Noisey Gears

[Mark-Ia]

A lot of your wobble at high speed will also come from worn steering pins in the steering box.

 

[Glen D Anderson]

Significant fore and aft movement on the axle pivot will result in the "death wobble" symptom as well.

 

[Fabrickator]

I opened the steering box and inspected, lubed, and adjusted it. It’s in good shape. I could see the the ball joints were loose at the steering head yoke. That, along with the “power steering/leverage” mod were really funky and put excessive wear and strain on tie rod setup.

I also checked the axle swivel itself, the spindles and the wheel bearings. Everything seems normal and in surprisingly decent condition.

In my youth I raced and rode motorcycles from dirt, track, desert and also Harley rode bikes. I know that everything can be normal but if the steering head is just a little bit loose, you can get a high-speed wobble, or death wobble around 60-80 mph.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[Fabrickator]

Here are some other pics of true restoration to date.

 

[a49deere]

How much did you pay for the John deere Sticker on the battery?

 

[m16ty]

Keep in mind that these old tractors weren’t smooth as silk from the factory, then add decades of use.
I don’t think you’ll find any old tractor without at least a little noise and/or vibration in the trans or rear end. Unless you feel actual binding or bad vibration, you probably don’t have an issue that needs addressed. Especially if you’ve at least looked around in there and not seen anything oblivious out of place and you aren’t planning on working it hard all day long anymore.

 

[Fabrickator]

I don’t remember, $5-10. I thought it to be fine since the original cover was rusted out and a new one was pushing $100

This renovation started in 2019, On-Off. I have a 10 acre ranch here in NorCal that I've been sorting out. I fenced, cross fenced, built stables for sheep, pigs and cows.

I bought a farm truck for hauling hay and rebuilt it. Last year I bought a real fixer upper 14’ bow rider boat and rebuilt it. Then I bought a Mahindra tractor for cheap and spend a lot of time sorting out some fuel delivery problems.

I also had a 24x50’ shop built and I finished it out inside and ran the utilities. 3-door for machine shop, fab/welding shop, tractor bay and a bay for woodworking and painting.

These ball joints were wasted. I found them for $20 each from a place back East. Next week.

I don’t know about you guys, but when I’m looking at photos I spend as much time seeing what’s behind or in the corners of pics of peoples shops. So I’ll spare you the treasure hunt and show you the layout of my complete shop. I did it up with a lots of antique tools and other stuff on the walls. Some stuff only us old guys remember. I worked in
motorcycle, auto and drag racing shops as well as R&D and fab shops. I spent the last 27 years of my career as GM of the fuel storage and distribution of the Jet A storage faculty in OC John Wayne Airport. Yeah, my office was 100’ from the runway and 1 million gallons of jet fuel.

 

[Fabrickator]

It wouldn’t let me load them all so here’s some more. Ball joints machine shop and the Holy Grail for rebuilding these old machines.