Things got ugly today... Fast...

Rootsy · Jul 23, 2012

Started off with replacing the left side outer axle seal which opened up a real can of worms... Going to be an expensive morning tomorrow... Inner and outer axle bearings, pinion bearings, bull pinion bearings... seals... gaskets... To think she made the 20 mile Mackinac Bridge ride in 2009 and aside from a little oil leaking out of the housing and onto the rim now and again sounded fine... Internally, it sure isn't. Ring / Pinion backlash is about 60 thousandths, minimum, and the roller bearing supporting the end of the pinion was GONE, the rollers were in the bottom of the case. The ball bearing wasn't far behind... Lucky it didn't grenade... Though the right bull gear is newer and tried to eat it's way through the rear-end housing at one point in the past...

CenTex Farmall · Jul 23, 2012

Ahh, the fun of opening one up!

At least nothing real bad happened. Looks like input shaft got chewed on a little bit.

I've got a SM in the shop now that's somewhat apart. Orginally got in there just to clean and re-seal, then I decided the pinion bearing was too loose and the input shaft bearing were too loose so there it is. Needs a clutch anyway.

Another SM I got into had nearly an 1/8 inch groove under one of the bull gears and had obviously eaten a ball or two. It was old damage though and one of axle bearings was a replacement.

I've been replacing the pinion bearings with a Max type that has more capacity. The standard bearing is a 311 and the max type is a 311W. Haven't found a good aftermarket number for the pilot bearing. There's one out there that fits that's basically two ball bearings together. Not sure how it compares to the roller as far as capacity. We put one in an M but haven't used it a whole lot.

sflem849 · Jul 24, 2012

Sweet. That is a solid $500 in bearings from a n aftermarket bearing shop. Oh well.

Rootsy · Jul 24, 2012

(quoted from post at 07:50:57 07/24/12) Sweet. That is a solid $500 in bearings from a n aftermarket bearing shop. Oh well.

$835 later.... half a dozen bearings, seals and gaskets to put it back together....

MFan · Jul 24, 2012

Just think of what a comparable tractor would cost new. That's what I do to help swallow the cost of a major repair. You'd be making a lot of $800 payments!

TMonton · Jul 24, 2012

In the process of my restoration work the right side brake / drum / axle thing I'm finding things are a little on the ragged side. Now hearing the conversation here I see I'm needing to crack open the top to reassure I don't have any surprises lurking inside .. ugh.

... this is the same step I really had hoped to avoid.

Thinking ahead ... If going that far then do everything included.

sflem849 · Jul 24, 2012

(quoted from post at 10:07:28 07/24/12)

(quoted from post at 07:50:57 07/24/12) Sweet. That is a solid $500 in bearings from a n aftermarket bearing shop. Oh well.

Click to expand...

$835 later.... half a dozen bearings, seals and gaskets to put it back together....

Aftermarket!?! You may want to shop around. I didn't this my dealers axle bearing could be $125 better than the aftermarket bearing.

rhtx55 · Jul 24, 2012

One advantage to $835, is you are almost positive you have the right ones to begin with.
Making several trips back to the parts guy whose cross reference book is mis-printed, or whose eyes drop a line going across the page gets old quickly.
This...of course....is always after you have tried to install the
"close but not quite" bearing and this usually negates any ability to return for credit so you end paying double even though "No one" is to blame...
If you are lucky enough to have access to the old bearing and it is still complete enough to get a number off of you find B's look like 3's, etc. and having a parts book is helpful, but through all the part number changes since the tractor was built, you are back to hoping the books that hold the new & improved part numbers were printed correctly.
Bearings, bushings, gears, and any machined parts have doubled in price the past few years, and like gas prices I am sure they won't drop any time soon. So I say if you made one trip, got everything you need & they are the right parts the first time........you are money ahead.
There are cheaper makes of bearings out there, but you have to ask yourself, how soon do you want to be back in there replacing them ??
The originals have lasted this long, how long will the overseas replacements last, I am sure they will perform quite well in parades and light duty, but when you begin to stress them with heavy work.......how long are they going to last? You tend to get what you pay for.

Rootsy · Jul 25, 2012

(quoted from post at 19:33:43 07/24/12) One advantage to $835, is you are almost positive you have the right ones to begin with.
Making several trips back to the parts guy whose cross reference book is mis-printed, or whose eyes drop a line going across the page gets old quickly.
This...of course....is always after you have tried to install the
"close but not quite" bearing and this usually negates any ability to return for credit so you end paying double even though "No one" is to blame...
If you are lucky enough to have access to the old bearing and it is still complete enough to get a number off of you find B's look like 3's, etc. and having a parts book is helpful, but through all the part number changes since the tractor was built, you are back to hoping the books that hold the new & improved part numbers were printed correctly.
Bearings, bushings, gears, and any machined parts have doubled in price the past few years, and like gas prices I am sure they won't drop any time soon. So I say if you made one trip, got everything you need & they are the right parts the first time........you are money ahead.
There are cheaper makes of bearings out there, but you have to ask yourself, how soon do you want to be back in there replacing them ??
The originals have lasted this long, how long will the overseas replacements last, I am sure they will perform quite well in parades and light duty, but when you begin to stress them with heavy work.......how long are they going to last? You tend to get what you pay for.

All of my parts are CNH. My local dealership has a heckuva parts department and staff and are only 3 miles from me. I would have to drive 20 miles to get to an industrial supply or auto parts store and then I would have to do all of the work and who knows what you are getting for quality... Saving a couple of dollars isn't worth the headache and I would still have to go to CNH to get some gaskets and seals anyway.

I do this as a semi-living and figured I would use my personal tractor as an example of what one can get into if you don't know what to look and listen for. This was my Father's M and if it wasn't a rather rare DD conversion would not be in my stable and I wouldn't be going through all of this, time and expense wise.

sflem849 · Jul 25, 2012

I will buy the CNH bearing if you can wear out the bearing store bearing.

Things got ugly today... Fast...

Rootsy

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CenTex Farmall

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sflem849

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Rootsy

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MFan

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TMonton

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sflem849

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rhtx55

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Rootsy

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sflem849

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