transmission puzzle?

Hi All,

Been a while since I've posted on here (moved temporarily for few years without the tractor - lesson: never leave your old iron!), but have really appreciated everyone's help in years past, and have another question. '61 140 clutches into gear, can hear a slight grinding noise occasionally, so I know the gears are spinning, but once in gear (any gear), the tactor doesn't move, nor does the PTO spin. The engine RPMs don't slow, so I guess nothing's binding it up or frozen.

What the heck's going on here?

Thanks for your thoughts
Pete in PA

Pete: Did you by chance, leave the clutch pedal tied down? Couple years back, matbe a bit longer there was discussion on here about tieing the clutch pedal down if the tractor was going to be parked for an extended period. The thinking was at the time this would prevent clutch disc from freezing to flywheel and pressure plate.

That might be correct, however maybe leaving pressure plate springs in a compressed position, may just render them useless. Just a thought.

Hi Hugh,

We came back to the farm every so often and I started it up & ran it around...no problems, but even in the longer periods of idle, I didn't tie down the clutch pedal. The 140 seemed to run fine after getting back to it permanently in early March. Was running the mower over the weekend, coming up a hill, and just lost all movement and PTO...very strange.

Thought it might have been the clutch, so took off the hand access hole and checked the play in both the inner workings and the pedal play. Seeed to be ok, but the clutch plate itself didn't move very much (although it did a little). Was surprised how much dried up stuff there was in there - looked almost like packing inside the case (is there supposed to be packing in there??) Scooped it out - looked like 50 years worth of accumulated bits of grass...

Any thoughts are worth hearing. I'm at a loss...

thanks

Pete: That packing is not supposed to be there, sounds like a few mice made it their home while you were away. They can rust things up quite badly. Is it possible the center of clutch disc broke out. I had this happen with my 300 once.

Did you check the drive shaft coupling just forward of transmission. I think it would make noise though.

Sounds like the mice and/or rats have found a home in your clutch housing. There is probably so much nest material in there it is keeping the cluch from engaging. Just a thought!!

Put the PTO in gear, as well as the tractor in first, then rotate the PTO with a suitable tool (I like a bolt through the pin hole, and a big crescent wrench pushing on the bolt head) This will drive the tractor forward if the trans ans all is good. If it is the clutch (with it in Neutral) you should be able to see the system slip! JimN

Hi all, sorry for the delay - had a last minute business ordeal that I wasn"t expecting...

OK, so I spent all day today inside the clutch housing of the 140 - found that one of the clutch lever pins had broken it"s cotter pin and the retaining pin had slid halfay out, leaving the clutch lever slightly twisted. I"d hoped that reseting it and repinning it would have fixed the problem, but unfortunately, nope. Fixin that bugger was a bear though since I didn"t want to split the tractor (yet) and attempted "surgery" through the bottom access hole, the starter motor hole on he right after removing the starter motor, and the "clutch dust cover" hole on the left.

My manual says to lube the clutch plate (#23), which is found by removing the "clutch "dust cover" but darned if I could find any greae nipple in there - anybody actually grease this area of the 140/Super A? Were the heck"s the nipple once you pop off the "dust cover"? The manual is vague at best...

I"ll try the suggetions you all put forward, thanks. In the meantime, must say I wish IH had made that clutch access "hand hole" in the bottom of the casing the size of a man"s hand. My 6 year olds hands might"a fit... Ah, well....they can"t be perfect I guess....

Thanks for any additional thoughts all.

Pete in PA