is cheap from John Deere. Just take the drive belt off, pull the damper, clean all of the surfaces, pull the old seal. Re-clean all surfaces squeaky clean and lube the new seal with neverseeze, lube the crank seal area, lube the bore of the seal with some clean motor oil. Carefully drive in the new seal into place re-assemble everything. The above will only apply if you have a decent set of tools, and a little time turning wrenches. Removing the nut off the damper goes best with a 1/2 impact wrench, comes right off. Don't think I had over a hour into that job.
Chris

 

[kleinhhl]

Okay thanks chriswheeler... I'm going to tackle the front oil seal this weekend and also adjust the valve clearance, if needed, while everything is accessible. Once I fix this leak and the front gear oil leak, I'm looking forward to using this tractor.

I have a Woods LC108 loader working off the rear remote hydraulic controls and I plan on adding a Prince joystick loader valve with float and third function to control a Western snow plow... I'll try to post pics of everything once I get things ready.

Zebrafive, thanks for the input. I replaced the o-rings and no longer have a fuel leak out of the lines going to the fuel injection pump. Bleeding was an issue until I realized that there was a separate bleed screw on the banjo bolt attaching the main fuel line to the fuel injection pump. Once bled, the tractor started right up.

 

[kleinhhl]

So the John Deere 1050 tech manual says to use a 3-1/6" and a 2-5/16" seal driver tool to install the seal. This is a "special tool" which I don't have but I plan on cutting two discs of wood into those dimensions and sanding the edges. I guess the two diameters are to keep the tool centered on the seal when you are driving the seal in?

Another question... chriswheeler says to put some anti-sieze on the outer part of the seal and some engine oil on the inner part of the seal to drive against the crankshaft. Just to clarify, the tech manual says to not put any grease on the "lip" of the seal as this would eliminate the seal's sealing ability. Should I still coat the crankshaft with engine oil?

Here is the exact quote from the tech manual:

"The front oil seal is a pumping seal. A rib design in the seal prevents oil from leaking during crankshaft operation. DO NOT apply grease to the lip of the seal. This would eliminate the seals pumping ability."

 

[chriswheeler]

That's why I said neverseeze on the outer sealing edge to make seating the seal easier, clean motor oil in the bore of the seal and on the crank seal surface. Hardest part of this job is pulling the damper, having a puller that fits. Having something that will drive the new seal into place helps, I used a old larger socket that I had laying around the shop. Quick job.
Chris

 

[kleinhhl]

So I started on this job today and am ready to take the front timing cover off the tractor. The crank pulley came off without much trouble but I had to run out to buy some different bolts to mount my puller.

Chriswheeler, thanks for the tips...

Pics in next post.

 

[kleinhhl]

Partially disassembled


End of crankshaft


Crank pulley with puller


Crank pulley with puller


Crank pulley machined surface


Old seal

 

[kleinhhl]

Well, got her back together yesterday... the second picture is of the tractor running... no more huge oil leak from the front end. Hardest part was reconnecting the injection fuel pump linkage and spring. Cleaning the old baked on gasket material off of the various surfaces was also somewhat difficult.





Again, thanks for the tips, Chriswheeler.