Torque Amplifier

[The JD Workmen]

Hi! I am new to this form and was wondering while I attend a tractor pull in red country this weekend I noticed the farmall tractors guys where yanking on this lever to there left that says torque amplifier by it. My question is what is a torque amplifier, how does it work, and how do you engage it. Thanks for the info!

 

[Bob]

A TA is a clutch-operated, "shift-on-the-go" 2-speed unit ahead of the main transmission giving about 30% ground speed reduction with corresponding increase in torque when activated.

("TA" also stands for "Trouble Ahead".)

 

[Zach Bouchard]

The Torque Amplifier (TA), first introduced on the Super M in 1954, was an extra low-range gear ratio (comparable to the two-speed rear of a truck) that allowed for a quick downshift without the clutch to gain torque at the drive wheels. The TA model was then called Super M-TA. The TA became an option on the model 300 and larger tractors after 1955.

It"s off of wikipedia.

 

[Anonymous-0]

TA was a device designed to increase the purchase price, and the repair cost of a long series of tractors. It also provided twice the ground speed selection, whether you needed them or not. I remember being the most important kid in school for a day because our 706 had 16 forward speeds and much more importantly and VERY VERY necessary under almost all conditions: 8 reverse speeds. Of course we had the other version on a 560 before that. My brother and I had that one in Mexican overdrive a few times.

 

[Hugh MacKay]

Kruss1: Bullfeathers, with proper maintenence and proper use TA would run as long as the diesel engine in front of it.

Of 5 TA equipped tractors only one TA did not make the 10,000 hour mark before rebuild. Ironically it was the first one, and we did learn from our mistakes.

 

[Bob]

Around here, with praire wheatland tractors doing HEAVY tillage, the TA's were a CONSTANT headache.

There were 3 dealers within a 25 mile radius of us, and they were ALWAYS busy with TA jobs.

 

[Doug in IL]

There are two kinds of TA's. Out and going out!

 

[mkirsch]

They call it "powershift" nowadays. Most tractors these days do not have gears, they have 16, 18, 24-speed Torque Amplifiers.

Bob, I gotta say that the shops in your area were probably creating a lot of their own work. If you don't do the TA install right, and don't adjust it right, it won't work right and won't last long. Hydraulic TAs must be particularly tough to do because of the three we've got, only one has worked right.

TAs are handy because they allow you to better match available power, ground speed, and working conditions. Imagine starting up an incline pulling a plow. You forget to stop and downshift one gear at the bottom, and run out of power. With a straight gear tractor, you stop and downshift, then try to start moving again, going uphill, with the plow sunk in the ground.... Generally you end up dropping 2-3 gears, slipping the clutch, and/or lifting the plow out of the ground. Now you're crawling up the hill with plenty of power, and wasting a LOT of time.

With the TA, you just pull the lever back and the tractor drops 1/2 a gear speed, and you roar up the hill. You didn't have to stop and shift at any time. You're running faster than you would have if you'd had to downshift. You're getting more done.

 

[supermpuller]

Than How do you explain my 1955 300U with loader that has the orignal TA still going strong? Out of my 14 TA IH tractors I have had to replace 2 TA's.

 

[Hugh MacKay]

Bob: We did some tillage as well, cracked the hours on them at the rate of 800 or more per year. My 1066 hit the 10,000 mark when it was less than 8 years old, still had the original TA in it at that time.

The biggest single reason for TA failure was operator carelessness and inexperience. Second biggest reason was lack of maintainence.

 

[Anonymous-0]

JD, Over the past 40 years I have run seven tractors with TA, my best guess would be about 60,000 hours total. I have replaced five of them, that would mean about 12,000 hours average and still counting on each one. The one I started from new was the 856 it made 13 thousand on the original. Good luck, Chuck

 

[Anonymous-0]

OK , fine, none ever gave trouble. Everything IH ever made was perfect.

