Help, Ford 3600, Removing Lift Cover

Several weeks ago my rock shaft came loose as I was mowing and vibrated out far enough that it lost alignment with the spline inside the lift. Waited for the arrival of the service manuals (both the official Ford and the I&T) that I had ordered along with the parts that were lost in the field and this morning undertook the task of removing the lift housing to replace the shaft. Removed seat and remote cylinder control valves without much trouble. Removed bolts holding lift cover and gave it a little tap to loosen and tried to remove cover. No success. The cover is loose and I can lift it a fraction of an inch. but something is restraining the cover at the right-front corner that I can"t find. Have been looking for pictures/descriptions for an hour or so now and thought I could appeal to anybody with experience on this forum. What is up there that I need to be able to move out of the way and how do I proceed?

Thanks everybody,

Kirk (Still hoping to get some mowing done this weekend)

My service manual talks about a lifting tool, but does not have a picture to look at. My assumption, not having done this before, is that it would mount to the seat attachment points or maybe it is kind of a vise that clamps the sides and is held tight by the weight of the lift cover. I was just going to loop a chain from those same points, but don't want to screw something up too bad.

Thanks for all the help so far.

Kirk

You seem pretty knowledgeable. I was kind of hoping to just rock up the back of the lift cover to replace the rock shaft, but now that it has turned into a little more is there anything else I should be looking at once the cover is removed? I don't really have any complaints about things working, but since I have it open what can I do to reduce future problems?

I think it was you who gave me some confidence that I could do this myself a few weeks ago when it first came up. Took awhile to get parts, manuals and time to get back to it. Of course manuals don't seem to mention this little gotcha. Also had some drawbar work I had to keep the tractor available for. I am going into town to look for an engine hoist in a few minutes. This morning when I started I had extra hands available, but now am on my own.

Anyway, I will let you know how things turn out.

Kirk