John Deere MC crawler

[JD Rookie]

Hi all,
I am trying to get the sprocket hub off of a 1952 JD MC. The manual I am using shows a nut on the end of the final drive axle. My crawler does not have a nut on the end of the axle. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lavoy]

IF there is no nut on the axle, someone has either welded the hub to the axle, you do not have an MC, or someone has swapped a later final with the one piece axle in place of the original.
Lavoy
JDCRAWLERS.COM

 

[JD Rookie]

Thanks for the info, as I did more research last night I was pretty sure I wasn"t dealing with a MC. When my grandpa died the appraiser listed it as a 1952 MC, that was what I went off of. I have the hood and radiator guard but it hasn"t been on in years. No serial tag or other way to identify it. It has a two cylinder motor, five rollers on the bottom of the track, tracks extend all the way to the front weight. I"m thinking it"s a 40C, 420. Any easy ways to distinguish between the two of them. As I said I"m new to this and the pictures I"ve seen haven"t given me a enough confidence to go out and buy another shop manual. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Anonymous-0]

If the shifter has a cage to align you with the gears it is probably a 420. If it has a long shift handle with no cage then a 40.

 

[Lavoy]

If it has a water pump, it would be a 420.
Lavoy
JDCRAWLERS.COM

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have two 420 crawlers. The '56 4-speed doesn't have a cage. The '57 5-speed does. I know the '57 has never been changed since I bought it new and because the '56 was in the family of the dealer til I bought it I don't think it was ever changed either.

 

[JD Rookie]

First of all I would like to thank everyone for all the help. Now my final questions. The crawler has a cage to align you in the gears. I has a short slightly bent shifter. It has a 5speed plus reverse transmission. As far as the Water pump goes I'm not 100% sure, Was it built into the engine block with about a 1 inch hose returning up the top larger hose coming out of the radiator? I believe I am dealing with a later model 420C. Again, all the help to this point has been terrific, and I would have been really lost with out you guys.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Sounds like a 420. I don't believe the 40 had a 5-speed transmission, while the 420 had a 4 or 5. The shift handle is bent to clear the clutch handles.