JD750 MFWD - Spindle Shaft Bearing

[DeereDoug]

Was doing some landscaping and my right wheel locked, used the bucket to lift the front end up and sure enough the right tire will not spin whether in 4wd or 2wd. So, I shut down and called it quits for the day, next morning I get to removing the wheel and gear casing and find the top most bearing basically shredded. Also, the large seal was totally worn down and the gear case edges were significantly worn and corroded to some degree.

http://jdpc.deere.com/pimages/RP16/RP1638_________UN01JAN94.gif

One of the gears has a dent from where the ball bearings dropped into it but it is not that bad I think.

Replacing the bearing and seals are easy, but the wear and corrosion on the gear casing concerns me.

- Album on Imgur

Thoughts?

I have found top gear case surprisingly.

John Deere GEAR CASE CH14658

 

[PHPaul]

Was it leaking at the joint between the upper and lower gear cases?

If not, I don't think I'd worry about replacing it. Clean it up good and put a new seal in.

 

[DeereDoug]

Leaking, as in grease leakage around the seam. My intention was to pull the entire front axle this winter and replace the seals, etc.. obviously I never made it.

The things that concern me is: - Album on Imgur and - Album on Imgur, then bearing surface here - Album on Imgur

Those three things leave me to wonder, if the entire part should be replaced, due to metal surfaces being worn out of spec.

 

[PHPaul]

Well, looking at it again (I sorta cherry-picked which pictures I looked at) yeah, I can see your concern.

If the parts are available and don't break the budget, you'll KNOW you've fixed the problem properly.

 

[DeereDoug]

Ok... I got basically everything back together, but two gears are not meshing that great it seems. One or two of the balls from the exploded bearing seems to have got to some of the gears, but when I had it apart it did not look that bad. However, its enough that the gears seems to bind a bit when turning the shaft by hand.

Used the original shims behind the retaining ring, so I am kinda beside myself on what course of action to take.

I am wondering if the two gears should be replaced, or just leave as is and let the gears wear a bit while in operation.

 

[DeereDoug]

Ended up replacing the bevel gears and putting everything back together today. The old gears will be kept and machined to repair the bad areas.