 

[Higgi]

I have a 1958 460 with the T/A the key is only use it underpower/pulling....NEVER COAST IT it will eat it alive....If you use if for plow field work. Starting out in 5 with T/A back when pulling machinery then releasing it your fine. It will not down shift/coast it will self destruct. That is why you find alot of them that had hired help run them the farmers removed the handle so they couldn't engage it..Best of luck no problem for those that can think !

 

[Anonymous-0]

KRUSSI, A manufacture cannot control how anything is used or missused. It is foolish for someone who has not had succsess with something to be critical of someone who has. Henry Ford first designed the TA setup and it has proven itself to be a very reliable and handy invention to only a few million farmers. Chuck

 

[Hugh MacKay]

Kruss1: The one TA I had difficulty with was the first one on a Farmall 300. My dad did a lot of the operation on that one, and I'll be damned if we could get him to be in high side as he started down a hill. He'd be busy with his baling, forget all about his gears. He wouldn't take time to adjust it.

Even after the TA bacame non free wheeling some of those old timers would shift into low at the worst possible time.

Plain and simple, they had been a generation that consulted the manual if all else failed, and it worked quite well up until 1955. You just can't blame IH or any other company, if customers won't read a manual.

That covers the old guys, then you have some of their brain dead sons. We had a neighbor, his son shifted the 100hp Deere power shift from 6th forward to to 4th reverse at full throttle, on dry pavement. Then they had the gaul to blame Deere because transmission failed at 1,500 hours, and both rear axles broke off at around 2,500 hours. I saw the axles, 50% of it was old break. Young lads I had working for me, tell me I wasn't the only one to see him do the power shift.

I can take you to hundreds of farmers that got along quite well with both TA and Deere power shift. Other than my 300, we got 10,000 hours each on other 4 before rebuild. I also got 14,000 hours on my Deere power shift. The case being if even 10% of users got large hours of service, you can not blame the manufacturer for the other 90%.

 

[Anonymous-0]

We never had JD's (in the 706 era) but I frequently operated a JD with power shift and it was light years ahead of the IH TA to operate. I stacked a lot of bales as a youngster on a rack behind balers pulled with TA tractors; not always nice when you have a 60 lb. bale over your head and your father chooses that moment to play with the TA. Of course the next baling tractor was a 730 Case O Matic and the same thing (or worse) happened. Anyway it is interesting to know that ONLY the TA s on tractors in our area gave trouble. Also interestin to note that when a tractor with TA is up for sale that's the first thing you check, or maybe that's just another thing that happens around here. Just for the record we never had to repair a TA either, but we didn't keep our IH's for huge numbers of hours (for various reasons).

 

[BillyinStoughton]

IMO, the T/A (WHEN USED PROPERLY!) can be, and is a very reliable unit. I am partial to red myself and I"ll admit that...but to back that up I"ve got hours upon hours of time in everything from a 400 T/A equipped Farmall, right up through the 1066 model...without any premature failures of the T/A unit. The earliest T/A that I"ve ever cashed was in a F544 that puked it at 7600 hours.

So again...WHEN USED PROPERLY...they have a very long service life. Just to add fuel to the fire (as with this string), there are a hundred different opinions on how a T/A should be properly used...but the one thing you NEVER SEE...is the recommendation to read the owners manual and treat it as gospel...THEN YOUR T/A will last.

Billy

 

[Hugh MacKay]

Kruss1: I will be the first to agree with you, if I were looking at a used IH tractor with TA, one of the first things I'd check would be TA. It's not just in your area either. That is not because it was poor design, but rather the large numbers of folks that have abused TA.

TA was primarily designed for use in the field, and common sence should dictate when using it in road gears, you shift it in sequence with throttle just as you would a standard shift truck.

 

[Red Mist]

(quoted from post at 06:28:11 06/23/08) OK , fine, none ever gave trouble. Everything IH ever made was perfect.

HAW-HAW! That is a good one! So.... they were either excellent, or they were awful - nothing in between - depending upon who used them and how they were used...?
Here, down South on the big farms (nee: plantations), a goodly quantity of the SMTA's were ordered with the T/A delete, since the tractors were mostly operated by hired help who may - or may not - have cared how they treated the tractors.
It all depends on how they were treated and maintained. mike