TO-30 Front Axel hits Lower Rad Hose

[rekerkayak]

My To-30 is still a working tractor. She's a great tractor for my little place.

Hilly travel where I live causes the front axel to pivot up just enough to break the lower radiator hose. The axel goes just high enough to cause a scissors effect at the radiator outlet.

Tried everything I could think of any ideas out there??
 

[Richard L]

As soon as you can please take a very good look at the front axle pin. It sounds to me as it may have needed replacing some time ago. It won't be good if you are on a side of a hill and it breaks.
 

[Bruce(OR)]

Yep! Sounds a bit worse than the junk yard refugee 2N in the front yard. It has the same problem. Hence another reason for it"s gathering moss "till I get a round tuit.
Right after the 8N and what ever else comes along such as her van with a busted hose.
"It is difficult to remind ourselves the original objective was to drain the swamp when up to you a** in alligators."
 

[trac]

The axle bushing also needs replacing with new pin it's not that hard to do.
 

[Bob (Aust)]

And the radius rods will also be bent.
 

[rekerkayak]

Well......

Ignorance was bliss..

Not to hard ya say??
 

[overhead]

Not too hard, no. It required a trip to the machine shop for me as I had to get the center beamed drilled out to fit the newer sized bushing, and I also had to replace the axle support because the pin had turned what should be a round hole into an oval, but it was not very technically challenging at all. I had zero experience working on tractors, but I did have lots of experience on on cars, ATV, motorcycles, etc.
 

[rekerkayak]

got a look at it last night and if it's bad I can't tell. Looks like everything is there.

Radius rods may be bent slightly??



Anything special I need to look for or a way I can test or measure to tell for sure??
 

[overhead]

I have only completed this repair once, so I am sure there are others here that can answer better than I can.

Mine was obviously broken, I did not have to measure anything.




 

[rekerkayak]

Yup-I saw this post, great info. Mine is not broken and looks pretty good, compared to this one.
 

[overhead]

I imagine if you jack the tractor up so that the front axle moves freely you could tell whether their were play in the center beam bushing/pin. Hopefully someone else with more experience will chime in.
 

[Bob (Aust)]

Changing the front pivot pin and bushes is relatively simple. Depending on what tooling you have, you may need to have the old bushes pressed out and new bushes presse in.

The radius arms will be bent and can be straightened in a press - with care!