Ring Gear barbeque

The starter on my Farmall C developed a grinding problem. Inspection revealed that the ring gear was worn. It would not grind every time, but was getting worse. So I took on the task of splitting the tractor to replace the ring gear. No problem getting the old gear off, I drove it off with a blunt chisel and a punch. I tried heating the new gear with a propane torch to install it. The propane torch is the only thing I have in my shop to heat with, as I don't do welding, etc. I found it was not possible to heat the gear evenly and hot enought to get it started on the flywheel. Wife does not like me to use her oven for things like that and the shop is too far from the house anyhow. The gear would have cooled by the time I got to the shop. So...I thought--wonder if the gas grill would do the trick. Took the gas grill to the shop and barbequed the ring gear for about 20 minutes with the burners on high until the temp gage on the lid read about 400 degrees. I picked the gear up with a pair of vise grips and it slid right on the flywheel with just a light tap from a hammer. I was surprised how fast the gear cooled when in contact with the flywheel. It was cool enough to touch and tight on the flywheel in no more than a minute! Tractor is back together and the starter works great now!

My wife never gives me any problem but I also do 99% of the cooking so it is my stove LOL. Last one I did I set the oven to 500 and had the flywheel in the freezer. When I dropped the ring gear on it almost fell off the back side so I had to quickly adjust it to where it should have been. I did that all right here in the house. Wife does complain some times about things like the 9N oil pan here in the computer room and a few other parts LOL. She hasn't so far complained that all the shelves on this desk are full of tractor manuals

Hass,
An engine usually stops in the same place. You should have tried moving that ring gear around 90-180 degrees.

Correct, there were two bad places on the gear. However, I had a new old stock ring gear that came with a batch of parts I got a few years back. Figured I might as well use it.

I did not remove the clutch or the flywheel from the engine. So could not very well put the flywheel in the freezer or carry it to the house. On the C flywheel, there is a shoulder that the ring gear rests against, so there is not a problem with getting it on there in the right position. I've split tractors before, but this was my first adventure with a ring gear.

Ya the one I did was a Ferguson TO20 and it to was my first and I took every thing I had read over the years on here and looked at what seemed the best way to do it and did it and found that it can be done easy but also almost to the point of having one fall past that little ridge. LOL

(quoted from post at 16:12:52 01/24/11) Hass,
An engine usually stops in the same place. You should have tried moving that ring gear around 90-180 degrees.

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My C developed a nasty grinding when I started it, must be missing a few teeth in one spot. I put it in 4th gear and pushed it a few feet to roll the engine over and it's been fine since. :knocks on wood:

Haas, Did you sell the dozers? I never saw them listed. oldiron29

(quoted from post at 16:12:52 01/24/11) Hass,
An engine usually stops in the same place. You should have tried moving that ring gear around 90-180 degrees.

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I don't think I would waste my time doing that. For the time it takes to split the tractor just spend $50 and put a new ring gear on it.

I would also take the clutch apart for inspection as well. My MD clutch was $250 after the clutch and turning the flywheel. I did it just as long as I was in there!

You must be thinking of someone else. I've only had one dozer, a TD 340. That was I think about 5 years ago. Only had it about 4 months. It needed to have the final drives taken off to put in new seals and fix the brakes. That was more than I wanted to do. I had an offer that got my money back, so I let it go.

I agree, that if you have to go to the trouble to split the tractor, put in a new ring gear rather than repositioning the old one. Too much work in that split to do otherwise. I did not bother the clutch because the previous owner had done the clutch before I got the tractor and it has not been used that much so I took a chance on that.

Years ago, I was putting a new gear on a 2 cyl JD. I put it in the wood stove on a good bed of coals. The phone rang & after talking I got involved in something else. When I remembered the gear, it was red hot most of the way around. I put it on the flywheel & there was at least a quarter inch gap. I thought it was ruined. But as it cooled, it shrank tight & was good to go.

(quoted from post at 18:06:22 01/24/11) I agree, that if you have to go to the trouble to split the tractor, put in a new ring gear rather than repositioning the old one. Too much work in that split to do otherwise. I did not bother the clutch because the previous owner had done the clutch before I got the tractor and it has not been used that much so I took a chance on that.

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Mine was pretty oily and the PP was a little warped so I just did it. For what I use it for it would probably last forever, but it is only money

I'm impressed that you installed the new ring gear with the flywheel on the tractor.

I was thinking you needed to have the flywheel laying flat on some blocking so that you could drop the hot ring gear on, and the blocks would ensure alignment.

There is a shoulder on the flywheel that the gear rests against. I had no trouble holding it there until it cooled. I figured if there were any gaps, I could move it against the shoulder with a punch, same way that I got the old one off. However, did not have to do that.