M5 M602 steering

[Heath72]

Has anyone ever figured out how to get good steering on a 5 Star, M5, M602/early670 series tractor? I have owned a number of these, and every one that had a wide front end especially, had very tough steering. Is there a way to convert these to hydrostatic steering somehow? If anyone has ever done it, please let me know. I wonder if you could use some hydro parts off a combine or something, and convert it over.

Maybe there is something you can do to tweak the existing system to make it perform better? Any ideas would be appreciated. I finally gave up on using these as yard/chore tractors and got a 4020. It steers with one finger at idle. I've always liked the mid-sized, 336 engined Molines. They are gutsy tractors and have some good features, but not the steering. Again, any ideas are appreciated.

Thanks,

Heath

 

[rvirgil_KS]

My brother had a G1000 with that problem. Spindles on front axle were dry and rusted inside causing them to bind. Cleaned and lubed them and made a huge difference.

 

[Anonymous-0]

It certainly not one of their strong points but I own about 8 of these and was raised on one. They are not all the same. A few things I have learned. 1. Grease and clean your spindles and make sure they are not bent. 2. take the guts out of the assist and resleeve. Polish every thing. 3. Shim your steering valve in the rear on the pump to the max, I think book says around 600psi, I take them up to just before the steering gets jerky. It will never steer like a 4020 but we steer our plow tractor with 800# of front wieght with no problem.Once the plow is in you can steer it by sneezin at it !

 

[Toby Oats]

when our pumps get weak, well replace them withone off of an old ford truck. Our 5 star steers great.maybe somethin to look into. Good Luck.

 

[AlanK]

They can be a bear to get figured out. I have an M5 that I rebuilt but still have some adjustments to make on it to get it right. The other M5 I have I rebuilt part of the steering unit and did ALOT of adjusting on the valve to get it centered properly. It works beautiful now but it is a narrow front, wide fronts Im sure would be a little different.

 

[Heath72]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am aware that the spindles and bushings can be a source of trouble. A friend worked on his M5 front end, but it still didn't take care of the problem. I was not aware of the shimming of the steering valve. I will have to pull my service manual out and study it a bit.

Again, thanks for the info.

Heath