Went past today at noon, took three pix. The internally splined collar goes on the front of the front to rear drive shaft and connects to the input shaft of the front differential. As you see, that collar is shot. The front of the drive shaft is also gone.
I asked if there was any damage to the splined input shaft of the front differential, his reply was it seems OK and that he thinks the collar wasn't hardened properly. Whether he's right or not, I'd certainly prefer to replace the collar than rebuild the front differential. Aft end of the drive shaft is grubby but the splines are undamaged.
He's going to split the tractor anyway because last time he did it, he did not replace one seal, and it drips (hopefully not on the clutch plate, or he'll be replacing that, too).
I was concerned that the front of the tractor would tip backward as he rolled the back end away, but he says he will have jacks in place. Last time he did it was on a concrete floor (in my hangar) and the FEL and bucket acted as a counterweight and kept the engine level. This time the FEL is off and he's working on a dirt floor.
What bothers me is that the collar and drive shaft show no signs of fresh damage, they are just worn out. When you hear snapping and crackling noises, that tells you something is getting crunched right now, and when you look at that something, it is going to have fresh, bright dings, dents and other damage on it. These parts don't have anything that is obviously freshly busted. I hope I'm wrong here, but I've been fixing busted stuff for almost 60 years and if a broken part is covered in rust, dirt and grime and shows no bright edges or marks, that part has been busted for a while. These noises are new, and come from a different area on the tractor entirely.
(He's in denial. De Nial is a river in Africa, I have seen it . . . it isn't a broken tractor part, I've seen some of those, too. I sure hope he doesn't wind up splitting this a third time to go into the rear diff and replace the diff lock pins and whatever else got busted in there.)
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida