TN75DA - Steering Cylinder Leak

feliks · Feb 3, 2017

Greetings,
I've got a leak on the steering cylinder for my mfwd tn75da, has anybody replaced the seals here before? The leak appears to be out of the shaft seal on the left side of the tractor. If anybody has any tips or even the page out of the service manual:licking:, I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks

feliks · Feb 14, 2017

So I dug into the leaking steering cylinder on my tn75da and found out that the issue was not with the seals but rather with the rod. It looked like some of the chrome plating came off, which I believe was due to an earlier issue when the battery froze and leaked onto the rod. Anyways, after researching my options I found that buying a new complete cylinder made more sense ($420 for new rod and seal kit or $480 for complete cylinder). So, seemed like easy sailing from there - however, I realized that I had to remove the large jam nut that holds the steering cylinder to the tractor.

This is where I got stuck. This jam nut seems to be impossible to remove with standard tools, i.e. small sledge and chisel, large channel locks with cheater bar. My channel locks hooked into one of the notches like a spanner wrench and I was able to torque on it with a cheater on the handle until it looked like the channel locks were going to come apart or I was going to get another hernia. The hammer and chisel just looked like it was going to cut into the nut.

Does anyone know now to remove this, is there a special tool likes some sort of impact socket required??

barbqranch · Feb 14, 2017

A few times I have had to remove large nuts that were in very difficult locations to get a wrench. No on the tractor, but sort of the same problem. I cut them into several pieces using a oscillating multi-tool w/ a metal cutting blade. Usually does a little damage to the underlying threads, but does the job. Once you cut it in a couple of places, you can usually pop off the pieces.

Jerry/MT · Feb 15, 2017

feliks said:
So I dug into the leaking steering cylinder on my tn75da and found out that the issue was not with the seals but rather with the rod. It looked like some of the chrome plating came off, which I believe was due to an earlier issue when the battery froze and leaked onto the rod. Anyways, after researching my options I found that buying a new complete cylinder made more sense ($420 for new rod and seal kit or $480 for complete cylinder). So, seemed like easy sailing from there - however, I realized that I had to remove the large jam nut that holds the steering cylinder to the tractor.
View attachment 498735
This is where I got stuck. This jam nut seems to be impossible to remove with standard tools, i.e. small sledge and chisel, large channel locks with cheater bar. My channel locks hooked into one of the notches like a spanner wrench and I was able to torque on it with a cheater on the handle until it looked like the channel locks were going to come apart or I was going to get another hernia. The hammer and chisel just looked like it was going to cut into the nut.

Does anyone know now to remove this, is there a special tool likes some sort of impact socket required??

Have you tried a pipe wrench and a cheater?

feliks · Feb 15, 2017

All, thanks for the replies.
I've really cranked on it with a large channel locks with a cheater (handle from my handyman) and it didnt budge. It's hard to get a lot of leverage on it due to its proximity to the front axle and other components. I'm considering the option of cutting it off but I'd like to avoid that if possible as a replacement nut is $70!! I bought a big/long punch that I'm going to try to get some good blows on with and see what happens.
I'll keep you posted.

feliks · Feb 21, 2017

Finally finished this job up! turns out force was the answer. Not only did it take a lot of hammering to get the jam nut off but the cylinder itself was seized in the frame from rust and debris. A bit of penetrating oil and a lot of pounding and finally got it out. Luckily the new cylinder came with a new locking nut because the old one was pretty well destroyed from taking the original cylinder out (I used it to hammer on when trying to get the original cylinder out so I didn't distort the threads on the cylinder, in case I had to reuse it)

Before inserting the new cylinder, I cleaned up the bores on the tractor that position the cylinder with some abrasive pads and then the new cylinder slid in nicely. Thanks for everyone's suggestions on this job!

I took a few videos during this work so if I get them on youtube, I'll post a link here.