ford 1710 new owner with several questions

[asylum]

Thanks to JC and everyone else that has responded to my previous posts during my purchase of a 1710. Now I have it home and have been using it for about 3 days now. I have several concerns and questions. I'm all about preventative maintenance, so I plan on changing the fluids this weekend. Prior to doing so, I have a few leaks I have questions about.

1. Tranny fluid leaking at the housing where the tranny/hydraulic filter screws on. It appears to be leaking where the housing bolts (one bolt) onto the transmission. From what I see, it is an O ring and I ordered one today.

2. Oil is leaking at the front axle (4x4). It is leaking where the pivot bracket connects to the front differential. It is leaking in front and back of the pivot bracket. Looking at the schematics, it looks like there are a bunch of seals and O rings. Here are my questions: do I have to pull front axle to take this apart? Is this motor oil or gear oil (It is black)? Should I worry about it at all? It is leaking a couple of drops daily.

3. Speaking of front axle, I see the drain plug, but I can not find the fill plug. How do I fill the SAE 80 gear oil into the front differential?

4. Today I hooked up the finish mower. I push the clutch pedal in and went to engage the PTO - grind. I had to ram it into gear to engage the PTO. This should not occur, correct? When I push the clutch in, I should be able to engage the PTO without a grind, right? Also, what is the level at my right heal? Is that a clutch brake? It is not doing anything when I step on it. Comments?


Again, I have been crawling over this tractor and my manual to get my answers. What I can't find, I go to the experts - you all! I appreciate all the advice and help you all are providing me.

Thanks
Bob

 

[North Dakota]

..... Today I hooked up the finish mower. I push the clutch pedal in and went to engage the PTO - grind. I had to ram it into gear to engage the PTO. This should not occur, correct? When I push the clutch in, I should be able to engage the PTO without a grind, right? Also, what is the level at my right heal? Is that a clutch brake? It is not doing anything when I step on it. Comments?.....
Thanks
Bob

The lever at your right heel is a differential lock for the rear wheels. If you are short on traction in 2wd put your heel on the lever and push down. when it gets a chance it will click down and both back wheels spin. You have to keep standing on it to keep the differential locked. Once you let up on the lever it will pop back up by itself after a short time. I've used mine a few times but with the 4wd engaged I tend to have enough traction. Do not use the lever if one of the tires is spinning fast push in the clutch and let it stop first.

PTO engaging. Mine will grind a little when I put it in. The clutch is a two stage clutch you must push it all the way flat with the floor to disengage the PTO. I find that after I push it all the way down that if I wait a little bit I can put it in with out grinding. There is a way to adjust the clutch in the owners manual. I'm going to sit down and see if I can get it adjusted a little better.

My front axle on one side leaks a tiny bit but not enough that I'm worried about it. edit: (my leak is down by the front tire where the vertical meets the horizontal. Mine does not leak at the center front pivot.)

 

[JC-jetro]

Thanks to JC and everyone else that has responded to my previous posts during my purchase of a 1710. Now I have it home and have been using it for about 3 days now. I have several concerns and questions. I'm all about preventative maintenance, so I plan on changing the fluids this weekend. Prior to doing so, I have a few leaks I have questions about.

1. Tranny fluid leaking at the housing where the tranny/hydraulic filter screws on. It appears to be leaking where the housing bolts (one bolt) onto the transmission. From what I see, it is an O ring and I ordered one today.

2. Oil is leaking at the front axle (4x4). It is leaking where the pivot bracket connects to the front differential. It is leaking in front and back of the pivot bracket. Looking at the schematics, it looks like there are a bunch of seals and O rings. Here are my questions: do I have to pull front axle to take this apart? Is this motor oil or gear oil (It is black)? Should I worry about it at all? It is leaking a couple of drops daily.

3. Speaking of front axle, I see the drain plug, but I can not find the fill plug. How do I fill the SAE 80 gear oil into the front differential?

4. Today I hooked up the finish mower. I push the clutch pedal in and went to engage the PTO - grind. I had to ram it into gear to engage the PTO. This should not occur, correct? When I push the clutch in, I should be able to engage the PTO without a grind, right? Also, what is the level at my right heal? Is that a clutch brake? It is not doing anything when I step on it. Comments?


Again, I have been crawling over this tractor and my manual to get my answers. What I can't find, I go to the experts - you all! I appreciate all the advice and help you all are providing me.

Thanks
Bob

Bob,

I take a stab at your questions.

