[l10mares]

Traded a 97 Buell motorcycle for a 1955 Fordson Major diesel, and a 1941 Ford 9N, and a 3 bottom Massey Ferguson plow, and an old disc. everything works, although we broke a moldboard getting everything on the trailer and over to my place. ( The guy was super cool, and trailered it all over for me). Welded up the moldboard and it's all working pretty well. The Fordson is a serious pulling beast... wheel weights, loaded tires... pulls the three bottom like it's nothing. The 9N is pretty rusty, but it seems to mostly all be surface rust. Pulled the hood and grille off for paint, to make the wife happier about the deal and also to see what i need to tighten the steering up. All the stuff forward of the sector arms is in pretty good shape, minimal wear there, but the sectors have an awful lot of slop in them. Feels like they move in and out of the case too much, also some up and down slop, so new bearings for sure. The book shows some thrust bearings for the sector arms, but I can't seem to find these anywhere, yet. Anyway, here's some first pictures, will snap more as I go. [/ATTACH][/ATTACH]

 

[Kirk-NJ]

Both tractors look good. Can we see some photos of your drawbar hook up? Have you looked at our manual section yet? Good luck with your new tractors.

kirk

 

[Ken N Tx]

Check out Just8n's for steering parts.>>>CLICK HERE<<<

 

[l10mares]

Here's a pic of the drawbar on the 9N, obviously a custom thing. I like this layout enough better than the one you can buy all over the place that I think I'll fab up a piece to replace the missing section, so it can swing either way.
I guess the PO either had a specific implement that needed part of the drawbar bracket out of the way ( it looks to have been cut off with a torch) or he was disking circle tracks backwards.

Ken, thanks! I've seen the bearing halves pretty readily available, but in the F04 it shows thrust bearings that would take the side load from the sector... maybe I'm looking at the drawing wrong or it's for a different model or something, but nobody seems to have the thrust bearings. Going to get the bearing shells and seals and gaskets ordered anyway, and some new gauges and a switch or two. I liked the mod someone posted of using a nice shiny drawer pull rethreaded for the switch knobs, think I'll do that, too.

Kind of nice that the instruments and switches are pretty inexpensive! Also missing the ignition key switch, someone removed it and wired it up with an on/off pull switch to the left of the wheel. Think I'll fix that...
You guys are probably going to hate my paint scheme, but I figure it's a working tractor, and not particularly rare; not building it to win any shows, just to please myself. More or less following a Massey color scheme, red on the hood and fenders, black on the fender supports and bolts, grey for the engine, transmission, etc. I expect I'll do the Fordson in the correct color scheme, except for not being sure I want to have orange wheels. The English one is a little too uniformly blue.... hmmm. Anyway, one at a time.

 

[l10mares]

Got a little bit done tonight after work, pulling off the air cleaner. ( I'm working towards pulling the steering sector box apart, but cleaning/painting as I go) looks like the connectors for the air tube from the cleaner to the carb are made from aluminum flashing... the gasket for the cyclonic jar is made from an old inner tube. Points for McGyvering, but I'd like to move this from "farm-fixed" to "ready to rock". Ordered a new steering wheel, the old one is pretty rough.

Here's a pic of the air cleaner, hasn't been cleaned in a while, I guess. At least there was plenty of oil in the bath.

Ordered new hoses for the tube, bearings for the steering gear, gaskets for it, gaskets for the air cleaner, and a few odds and ends. Hopefully I'll have some painted pics soon of the air cleaner parts.

 

[Kirk-NJ]

With the steering it is also common to have wear at the top of the spindle where the wedge bolt is.
Thanks for the photo of the drawbar. Homemade, I assume just bolted to the rear housing trumpet bolts?

Kirk

 

[l10mares]

Kirk, is the steering pinion tapered so you can adjust lash by engaging it deeper? Haven't got it apart far enough to see that yet, trying to clean and paint stuff as I go, rather than just making a big pile. Be nice if I didn't have to replace sectors, those are kinda spendy.
So far, the top bearing in the column doesn't look too bad for wear, had dried grease in places. If you mean the spindles up front by the front wheels, those felt pretty tight with the front end off the ground. So far, all the play I feel is in the steering box, between the pinion and sectors.
Will have to look at what the drawbar bolts to, but fixing that is going to be a ways later, like after getting the fenders cleaned up and painted.

 

[slip knot]

my 2N had to have both sectors and the steering shaft replaced. the gears were shot. A bit of coin but it really tightened up the steering.

 

[l10mares]

Went to sandblast parts the other day, and someone at work had taken the sandblaster to bits. Assembled it with the new parts , but the ceramic nozzles didn't fit. Thinking to take the gun to harbor freight this weekend and see if I can find something that fits, so as to keep making progress on it. Hopefully, some rain tomorrow, would love to get some ploughing done soon!

 

[l10mares]

Got the steering gearbox off today, what a mess! I mentioned that orange permatex on the shift boot.... I wonder if that's what let all the water in?

Looks like it's been leaking gear oil for a while.

so, a lot of the up and down slop in the sectors was from worn out bearings.

Looks like a lot of dirt or rust in the nasty oil. I'd planned on stopping after the steering repairs, so I could use this tractor to disc in Fall, but looking at the oil and the inside of the transmission, I think I'll keep going.

So, unfortunately, the pinion and both sectors are pretty thoroughly worn out. If it was an emergency, I could tighten it up a little with shims, but it would probably bind in hard turns and still be sloppy in the middle. Guess I have a good excuse to go check out the tractor salvage place next saturday. At least I'll have good, tight steering when I'm done!

You can see visible wear on the pinion, it must be worn at least .030" below the unworn edges of it.

Compare the sector teeth in the middle to the ones on the outside... huge difference, they're like knife edges at the worn out part in the middle.
Lastly, a shot of the shims on a 9N, nobody seems to stock the shims, but I've seen some posts about people using machinery spacers sourced from an industrial supply house. If I need any after sourcing the steering shaft and sectors, I'll be sure to share the info, so others can find them as well.

There's one shim in the middle, and two outside ones. The sector arms are joined by a shaft that is a slip fit between them, so they slide together and butt up against the middle shim.
I have seen several outfits that have new sectors and steering shafts with pinion, and I may have to go new if I can't get used... man, that's a chunk of change, though. But it will be worth it, when I'm working it hard, and everything's right. :MTF_wel:

 

[l10mares]

Got myself some used sectors and a steering shaft, with bearings, on ebay. Hopefully they are in as good of shape as they looked in the pics, should be quite a bit better than the ones that were in there. More and more stuff is looking good, in new paint, will get pics of that probably this weekend. Took the transmission cover to work to clean and sandblast, here are some pics of the before:

To get the shifter spring compressed enough to pull the retainer cup out for disassembly, I used a tool I had lying around, something I made for working on Ford CNG powered Crown Vics when I was at the dealership. ( Sheet metal tool in the pic, with a square cutout at the end ) I think I'll make one that fits a bit closer, with a half-round cut at the end, will post dimensions when it works.

You can see the huge blob of orange permatex where someone glued the shift boot back together... $5 part that might have prevented water getting in.
Anyway, I'll keep going, everything I can see that touches gear oil is pretty sludged, with a few rusty/crispy critters floating around. Transmission comes out next for cleaning/inspection.

 

[l10mares]

Scored steering sectors and a shaft on E-bay, the used parts look pretty good. Not a lot of wear on the sector teeth, although these 1941 castings are pretty rough by modern standards. Got the sectors all cleaned up at work, and ready for paint, came home, and the steering shaft had arrived. Guess Ill be a little late coming home tomorrow, too!