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Farmall M Gears in front not turning

J

John Lundberg

Member
Took off the cover in the front of the engine on my Farmall M, and the gears, timing, cam, are not turning. I believe the Crank is broke.
 
If the engine front pulley is turning when you hit the starter, the crank is not broken. However the crank or cam gear could be broken, or stripped. Pull the timing cover off of the front of the engine and you should see the problem.
 
he says he has the front cover off and cant see the problem. seems odd, i have also seen the keyway on the cam shaft shear off. problem has to be in your face. you turning the flywheel with the starter? what does it do when you use the hand crank? pull the pan and have a look.
 
Put a socket on the bolt head on the crankshaft and crank over the engine by hand with a ratchet or breakdown bar. Should have good bit of resistance moving the connecting rods and pistons. You may have a broken cam. Hal
 
I hit the starter and NONE of the gears in the front are turning. The pan is of, and it's making a noise like something is broken.
 
The drive gear on the crank shaft could be slipping on the crank snout.
It is driven with a key. If the crank is broken you should have found that out taking the pulley off.
If it spins the starter with no flywheel motion, several things can be wrong, from a bad starter drive, to a stripped ring gear.
A crank, broken at the rear main will act that same way. (rare)
Let us know what you find, it is a little unique.
Jim
 
With the pan off look at the crank while someone bumps the starter. If nothing turns that is visible, I bet on flywheel bolts shearing off, or crank broken at the rear main. Do not just spin the engine if it is broken do not make it worse, See my comments above. Jim
 
The cam gear is the large gear in the front. If it is not turning, it's keyway is not the issue. It is turned from the drive gear on the crank, That keyway can be sheared, which will cause the gears not to turn and the cranl to turn. Jim
 
(quoted from post at 13:52:25 08/20/11) Ok thanks, if the crank is broken, I'm just going to junk the tractor. I don't have time to mess with it.
Click to expand...

If you have the pan off, you should be able to look up from underneath and see if the crank is broken, and where it is broken.

Please do not junk the tractor. Let someone else have a chance at saving it first.
 
If the crank is broken, Selling it to another Farmall friend for restoration might bring 40% more than scrap. Describe its condition in all other respects, tires sheet metal, and if it ran how it ran. Cranks are easy to find. Jim
 
If the crank is broken, Describe its condition in all other respects, tires sheet metal, and if it ran how it ran. Cranks are easy to find. We can assist in helping you determine a fair price. There is a Classified section to the left top of this page. Craig"s list is also a possibility. Jim
 
Just checked the flywheel and on the edge where the teeth are, there is a crack that I see. Do you think the crank broke, then broke the flywheel?
 
Tin in nice, gas tank doesn't have a dent, has distillate hood with the sheet metal, grill is just about perfect, very nice. Front tire and one back tire is bad. Clutch is stuck now.

John
 
Possible. The crack drives the issue. The components can be removed from underneath to look at. The clutch and pressure plate can be totally removed. The flywheel can be taken off of the engine, but not removed through the access cover. That requires a split of the tractor. The more you take it apart, the harder it will be to put on a trailer! Just knowing what went bad is important, Splitting it means you are fixing what went bad! (Thinking out loud, with respect) Jim
 
Or!!!! the ring gear is broken between two teeth. It is seperate and not actually attached to the flywheel. If it is cracked it will not turn the engine, and that is the problem. To replace it does require a split of the tractor to get the Flywheel off and out. If turning it with a large screw driver spins the ring gear but not the Flywheel, there it is. Ring gears are available new. Jim
 
Drain the engine oil and remove the pan. Then bump the engine over and see if the crankshaft rotates. We were running an engine on a dynamometer test stand and I was on the midnight shift and around 3am it started to make a loud noise. It never stopped running. I shut the engine down and called the test engineer and told him their was an engine failure. He came in a about 40 minutes.

He wanted to hear the engine run so I fired it up and he shouted to shut it off. We pulled the engine off the test stand after getting an oil sample and draining the oil. We found the crankshaft had broken through one of the counterweights. We were going to pull the crank, but told him to call for a photographer when the photo lab would be open later that morning. We did loosen all the rod and main bearing caps. The day shift replaced the crankshaft and the second shift set it up on the test stand and had it running when I came in at midnight. That was in 1955 right after I had been discharged from the Army as a returning veteran. Hal
 
If someone is at the controls at YTmag Support (see bottom of left column.) they can let you post. The reason newbies can't post is to keep spammers, or deviants from posting pictures beyond the scope of tractors. Jim
 
You need your pictures stored on your computer like "My Documents" and use the Advanced Posting Tools for posting your pics. When you use this and click on "Browse" it will take you to My Documents automatically. Select your pic and follow the prompts. Hal
 
Hal, Yes it is. I just looked at it again. I believe the ring gear is broke, not the flywheel. There is a crack between two teeth.

John
 
It's located just below where you "Preview Your Reply" Hal

PS: Click on the Advanced Posting Options that's in red about 4 inches below this message.
 
here is a picture of my Farmall M ring gear that is cracked.
a47506.jpg
 
Turn the engine with a screw driver in the ring gear teeth. If the ring gear turns, I think it will, the engine might be stuck, but not trash. Turning the engine with a bar between the spring towers on the clutch can be effective. THe clutch is in need of being replaced as it is stuck, And doesn't look good. Jim.
 
Does the flywheel move when prying on the ring gear or does just the ring gear move. It may be sliding around the flywheel. Hal
 
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