Cracked front axle housing

[Behrend II]

Hello,

I introduced myself about a month ago as a new (used) B2400 owner. I just cracked my front axle housing all the way around at the pivot. I was digging stumps out with my FEL and toothbar. I have a fully loaded rear weight box, so as you can imagine I was really abusing the poor tractor to make this happen. I noticed a loud "clunk" and then my front drive went out. I'm just wondering how difficult of a job replacing the axle housing would be for a reasonably mechanically inclined person. Any info. will be greatly appreciated.

Tom

 

[N80]

Do you have pics? I'm having a hard time visualizing where the crack is. If it is the main axle housing that contains the front diff, I'm guessing that that would be a fairly tough job.

 

[Timber]

I find it difficult to understand how you did that doing what you were doing. I do that kind of work with my loader all the time. I would love to see a picture of the damage. Was there any odd circumstances that might have mad the tractor more vulnerable to the damage.

 

[_RaT_]

My guess is it would be a task you could do provided you don't need any super special tools. tractorsmart.com can provided you with all the details and parts.

Whatever you do, do not listen to another poster making a suggestion that you weld it. We all know what happens from the Kubota L3400 post that broke its trumphet, Orphans and Nuns!

 

[JerryG]

If you can get a complete axle assembly, it is very easy to swap out. If you have to get the individual parts it will be much harder to change because of the assembling that will have to be done. I would say to let the dealer put it together because if the gears aren’t installed correctly, you will be looking at doing it again in the near future.

 

[rbargeron]

Hello,
......... I'm just wondering how difficult of a job replacing the axle housing would be for a reasonably mechanically inclined person. Any info. will be greatly appreciated.

Tom - most of an axle housing replacement job is wrenches and sockets. Hopefully most of the internal gears and bearings are ok. One part of the job that requires special attention is mounting the ring gear and pinion in the new housing so they mesh correctly. Differential housings have small dimensional tolerance differences - you might look at the factory workshop manual pages about this to see if it's something you want to tackle. On a tractor the setup is not quite as critical as on a high-speed road vehicle - but it needs to be decent for the gears to last.

 

[RoyJackson]

Tom - most of an axle housing replacement job is wrenches and sockets. Hopefully most of the internal gears and bearings are ok. One part of the job that requires special attention is mounting the ring gear and pinion in the new housing so they mesh correctly. Differential housings have small dimensional tolerance differences - you might look at the factory workshop manual pages about this to see if it's something you want to tackle. On a tractor the setup is not quite as critical as on a high-speed road vehicle - but it needs to be decent for the gears to last.

That's called backlash...so lok that up in the manual.

 

[Behrend II]

Hi guys,

It's the the weld all the way around the axle housing on the front side -middle. The crack is where the front drive shaft meets the differential - except of the front side where the mount is. (I'll send a picture ASAP - my 1 yr. old son just slam dunked our camera in the dog water bucket!)

Tom