460 Mechanikin'

Last summer I hooked my 460 to a pto baler that seems to be very much out of time. Anyway, broke a pto shaft inside the tranny. Tranny had to be removed, so decided to replace TA and engine clutch. I'm dumber than a box of rocks, so got an old, nearly retired professional Farmall mechanic to do it with my help, in his shop about a hundred miles away. Boy what a job! Tractor had to be split into three parts. It is an LP, so when I removed that tank, I also had the guage and one valve replaced with a new one through my local propane supplier. He replaced ALL valves, guages and every other part except the faded paint. : ) That bill - "uffda"!
Anyway the mechanic and I and a friend split the tractor into three parts back in January. Afterward the mechanic, when he could find the time, cleaned up the tranny, installed and adjusted the TA, engine clutch, etc. and put major sections of the three parts of the "split" back together. Then yesterday I helped re-install plates, gaskets, pto, clutch and pto linkages, starter, electric wires, fast-hitch limiters, choke wire, oil sending line, tach cable, fuel filter, and a ton of other things. Now, basically there remains only putting on the air cleaner, LP tank and lines, hood, stack, cables and battery.
The mechanic says the 460 are like H's, 300's, 350's that have just continually had things added onto over the years til they are a real pain in the neck to work on. Everything is just very tightly put into the minimally available space. He said next time buy a 706 or 656.
Maybe, someday . . .
At least now I'm pretty convinced that at the age of 70 I know that I DO NOT WANT TO BECOME A MECHANIC!!! I sure admire those of you who like it, but think I'll stick to my old draft horses for awhile yet. kelly

Baler should have had a shear pin that would shear before damaging anything. Usually it is on the flywheel on the front of the baler. Maybe someone has altered it. I'm with you on the horses. Working with a good horse is very satisfying. Unfortunately I haven't had one since before my father passed away.

The 460 is the simple one. The 656 has all the same things and a lot more added and much more difficult to get at. The 656 is a lot more tractor though with much improved final drives and hitch. Cut my teeth taking those 4 and 560's apart during the upgrading campaign IH had.

Yeah, I don't get where he thinks a 656 is any better... It's just the next evolution of that same basic chassis design.

Dad recently bought a 656 and after working on M's and 400's and such, you can just see that *EVERYTHING* is an afterthought. They crammed things in where they could, and came up with Rube Goldberg contraptions to get the "look and feel" of the more modern tractor.

A 706 makes a 460 look as crude and simple as an F-20 by comparison, so I don't know where he's getting off there either.

Well, no worries about a lost career as a mechanic!

We're just finishing up bringing a 400 gas back to life and you can see the progression of complexity from an M. The 400 gas tank had FOUR bolts holding it on instead of the usual THREE. That's a 33% increase in bolted-ness!