Farmall 100 with very loose seed plate drive ??

Hi folks
So the new issue I am facing is that I believe I damaged my seed plate drive when I was bush-hogging which is creating some oil leakage and I wanted to get some ideas on the following questions.

1. Is this a serious issue or not with regards to leaking?
2. Should I be worried about operating the tractor like this before it is fixed?
3. How do I fix this and what will I need to fix this (both replacement parts and tools).

So below I have posted a video showing just how loose the seed plate drive is, which is very loose. However, I initially noticed the oil leakage when I was mounting an implement but I went back a few days later and there was no additional leakage, so it seems the leakage isn't major, at least yet or maybe only when moving?
The second video is when I checked the transmission oil level (please confirm I am checking the correct plug) and when I removed the plug you can see oil still comes out, so it would appear I still have the right level of transmission oil still inside.

Loose Seed plate drive
http://youtu.be/WzcV2F305t8

Transmission Oil Level check

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KRNsV3vkM8

Ideas?

First off, all old tractors leak oil here and there. If it's just a little dampness/seepage it's nothing to worry about.

The transmission and final drives are separated. Each has its own oil reservoir. Normally the oil level in the final drive is below the axle so there is no way the majority of the oil can leak out.

The seed drive gear can be removed easily, and doesn't have anything to do with holding the oil in. It just slides on over a nut on the end of the axle shaft, and is held with a pin.

There is no need to keep the gear on the tractor unless you are using it to drive the side dresser/planter.

Yours is worn, but the tractor is 60+ years old. That is to be expected. When you go to put it back on, wrap the nut with some metal from a beer can to take up the wear.

The seal is probably worn on the axle shaft, and could stand to be replaced. I think it can be done without taking the entire final drive apart. Take the gear off, then take the 4 bolts that hold the cover off. You should then be able to see the seal.

As already stated, the sprocket is held with a pin. In this case, it looks to me like the sleeve it is pinned to is loose (and about to fall off). That sleeve is held to the end of the axle with a bolt directly into the center of it. Looks like that bolt has loosened.

The seal should be around that sleeve in a reatainer that is held by 4 bolts. Looks to me like the retainer isn't even there. Go to the CaseIH site and look at the parts breakdown for the final drive to see how it should go together and what is missing.

Your tranmission level is high enough. I would suggest you go to the drain plug and crack it open enough to see if water comes out rather than oil. If there is water, you need to drain it and start with fresh.

Jim's right. I just watched the video on a larger screen, and the seal and retainer are COMPLETELY MISSING. The bearing is exposed to all the dirt and crud and corruption.

No wonder it's leaking!

Get that thing cleaned up and get a cover on there ASAP!

As an aside, you need to work up the courage to take things apart as exploratory surgery. You can learn a lot.

Hi Gents
Thanks for the info, I will get up under the tractor this weekly hopefully. A few additional questions...
1. You guys mentioned that the transmission and the final drives are separated. So leakage that I am seeing from the seed plate drive is coming from the final drives and from what I am hearing, there is actually no "correct" level for the final drive oil. Is that correct?
2. I'll check the oil consistency by the drain plug for water, but just wanted to check where the water could come from. The tractor hasn't spent a day outdoors in the rain in 10 years (and I changed the transmission oil 5 years ago) so I am just wondering if the water could come from other sources?

As for working up the courage to take things apart, point very well taken. In the States, I could get away with avoiding complex issues since I had a lot of tractor mechanic friends around but out here, I am on my own (besides this forum), so it is forcing me to get more adventurous in learning how to do things myself, which is definitley a good thing anyway.

The oil is coming from the final drive, yes.

As far as "no correct level," where'd you get that idea? There is a level plug on each final drive, as well as one on the transmission housing. Level plugs on the final drives are near the implement/drawbar mounting bolts. Towards the front on one side, towards the rear on the other.

Changing the oil in the final drives is messy, because the only way to drain it is to remove the sheet metal pans from the bottom of each final drive.

I've been told that water can accumulate over the years by condensation, even if the tractor is kept inside. If you've kept the tractor inside, and it's only been 5 years since the last oil change, you likely do not have much water if any.

Hi Folks
So I only had a few minutes to work on the
tractor but I took a quick video which seems to
show something interesting.

http://youtu.be/kSlkRqfve3c

I was moving the seed gear around and when I tried
to pull it out a little, I saw that it was
actually attached to something which I believe is
the oil seal (which was sliding out---in the video
it is the bright and shiny cylinder). I could not
see the bearings at all. Am I reading things
right? If the oil seal is falling out but at
least still in place, then hopefully not too much
trash would have been getting in the bearings,
which would be a relief.

@mkirsch
Thanks for the info on the final drive. I
checked the manual and it said that those level
plugs were both the level and the fill plug.
Should I just open the plug and try to fill it
until it starts to seep back out? Given that it
has been leaking, I am sure it is probably short a
good quantity of oil.

The oil seal is completely missing.

See those four empty holes around where the shaft comes out? That is where the seal retainer bolts on.

No seal retainer, no seal.

The shiny cylinder is the surface that the seal rides on.

You can see the inner axle bearing quite clearly. That is the circle around the shiny cylinder. Luckily it is shielded so there isn't much gunk getting in there.

There is no doubt about it. You need the seal and seal retainer.

The "bright and shiny cylinder" is the part a refered to earlier as the "sleeve".

So I was out at the barn this morning and finally removed the seed plate drive and what I found definitely concerns me. I took some more videos, which probably explain much better what I will try to describe. Unfortunately, the sleeve (thank Jim) looks to be the broken component.
Video of current state and broken spacer with seed drive off
http://youtu.be/1uLQLl64RF0

When I was messing with the broken spacer, I could also see something underneath that is more clear in this video
http://youtu.be/qCNyz8QYoMM

So the seed plate drive came off and seems to be completely fine. However, the sleeve that the seed plate rests on is just completely shattered, as you can see in the video. From what I can tell, the oil seal around this shaft seems intact, although I would still want to replace it since that shattered shaft no doubt damage any sealing that it could have done. Please take a look at the videos and let me know if you think I am reading things correctly.


So on top of confirmation of my findings, I had a few more questions...
First, should I be nervous that the whole axle is working loose in the housing. Should I be worried about moving the tractor in this condition?
Secondly, when I was working the sleeve, I did tug on it a little. When I eventually pull that broken sleeve out, should I just pull it with some pliers. What is holding it in place? My only concern is that I don’t want to get up in there and start removing things then breaking them and making it worse than it already is.
Third, I know that my final drive oil is likely quite low. I looked for where the fill plug might be and I saw that there appeared to be a fill plug to the right of the seed plate drive (engine side). When I looked at the Operators manual, it seemed like this plug should be to the left of the seed plate drive (closer to rear of the tractor) but in my case, anything there is covered by the fast hitch bracket. Here is a video of the plug, can you guys confirm if this is the fill plug for the final drive.
Video of possible final drive fill plug
http://youtu.be/xlUV4P7O0JY