John Deere 4300 complete rebuild

[arrabil]

Mine are tight. I can move them by hand but its very tight.

 

[dfkrug]

Well, I spent an hour at the local NAPA poring over steering parts
catalogs, and I found a size chart in a Spicer book for large trucks.
So, the taper I need can be found in a 401-1011 tie rod end, but it
has a male connector, and a 1" OD thread. No females are
available in the taper I need.

I ordered it as a Moog part # ES176R, which arrived the next day.
I bought it from NAPA, since they helped me, but I paid a fortune: $80.
Resourceful folks may find a better price from an online auto parts
dealer for Moog. Moog is a huge vendor, owned by Federal Mogul, as
is TRW.

Anyway, here is the part. It comes with an untapped grease hole on the
side, so I tapped it 1/4-28 and installed the zerk. I first put a small
synthetic rag inside before tapping, so I could remove all the metal
fragments from the tapping.

The material is a soft machineable cast steel, so I plan to drill and tap
a 1/2-20 hole for the other end of the steering control. In this photo,
you can see I have already drilled a smaller hole 1.5" deep into the end.
I use cobalt drills, as I will for the 29/64 bit required before tapping.

 

[arrabil]

Nice find, dfkrug!

Its $44.29 with free shipping at Amazon. But I commend you for buying it at NAPA after the effort they put into helping you. I would have done the same.

 

[dfkrug]

The taper is everything, and tapers are specced as min diam, max diam,
and length of taper.

The cast steel is quite soft, as I said, and I have now got it drilled to
29/64, tapped 1.5" deep, and installed.

Pix and a test drive to follow when the light is better.

Note for those with warn out tie rod ends. Using the tractor driving
forward is not too bad, but in reverse, it is lousy. If you want to remove
some play in the ball joint rather than buying a new one, you can
release the lower tapered stud and rotate it 90 degrees or so. That is
only a temporary measure.

 

[dfkrug]

And here is the finished installed tie rod end. It works great. The
tractor drives much better.

Note that the old style MFWD does not have a tie rod that connects
the left and right hubs together. Each end of the 2-sided cylinder
uses identical parts (both right hand thread) and only one side needs
to be adjusted to get the correct toe-in alignment. That means that I
could have just welded up one side and used the other side for all the
adjustment. Something to think about in the next repair of this kind
of linkage.

 

[arrabil]

only one side needs to be adjusted to get the correct toe-in alignment. That means that I could have just welded up one side and used the other side for all the adjustment.

I'm not seeing it. Both wheels have to be pointed straight ahead with the steering wheel centered and then you have to set the toe-in equally from both ends. I know 1/8" or whatever doesn't matter at these speeds but you can't weld up one side way off and compensate on the other.... the steering won't be centered. No?

 

[dfkrug]

..but you can't weld up one side way off and compensate on the other.... the steering won't be centered. No?

The steering seems to have no detented center position, so the center
will naturally find itself with equal toe-in on each side. I have not
taken apart the steering valve, so I can not say that there is a reason
(or not) to have the tie-rod lengths equal on both sides. The JD steering
valve is way different from my old Kubota's, which I did have to fix.

I can spin my new JD steering wheel logo cap to any position, not that it matters.

 

[arrabil]

I'm gonna fool with that tomorrow while mine is in the air. It doesn't compute geometrically in my head....

Speaking of steering, I was going to PM you but here is as good a place to ask as any: If I remove the boot, is there a square spot on top of the taper shaft to grab the tie-rod with a wrench? I don't want to get covered in grease to discover it was not worth removing it in the first place. I'm having a pain of a time tightening (or rather not tightening) the tie-rod nuts. I gave up yesterday but need to get it done tomorrow regardless.

 

[dfkrug]

If I remove the boot, is there a square spot on top of the taper shaft to grab the tie-rod with a wrench? I don't want to get covered in grease to discover it was not worth removing it in the first place. I'm having a pain of a time tightening (or rather not tightening) the tie-rod nuts.

That is an interesting problem. Normally, the taper on the tie rod end's
shaft will fit very snugly into the tapered hole in the hub housing. There
is no way to hold the shaft to keep it from spinning. And even if there
was a way, the boot would be in the way.

In your case, I will bet that the boot is full of semi-hardened grease that
keeps the shaft from fully seating in the tapered hole. I would remove the
boot and clean it up. Note the boot has steel upper and lower washers
embedded in the rubber. There are aftermarket boots sold, too, since you
can not buy the boots seperately from JD.

You can also try pulling down on the stud while you attempt to tighten the
nut. Or grind a slot in the end of the stud ant use a screwdriver to keep
the stud from turning.

 

[dfkrug]

Here is a couple more pix of my tie rod end.

The ball joint that connects to the cylinder rod is covered with a rubber
boot, held on by a washer and a snap ring. On this one, the ball is in
good shape, but socket has some end play. I have decided not to replace
it. Note that greasing it is a manual effort that requires one to remove
the snap ring and pull back the boot. Does anyone do that? It sure is
not designed to last.