So, WHAT am I missing?

[SLWagner73]

Gentlemen, I am lost.
I have followed all the instructions in the service manual to remove the lift cover, and after hooking up the engine hoist, all I am doing is lifting the whole tractor off the ground.
With the exception of the bolts that ring the cover, is there anything else that would hold this together.
I really don't want to start smacking on the casting if I don't have to. But could that possibly be what I need to do?
Also, it states that I should have to release the forks from the pump, but they were just flopping around already.
Any ideas?

 

[Ken(Ark)]

It is like pulling a suction cup off of a window . Take a rock bar or long crow bar and gentle lift up the top cover by the rear spring .

 

[Royse]

I can't tell for sure from the picture, but are you sure you have
all of the bolts out that ring the cover? Just the bolts.
Not the four nuts that hold the cylinder.
If you do, I use a four foot steel bar and pry between the rear
center housing and the rock shaft that the lift arms attach to.
Bottom of the base of the lift arms.

 

[Kirk-NJ]

If all the perimeter bolts have been removed from the top cover and the forks on both side are spread and freed the top cover should come off with some gentle prying.
If it has been repaired in the past some people feel the need to goop them up with silicone, not needed with the proper gasket, which makes it only the more harder to
remove.

Kirk

 

[Jim WI]

When my son and I pulled the top cover off our 8N, it took a five-foot length of 2-inch pipe with me leaning on it to get it to pop loose (I was prying under where one of the lift arms attaches to the cover.) Mine looked pretty clean when I got it off -- it did not seem to have anything but the gasket.

I am impressed with your being able to lift the tractor using the top cover.