When I bought my tractor, I got the seller to throw in a "seized auger". It is a nice heavy Ford 905. I figured someone had just let it run out of oil, and was hoping it was just bearings and not gear damage.
It took some doing, but I got it apart. Looks like oil long gone, and worse yet, water got in. Bearings were completely ruined rusty mess. But lucky the gears are great other than a little pitting in one area where they were together. It's not really that bad, so it may be a little noisy, but it will run fine. And I was able to find all new bearings and seals, so life is good. But I now have 2 problems.
1) I had planned to just use RTV for gaskets. But it looks like that is a bad idea. For one thing, there is nothing locating the housing pieces except that clamp surface and bolts. It needs to be bolted down hard. And I also noticed that if you bolt it down without gasket, it binds up VERY hard. Looks like it actually needs the gasket to establish/limit the bearing preload. I've also checked and double checked to make sure everything is seated. Looks like it needs a fairly thick gasket to run. So, does this sound right? Doesn't sound right to me, but maybe? Also, I'll probably make my own, but are gaskets readily available? If they are part of the tolerance stack to achieve proper preload, I would rather just buy that guess.
2) It was pretty frozen up, and the only way I could get the pinion apart was to remove the u-joint and press through the yoke. But the seals on the cup were completely hardened and broke into pieces. And looks like either I lost a pin or two, or they were already missing. So I have to find a replacement. Problem is, looks like it's an odd size. Two local drive line supply sources say that can't find a replacement. I don't have the sizes handy (no numbers on joints), but I was thinking maybe this is an AG specific part? Suggestions?
It took some doing, but I got it apart. Looks like oil long gone, and worse yet, water got in. Bearings were completely ruined rusty mess. But lucky the gears are great other than a little pitting in one area where they were together. It's not really that bad, so it may be a little noisy, but it will run fine. And I was able to find all new bearings and seals, so life is good. But I now have 2 problems.
1) I had planned to just use RTV for gaskets. But it looks like that is a bad idea. For one thing, there is nothing locating the housing pieces except that clamp surface and bolts. It needs to be bolted down hard. And I also noticed that if you bolt it down without gasket, it binds up VERY hard. Looks like it actually needs the gasket to establish/limit the bearing preload. I've also checked and double checked to make sure everything is seated. Looks like it needs a fairly thick gasket to run. So, does this sound right? Doesn't sound right to me, but maybe? Also, I'll probably make my own, but are gaskets readily available? If they are part of the tolerance stack to achieve proper preload, I would rather just buy that guess.
2) It was pretty frozen up, and the only way I could get the pinion apart was to remove the u-joint and press through the yoke. But the seals on the cup were completely hardened and broke into pieces. And looks like either I lost a pin or two, or they were already missing. So I have to find a replacement. Problem is, looks like it's an odd size. Two local drive line supply sources say that can't find a replacement. I don't have the sizes handy (no numbers on joints), but I was thinking maybe this is an AG specific part? Suggestions?
