Hello Ron,
You have 3 problems... the paint one I will not comment as it is already solved.
The 2 transmission problems does not have the same cause.
The getting stuck in 2 gears, will not be cured as Sam says. The problem Sam tries to cure is when the gearlever end gets out of the grove it is placed in. This comes from worn grove in the shifter fork, worn gearlever, worn pin through the gear lever, or worn cup for the gearlever. Or all of them worn.
But, you say it gets stuck in 2 gears, and that is a totally different matter.
In the rear end of the shifter rails there is a grove in the side. On both R-1 gear, and 2-3 gear rails. Between those are a pin located, and the length of this pin is so that if one rail is moved so you get the transmission out of neutral and into one of the gears, the pin is pushed into the grove on the other rail and thereby blocking it from moving too at the same time.
If the pin gets worn too much, it will allow both rails to move into a gear, and thereby being in 2 gears at the same time. Then you need to replace the pin to get that problem fixed.
In addition you have a problem with the reverse gear jumping out.
And, this is a problem you have to adress very quickly until it is too late.
In the front end of the rails I mentioned above, there is 3 groves pointing upward. When you take off the steering box, you will see 3 springs popping up in front of the opening where the steering box was sitting. If you lift up the springs you will find 3 small plungers down there, which is formed as a point or arrow in the bottom end, sitting in the rail groves.
If the end of the plunger is worn too much, you will experience the transmission working itself out of gear, the more load, the worse it gets.
If the plunger is ok, it can be cured with a stronger spring.
But still, there is another problem with this, and that is that the reverse cluster gear might have worn, worn teeth, or worn needles in the bearing. Or other gears worn too.
This cause them to angle a bit, and starting to push themselves out of gear.
If you get to this problem at an early stage you might save the gears, but find a new plunger if it is worn in the end, and no matter what, find a stronger spring to put down there.
I am not sure if the diameter of the spring is the same for the F-40 as it is for newer tractors, especially the 100 series. If that is the case, you shall ask your MF dealer for a spring used in the late 1970ties Industrial instant reverse transmissions with the larger 248 engines used in forest machinery.
These springs are heavy and they will make the transmission stay in gear.
I am sorry I do not have the part number for it, but many years ago we had a large tractor with loader and backhoe, 9.5 tons, and got this problem. In our case it was too late, so they had to replace the gears and bearings. But, to prevent it from happening again they ordered some springs from a MF transmission used in a Swedish made forest machine. It was still an MF number for it, but I do not have it.
The only drawback was that you could feel it was harder to get out of gear, and out of neutral and into a gear.
But, it was not too bad, just had a feeling you had gotten a brand new transmission and not a worn one.
Bill
