Ford 4000 clutch housing /:

So..... Decided would tackle looking into the bottom
Inspection hole of the old 4000 over the weekend.
And boy did I get a surprise when I drop the cover ......../: I looked inside to see that one of the springs on the clutch had broken off and the pin is just hanging in there which doesn't seem to really be a big deal ? Anyways the plate cover had very large amount of grease on it from much use over time and I decide to clean it and while doing so I found
Some small ball bearings. Now I'm really not sure if there from an old rebuild and some how found there self at the bottom in all the grease but they looked like they had been in there a very long time! So I checked everything with flash light well what I chould see the throw out bearing looked good. The flywheel was somewhat ok but some of the teeth are boogered up some): not sure if it is from operators mistake while tractor is running and restarting or if that left over spring rolling around cause it not very sure.the tractor runs great not had any noise in clutch no vibrations or anything ? My question is ..... If the pilot bearing went bad or the throw out would it not be causing problems when shifting or heavy vibrations in clutch along with much noise etc? Like I said I am not sure if these bearings where from old rebuild or what. If they did come from the pilot bearing area wouldn't the tractor be showing signs or wear by now from it ?

I have never seen a throwout bearing fail that did not cause problems. Generally you will hear lots of noise from the clutch housing. If there is no vibration and the clutch works smoothly, it would seem that the pieces you found were left from another job, which to say the least would be considered sloppy workmanship. If that many balls were gone from any bearing in or near the transmission, you would have major prolems.

Hi Like shadetree said I wouldn't worry if alls good with the tractor. I do customer clutches here in my shop. the last Landini I did had a clutch put in 3 years before with a dealer. I split it and had an ice cream pail full of grime out. in the bottom I found parts of a starter nose, and on looking behind the flywheel found a pretty big chunk of it wedged in there to.

I kinda quizzed the guy about it as somebody never cleaned it last time. he asked the dealer, His comment was yes we clean every single housing when we do clutches.
so he gave him all the parts and said I doubt it, the guy said he must of changed the starter shortly after the clutch. My customer politely told him he brought the tractor used, he had never changed the starter on it since he had owned it. That is bad service and to lie to the customer as well kinda says something about their work and they can't be trusted.
Regards Robert

Well that is what I was thinking ! It shifts great drive great no problems what so ever ...... No ...... Noise nothing. I had plan to this winter while had it in garage to split the tractor and go ahead and do a complete clutch rebuild and maybe put a new flywheel ring back on the flywheel. As I did remove a few pins some kind of clip a lot of old grease and all of this was in a big ball in that grease and dirt. As far as the flywheel getting boogered up some I guess being 50 years old I'd have few bad spots my self ha!