Clunking in front axle?

[radios1]

I’ll place a bet it isn’t the diff. 100:1 it’s not those gears. If you can’t figure out what side to take apart, flip a coin and take the final drive off as described above by Bud

it could be bad bearings, and that could damage those gears from slamming them together..

 

[skipmarcy]

You can have a whole outdrive off the front axle assy in about 10 min once you do one. I can change a snapped front axle in my 4110 in about 15 min. out in the field. I keep a spare front axle and a countershaft for one of the drive assemblies here at the house although I haven't snapped one in over 8 years now.

Get the front axle/tractor up on jack stands. Remove wheel. Remove tie rod with pickle fork. Place floor jack under drive assy. Remove 6 bolts that hold outdrive to axle housing. Wheel outdrive straight out on floor jack until it clears axle shaft and HANG ON to the outdrive - it is heavy and wobbles around on the floor jack until you can let it down to the ground.

With outdrive on ground you can turn it by hand to hear/feel anything out of whack with it. The axle shaft will slip right out of the axle housing/differential. If there IS a problem with the diff, you will have to remove both outdrives as I have mentioned to get the diff out of the axle housing anyway. I have never had any other problem with an outdrive except the countershaft - I have snapped maybe 4 or 5 in about 3k hours. It was usually an axle that would snap and lose 4x4 but not cause any grinding of metal. Since I changed rear tire size I all but quit breaking anything in the front drive system.

 

[Navasot]

You havnt lost any hub bolts have you? most likely you got some bearings going out in the outer hubs letting the gears have slack and putting them in hitch every now and then

 

[DirtHauler]

Drained the remainder from the center plug and got about 3x as much shavings, and discernably larger. Should I assume that means the spider gear is going or shot? I have both wheels off anyways to get my pan under the side plugs to drain so I could pull the hubs to check the final gears but maybe not worth it knowing that most of the shavings are from center? Easy way to check the spider gear?

Well unfortunately, due to the nature of gravity, the metal shavings have/will find their way down to the lowest point i.e. outer axle ends (final drives) and along the way get into all the bearing races and in turn jam the bearings and/or grind the races. If the issue ends up being the differential assembly, you might be able to get away with just replacing carrier/pinion bearings & shims and but you'll have to flush out and inspect the left & right final bearings.
So with that being said, you may have to "bite the bullet", mortgage your house and buy a new axle assembly (may be cheaper and quicker in the long run). I've searched and can't find a parts break down for your front axle (Mahindra or TYM).

 

[PILOON]

I experienced a similar situation with my CUT.
Turned out that the 8 bolts that attached the ring gear were sheered and sitting in the bottom of my front differential.
Long and short I purchase a new set of ring an pinion and when I installed I used locktight and also wire locked the attaching bolts so that they would no longer work loose.
That was some 500 hrs ago.
To this day I believe the lock tabs that supposedly kept the 8 bolts were not properly installed. Probably miss torqued at factory but being a used tractor no warranty was available.
OK, I do work it hard at times but my cure is standing up. (knock wood) so far so good!

 

[patchfarm]

I took the right side partially apart the other day, and the bearings I could see looked fine. I did find some damage to one of the lower gears, as seen in the photos. I think I need to wait for a warm day and pull both sides and fully investigate it looks like. I can't imagine that that gear is the cause of the issue...rather it seems to me maybe it sustained damage because of a larger issue? Or perhaps it is the source?

 

[RNeumann]

“Lower gear” in the final drive or are you zoomed in on the diff.

 

[sd455dan]

Looking at the pictures


in addition to the large chips / damage in the drive gear teeth-


there are multiple vertical striations on the tooth face.

That is Suspicious...

Then looking at the large bevel ring gear
the shiny wear marks on the outer teeth face (right up to each tooth edge)
imo indicates excessive tooth lash between the gears.

The tooth faces should be smooth since they are a (sliding) surface that is created between the two gear tooth faces as the gears turn while meshed.


I would bet there is a bearing failure in either the support bearings for the damaged bevel drive gear vertical shaft bearings and /or the outer driven ring gear support bearing

(allowing movement /misalignment) since the inner bearing looks to be intact.

The most likely way to get those long striations is excessive gear lash-
I think the clearance got so large the tooth edges were actually digging into the small driven gears face as it was trying to drive the large ring gear,
also appears to be other misalignment going on and can't tell for sure from the picture but the ring gear does seem to have wear and (possibly) a damaged tooth face?
The oil on the ring gear may be making a reflective shine that appears as wear???


if it were mine, (When possible)- would check out the bevel drive gear vertical shaft support bearings and also the outer hub bearing. It will all need to be cleaned out anyway.

Patchfarm Hopefully the weather improves and you can get the tractor inside a nice warm shop to dig a bit deeper. Good job on digging into it. :thumbsup:

 

[ruffdog]

Looking at the pictures, in addition to the large chips / damage in the drive gear teeth- there are multiple vertical striations on the tooth face. The tooth faces should be smooth since they are a (sliding) surface that is created between the two gear tooth faces as the gears turn while meshed.

Yes, I saw those vertical marks on the small gear too. Normally, when you have a bevel gear set like this, the small drive gear will be machined at a higher quality, smoother, and harder than the large gear. It seems like some newer equipment has less emphasis on quality than it did years back. I believe the the marks on the small gear are crude machining marks, and on a hardened part, may lead to stress cracks.

 

[Bud Soda]

The outer bearing is the one that goes bad. Balls get out and get between the gears.