PTO problem? Gearbox noise Super major 1963

[Aleš63]

Hi, I have a problem with my Major
When I lift a plough or a potato planter with hydraulics, for example, does it make a nasty noise, probably from the gearbox? Could it be the bearing? If so, which one? Anyone have experience of a similar sound when lifting? When I lift the hydraulics with no load the lifting is quiet. There is also fresh hydraulic oil in the tractor. Thank you for your help.

https://youtu.be/6StlViWnvm0?feature=shared

[mathias1]

Hi,

I think it's worth looking at the bearings in the pto box.
It's not a big job, you will need to drain the oil from the rear end and gearbox. Before you start with this, check the oil level in the gearbox.
take out the pto shaft from the back.
dismantle the pto lever
and you should be able to take the pto box off

PS: If the oil level of the gearbox wasn't at the right level, you can now also change the seal in the pto box.

[Billy26F5]

Sounds like Mathias is right, you'll need to drain both the gearbox and rear axle for this, also be careful as everything is heavy. New seals are available, the bearings are part nos. BB-7025 and BB-7065, they should have a number stamped on them telling you what kind they actually are. The o-ring might be a bit more difficult to find, and you'll need gasket paper.
Sandy

[Aleš63]

Thank you for your advice. I have already ordered the bearings and all the seals. Hopefully the problem will be solved.

[LakeLox]

Just pulled the drop box off my major on the weekend to replace the seal between the gearbox and rear end. Almost nothing left of the seal, no wonder it was loosing the oil so quick from the gearbox to rear. Reasonably simple job.

The only drama I had was the seal I had waited 2 months to get was naturally the wrong one. There is a single double lip seal with internal 44mm and another with two single lip seals and 54mm internal, both had 89mm outside. Differing width too, the single seal is 19mm and the double seals are 12mm each not sure how to tell what’s it what before you open it up??

Also worth mentioning the 60L of oil I had to deal with when I was only prepared for about 40L. Might as well clean out the strainer while your’re there. Mine was completely blocked with 60 years of crud. That along with fresh oil should speed things up. Been tapping out new gaskets to get ready to put it all back to together.

[mathias1]

The seal depends if you have a new performance tractor or not. The double lip is for the new performance tractor. All others have 2 seals back to back

[shepp]

Mathias is right, the double lip seal I/d c44mm is for the New Performance tractor. Today two single lip seals I/d c54 mm are used for all other tractors, however when the E1A Major was launched in 1951 the first few months production were fitted with a double lip seal I/d c54mm, this must have had issues and was dropped and the two single lip seals I/d c54mm were then fitted in production and for replacing the double lip I/d c54mm seal when it became necessary.
Again, I think these two sizes and types of seal can still be obtained from seal factors in the original Imperial sizes, and from memory they used to be listed in the Sparex catalogue as well as the metric equivalents.

[E1ADDN7024]

Good evening, question: do the new performance shaft with seal 44 fit into the older models pto housing from before June 1963? And the other way round, older shaft with seal 54 into np housing?
Thanks and regards, Huub

[mathias1]

Good evening, question: do the new performance shaft with seal 44 fit into the older models pto housing from before June 1963? And the other way round, older shaft with seal 54 into np housing?
Thanks and regards, Huub

Hello Huub,

the pto drop box does have a different size on a new performance tractor.
The shaft it self seems to have the same parts number from the beginning to the end:
E1ADKN-7255, Years: 01-JAN-52-31-DEC-64

[Billy26F5]

Unfortunately it's not as simple as that, E1ADKN-7255 was used till 08C-960337, when it was replaced by E1ADDN-7255, with the previous part no longer available. The new shaft and seal will fit in older castings, but it's not recommended to use the older shaft and seals in the NP box as the new design might also be stronger (although no reference has been made to that in the manual).
Nobody said this but it is indeed 4 1/2 gallons in the gearbox and 9 in the rear axle, so lots of oil to catch.
Sandy

[E1ADDN7024]

Hi Mathias, hi Sandy,
Thank you very much for this information.
Regards, Huub

[Aleš63]

Hi today I took the time to drain the oil from the transmission and tried to run the engine for a short while to identify the place where the bad noises were coming from. Unfortunately I can't see anything obvious that could be making these noises. I will put a video here of it running and i have even tried to record some video of the gears. Unfortunately I am not that familiar with gears. But I guess I'm probably going to have to disassemble the transmission anyway. I replaced all the bearings on the pto including the two bearings on the gear that actually makes the pto run, including all the seals. Interestingly, the sound is only heard when I turn the PTO on but when I turn it off I no longer hear any sounds. I've attached two videos but unfortunately you can't hear much difference in them but in real life it's a really nasty sound.

With PTO shaft running
https://youtube.com/shorts/_-Lfbf1GsbY? ... he4K2MJhGt


Without PTO shaft
https://youtube.com/shorts/_-Lfbf1GsbY? ... 4DqU8pO_Kf

[Billy26F5]

If it only sounds bad with the PTO engaged it suggests it's a bearing on gears that drive it, unfortunately this now means you'll need to remove the gearbox to find it. Are you sure the sound doesn't come from the hydraulics? From what you say I assume you've replaced all the bearings in the PTO casting and the rear PTO bearing just behind the hydraulic pump. If that one is't good it might give a false impression of the noise coming from the hydraulics.
Sandy

[Aleš63]

Hello and thank you for your reply. You are right that as soon as I start lifting something with hydraulics it adds another sound which I already wrote about once here. But the sound I just described is really coming from the gearbox.But it is also possible that due to the higher load the sound from the gearbox will be more pronounced.I am attaching a video from last year.

https://youtu.be/6StlViWnvm0?si=CjsdGGBCTr97omxi

[Billy26F5]

I would suggest taking the gearbox out, although you should be able to assess play through the belt pullet apperture to an extent. As it's a live clutch it'll be in the PTO area.
Sandy

[mathias1]

Is there anything you could get on the pto to see if it makes a similar noise?