Unfortunately, it's the rear ring thats blown. I'm ready to give up, I have split the tractor, but really don't relish digging much further into that rear end/transmission to swap parts. I'm pretty fair at swinging a wrench but you can't get much deeper into one than this. Lens and Buck (Buck, I was the guy talking with you about this on the phone a couple weeks ago), thanks for the help and advice.
Having run through all this, I don't blame Shibaura for this, it really is a very well build tractor, with a bunch of features that you can't touch on the new ones. Built in hydraulic tilt, nicely arranged controls and (litteraly) more gear choices with the splitter combinations than I can remember made this a pretty cool little rig. I worked it pretty hard in the time I had it, moving somewhere around 15 truckloads of fill in the course of backfilling and building up areas around my house, maintained and plowed a half mile of driveway and moving a bunch of building materials. Even now, it doesn't owe me anything.
One hint to anyone buying one of these (or any other Japanese grey I guess), make sure the bellhousing is free of water. These guys are worked in deep water in rice patties in Japan, mine had a couple cups of water in the bellhousing. This caused the clutch to rust to the flywheel, freezing them up when the tractor sat for a few months. It wouldn't disengage with the clutch pedel depressed, I stamped on the brakes a few times trying to get it to break loose. In the process of abusing the rig like this, a tooth broke off the ring. Hopefully someone else can learn from my mistake.
