stuck clutch revisited.....thoughts on this idea

still fooling around with this 254 i-h compact diesel tractor for a buddy of mine. clutch is still stuck hard and wont release. dragged an allis 7060 up and down the road for a couple hours hitting the brakes on both tractors and still wont loosen. older tractor guy said to drill a 3/4 inch hole in the bottom of the bell housing and reach in with a long punch and give the disk some good whacks with the clutch depressed to see if that will do it, then just plug the hole. there is no access hole on this tractor to the clutch area. any thoughts on this approach?? (this tractor sat outside for a couple years and the clutch is now stuck)

Not sure about the smacking it with a punch part, but at least the hole would give you a chance to peak up inside to get a better idea exactly what you're dealing with.

Personally I can't see it working simply because the disc edge that you are hitting is so thin relative to all the surface area that is rusted together. If you are thinking of drilling a hole I think that it would be much more productive to spray penetrating oil in onto the disc.

I would split the tractor. One time we towed a tractor around and ended up tearing out the center section of the clutch plate

Was the engine running while you were dragging it around? Local dealer always said to start 'em up and let 'em run at fast idle.....with tractor in park/neutral and clutch pedal tied or blocked down. The vibration would always......eventually.......cause it to release. I've only done it once and it was free within 20 minutes.

myself, i would take it apart. even if it does break loose the surfaces will be rusted and i believe it will slip under load after.the disc could be damaged from the rust also. and another thing is it may be worn to the rivets anyhow.

thurlow, yup the motor was running. i hooked up to the neighbors allis 7060 (about 160 hp tractor, 13,000 lbs) and pulled it around too. the 254 has turf tires on the rear) i ran the tractor for half a day with the clutch blocked down and that didnt get it loose. then drove it for a while hitting the brakes too, that didnt get it either. this one has a loader on it, and i really dont want to split it if at all possible.

I bought a combine a few years ago that I thought I'd have to tear apart to get the clutch free. I took the inspection cover off and sprayed PB Blaster,mostly on the splines,a little on the flywheel,but then,that one had a ceramic button clutch,not a fiber clutch. After a few time with the Blaster,it finally popped loose by starting it in gear and hitting the brakes with the clutch pedal down. It can be frustrating can't it?

Can you pull the starter and spray instead of drilling a hole??

Have you let it site with the clutch pedal blocked down for a week or two?

In my experience that is probably MORE effective then all the pulling and jerking you've done.

ONce you have the hole, you can slip a flat screw driver in between the plat and the fly wheel and tap to seperate. always works for me

EVERY tractor has an "access hole" to the clutch- and a nice big one at that- the starter! Take it off, tie down the clutch pedal, and with a kitchen knife heated and bent 90 degrees about 2 inches from the end, work the blade in between the flywheel and the clutch disc, and wiggle it back and forth to free up an area. Then turn the flywheel a bit, and repeat. Works every time, and you don't pollute your clutch disk with penetrating oil.

Splitting the tractor works too, but I've always found that to be a little more trouble than removing the starter.

Myself by now i would have had it split and fixed and been done with it , as i have tried all them things over the years and found out that if they do not break loose in a vary short time that i could just split and get it done faster then talking about it

While I understand that a clutch disc can stick to the input shaft that alone will not cause it to stick like your describing so penetrating oil isn't likely to do alot of good beyond getting into the lining. That said, and knowing that it has a loader on it take it to the field and bury the bucket in the ground and try to get a big bite. When the rear tires start to spin hit the differential lock so both rears spin and then hit the clutch. Between the force of the engine turning everything and then the stuttering action caused by the tires spinning (I assume it has chevron tread tractor tires or something equilivent)it should break the clutch free. Once free all you need to do is ride the clutch a bit and let everything polish itself out and you should be fine. Granted you might cut a season of use off of the life span but it beats having to break the tractor in half just for it being stuck. I've seen alot of clutches stuck over the years and doing what I just described, be it with a buried loader bucket or putting a push bar against a tree, I have never had one that won't release eventually. Too, if possible, you might also want to put the drawbar against something and try the same scenario in reverse. Sometimes I have found if it didn't work in forward that alternating between fwd and rev would work...sort of like bending a piece of metal back and forth to break it off. Good luck.

I would use the starter hole to make a flywheel lock to holt all force off of the crankshaft.
I would then put a chain around each rear wheel on the front side about a foot off the ground.
I would put it in road gear and then I would use two high lift jacks to lift on the chains turning the tires backwards. This puts force on the clutch in the same direction as it would driven by the engine. If the tires were off the ground a little, it would be about as much force as things could stand, and you could walk away from it leaving it to unstick, or heat the FW with a torch to add soma size change to the mix. Jim

Just split it and get it done. You've already spent more time screwing with it than a split would take.
2 hours to roll it out. An hour to do what needs done and 2 more to roll it back together.
Less if it's 2WD.

Rod