Well everyone --- it's done! We had the 4-wheel drive transfer box brazed and the news gears put in for us. We needed to separate the tractor at the transmission/rear axle housing interface so we could replace the two 4WD gears in the rear axle housing. Our biggest concern was how to separate the tractor because, for us at least, the thought of moving the massive, heavy back end was daunting! Fortunately, a neighbor has a big shop with a nice concrete floor and a hoist (giving us confidence) that we could use.
The whole process took us a week and a half, working about 6 hours a day (hey, the shop wasn't air conditioned!), with about three separate days off to run to town. Clint S answered our questions along the way. THANKS, Clint! We learned a few things, like: be sure to have a 13/16" socket and a ratchet that is about 15" long or so instead of the standard 10"-12"; if you have a nice smooth concrete floor, you can get the job done without a hoist by using rolling jacks; take photos as you go because you are going to want to reference them when you are trying to remember how something was oriented when you put it all back together; and, Clint was right - it is a whole bunch easier to do repairs if you take of the PTO hydraulic lift cover unit. The small cover plate has to be removed to access one of the bolts for removing the hydraulic lift cover unit. There is also an o-ring under the small cover plate that you don't want to lose.
The most frustrating part of the whole process? Getting the itty-bitty cotter pin out of the parking brake handle shaft so the shaft could be removed so the right side platform could be removed! The shop manual is not up-to-date as there were a few steps in the separating process that weren't listed. So I'm attaching the separation instructions from the shop manual with our notes and some photos. If you ever have to separate your tractor, we hope this helps.