1) you are on the right track. You may be able to jack the front of the tractor to move all the hyd oil back to the differential housing so you would not loose oil when you take the filter off to inspect connection , put o-ring and what else you may need to do to stop the leak.

2) Take a pic and show exactly what you are talking about. At least on 2wd, The center pivot has grease Zerk so one could pump grease in to it, some may spew out and give the impression of the leak. On FWA you have the front differential and the drive shaft, but one solid axle has to pivot in the middle yet. Make sure you know that is not the cause of the leak. You might have leak at the drive shaft or diffy case gasket (unlikely). Clean the area good and observe, you'll find the source.

3) On the left and right of the middle pivot point about 12" from the center there are fill plugs on top of the axle. One for each side.

4) I'm not going to jump and say you have clutch issue but a bit of adjustment may be in order, but generally I'd hook on implement to PTO with the engine off , move to where I need to work, lower my implement some, lower the rpm near idle, push the clutch all the way, take my sweet time, engage the pto lever all the way and then slowly let go of the clutch. If I have any forward motion or just revved up the engine then I'd grind too. Remember the PTO engagement handle is not a clutch, it just operate a sliding coupler. there is a lot of chance for grinding if you do couple when one of the two shafts is turning.


JC,

 

[asylum]

Hi JC,

I see the grease fitting on the front axle. It is on the front side of the axle. Where I have a leak is on the back side of the axle where the drive shaft connects to the differential. From the parts schematic on the NH site, it appears there are a few O rings and gaskets before and after the pivet bracket, which attaches to the differential on the axle. If you look at the parts for the 1710 3 cyl, you'll find it under the Front Axle and Steering, 03D03 listing, parts number 16, 19, 21, and 22. These are all gaskets and seals, so I figure if I take apart to fix the leak, I might as well replace all of them since I don't know which one is leaking.

I see all the grease fittings on the front axle, but my question is how to fill the differential? If I drain it, it calls for 3.3 qts of SAE 80. I can not find a fill plug.

Also, I am going to fix the leak at the tranny filter, but I will do that when I drain the fluid to replace it. The fluid looks clean, can I just replace the filter and add oil or should I just replace it all? There are no screens, only a filter.

Bob

 

[asylum]

The lever at your right heel is a differential lock for the rear wheels. If you are short on traction in 2wd put your heel on the lever and push down. when it gets a chance it will click down and both back wheels spin. You have to keep standing on it to keep the differential locked. Once you let up on the lever it will pop back up by itself after a short time. I've used mine a few times but with the 4wd engaged I tend to have enough traction. Do not use the lever if one of the tires is spinning fast push in the clutch and let it stop first.

PTO engaging. Mine will grind a little when I put it in. The clutch is a two stage clutch you must push it all the way flat with the floor to disengage the PTO. I find that after I push it all the way down that if I wait a little bit I can put it in with out grinding. There is a way to adjust the clutch in the owners manual. I'm going to sit down and see if I can get it adjusted a little better.

My front axle on one side leaks a tiny bit but not enough that I'm worried about it. edit: (my leak is down by the front tire where the vertical meets the horizontal. Mine does not leak at the center front pivot.)

Thanks.
I have held the pedal down, but the PTO keeps turning or grinds, whichever I am doing. I guess I will idle will low or just turn it off, hook up, turn it on.

As for the differential leak, is it easier to pull the front axle off to get into the diff? The drive shaft is connected and it appears it is just as easy to remove the front axle. Again, where do I fill the diff with SAE 80?

Bob

 

[asylum]

I think I found in the FO-44 schematic the fill plug for the front axle. I will take a look at it when I get home.

Still working the oil drip problems.

 

[North Dakota]

4. Today I hooked up the finish mower. I push the clutch pedal in and went to engage the PTO - grind. I had to ram it into gear to engage the PTO. This should not occur, correct? When I push the clutch in, I should be able to engage the PTO without a grind, right? Also, what is the level at my right heal? Is that a clutch brake? It is not doing anything when I step on it. Comments?
Bob

Bob,

I adjusted the clutch on my 1710 and it does not grind at all when I engage the PTO. It only took a few minutes. If you look at the bottom of the clutch pedal where it pivots pull the clutch pedal all the way down and you will see a stop bolt limiting how far down the clutch pedal will go. I turned mine a half a turn in the direction that will allow the clutch pedal to be pushed further down and Bingo smooth operation.

 

[djradz]

I think the adjustment of the clutch may be in order.

Are you sure about using SAE 80 in the front axle? Ford and NH typically used the Ford/NH MC134 fluid everywhere.