Steering wheel play

Soundguy · Apr 19, 2014

i've never found them at an auto store. always had to get them from a tractor dealer or order them.

not saying you can't ge them.. just I have never been able to.

even went to a bearing shop and they could not cross the number. wonder if they tried hard...

Cbrown9064 · Apr 19, 2014

I spent a couple hours trying to cross them with no luck. Yesterday's tractors has them with a kit for the arms (all seals). So I am going to go that route. She will steer sweet when done!

Soundguy · Apr 19, 2014

that's the best bet.

I ran around 3 dys to various seal and bearing shops where i get bearings for all my companies heavy equipment.

they couldn't find me one... so i gave up...

Cbrown9064 · Apr 26, 2014

OK, tore into it today and found...a mess. Upper thrust bearing was destroyed and the bits of it were in the "works". Teeth broken on the gears. Didn't know what to think. I saw they have repop boxes for $627. That is a lot. Took the box off and cleaned all the metal out of the housing. put new bearings and reassembled. Figured "what the heck" and did a little southern engineering. It can't be any worse, right?

Here is the bearing and gear...

I tried to take the pitman arms off with a puller, but the gap was too narrow for the puller to get in. So I took of the bolts on the side covers and used a punch and hammer to drive the shaft out of the pitman arm. On the "left" side (drives the right drag link) the housing was messed up. Don't know if this was from me, but it had a lot of grease on it so thinking previous owner. I cleaned it up the best I could and reinstalled the seal.

So, I don't know what to think. All I basically did was clean the metal out of the housing/gears and reinstalled the broken gears with new upper and lower thrust bearings.

Tractor only got used 13 hours last year. Thinking just put a bunch of 00EP in it and let 'er buck? I poked around a bit and it does not look like you can get replacement gears. I could get a used box, but would probably have the same issues. Repop for $627. Or...

Thoughts?
Chris

Soundguy · Apr 28, 2014

I'd get a used gear.. tha tone is missing 75% of a tooth.

as an emergency repair.. you could try brazing or welding a tooth profile up and then grinding down to mathc profile.

that would be a last ditch effort though

Cbrown9064 · Apr 28, 2014

OK, will check that out. I put it all back together and it steers great. Much better than before ('cause it has an upper thrust bearing now), but I suppose it could "jump" or break off the remainder of the tooth.

Do you have some suggestions for places to check for a used gear? I will check with Smiths, but others would be appreciated.
Chris

Cbrown9064 · Apr 30, 2014

Searching for a new gear. Question. If I find a new gear, do you think it is OK just to slide the old one out and new one in without pulling the tractor all apart? All the metal and shavings were cleaned out of the housing, along with new upper and lower thrust bearings before I put it all back together last weekend.

Thoughts?

Soundguy · Apr 30, 2014

as long as you get the correct sector gear yeah.. just loosen her up and swap parts.

this works easiest with the aft, single sector. the front dual sector might require holding the ballnut or repositioning it. probably hardest part will be getting sector arms back off. but since they have already been off once.. shouldn't be an issue.

relube after you do this..

Cbrown9064 · May 17, 2014

To close this out, I found a new LH (front gear drives right Pittman arm) from Tractor-Part, Find Tractor Parts. For $108. That site is awesome!

I pulled it back off the tractor again (did it in 30 minutes this time) and pulled it apart on the bench. I wanted to check the shaft free play and make sure I had the proper shim stack in. Before bolting down the top cover for the final time, I squeezed as much "Cotton Picker Spindle" 00EP grease in as I could. Set the backlash on the gears and reinstalled on tractor. Ran the wheel back and forth and added more 00EP.

Got it back together and it steers like a new tractor! Wow, almost like power steering (but not quite)!

What a treat to have that fixed...