JD 2955 Shifter Shaft/Housing

I'm working on a friends tractor with the following symptoms: recently lost the low range and reverse. High still operates and the linkage lever for the low range is very loose. I can move it up and down by hand with ease, while the other 3 levers take considerable more force to engage/disengage. It feels like something let go inside. I pulled off all the linkages for the 4 levers, removed the 6 Allen head bolts holding the housing on and removed the two dowels that align the housing. I didn't use excessive force, but it still feels like the shifter is being held internally somewhere, I assume by the shafts themselves.

In the attached drawing title JD 259:
-the housing I am trying to remove is part 3
-the bolts have removed are labeled parts 5
-the dowels are part 6.

In the attached drawing labeled JD 256:

-Everything outboard of levers 8 and 14 are physically exposed and accessible
-Everything inboard of those parts is either contained in the shifter housing or the transmission casing
-Lever 12 is the lever in question, it operates the internal shaft, part 9, and appears to terminate at and actuate part number 3 via the gears drawn right before part 17

My guess is that either the bolt (part 16) vibrated loose/out and the shaft is just spinning inside of part 3, or that the shaft (part 9) snapped somewhere along its length. Since the tractor worked fine one day, sat for a few days and then immediately didn't have the low range or reverse at startup (no snapping, grinding,abnormal noises or previous issues) I am assuming that the bolt (part 16, attached to part 3) is the culprit.

My questions are:

Can I pull the housing and the shafts out without disconnecting anything internal, is the resistance I'm feeling just the engaged meshing of the gears? My gut says no because if that were the case then all of the parts labelled 16 would serve no purpose , if I have assumed their function correctly.

Do I need to pull the cab and split the tractor to get access to these internals? My fear is that even if I can get the shifter housing off, I still wont have enough internal access to repair whatever is broke internally.

Obviously its Friday night and I don't expect any mechanics to be at the local JD dealer over the weekend so I cant get their advice until Monday. Hopefully someone out there there can shed some light on this.

Thanks,

Ryan

It is also possible that the pin on the bottom of Part 3 snapped off, its been cold up this way (-20 F at night) and the tractor had been sitting outside at the time. That small bit of steel could have become brittle because of the cold and snapped without much force applied. I wasn't operating the tractor when this happened so I really don't have a "feel" for what occurred when the condition developed.

Welcome to the forum! You can't remove the housing from the outside. The cab needs to be removed and the rockshaft housing(three point) needs to be removed. Depending on what is wrong, you may not need to split the tractor. Part #9 are bushings. The shaft and lever 12 is actually all one part. If the shaft were broken, it should slide out of the housing now. apparently the lever #3 is broken if I had to guess.

The local dealer here has a manufactured arm that they use to lift the rockshaft housing off with. All you need to do is lift the cab a couple of inches at the back and then you get enough clearance to lift the housing off. Saves a lot of labor. I don't know if they do it with 2955 but I know they do it with the American built tractors. Let me know and I can check.

Cab on Mannheim built tractors sets closer to trans/RS housing than Waterloo built tractors. I agree with jd110 that cab will have too be removed to remove RS housing.

It looks like if we cut the floorboard out we could access a hatch that might let us fix this without lifting the cab? Can anyone confirm or deny this before I take a torch to my floorboard?