SC Wide Front Pivot Repair

Acquired an adjustable wide front for my '49 SC and every bushing was shot. I've got all joints addressed except for the axle pivot. Got the pin out tonight and banged out what was left of the old bushing. The bore in the axle is egged out. Here is the question. Should the bore be oversized and then press in an oversized bronze bushing or would bushing stock made from hardened steel, like that for backhoe buckets and the like, be used? If steel were to be used, how easy would that be to weld in or would the press fit be ok? Any thoughts or shared experience would be appreciated.

It depends on how you want to do it. The most durable solution would be to re-bush it with a hard bearing bronze. Steel-on-steel will gall if you ever neglect to grease it. Steel-on-steel can work if one of the two steels is hardened, and if there is a generous enough bearing area to spread out the stress. This will not work well with an SC or DC AWF. I suggest that you bore out the front axle and either bush it with a custom bronze bushing, or that you sleeve it back down to standard size with steel (the front axle beams are cast steel, not cast iron, by the way), and fit it with a standard bronze bushing. I redid my 54' SC's AWF last year and made a batch of original quality front pivot pins (hardened, with a functional grease zerk) and correct bushings. I also have bronze bearing stock in the right size for a custom bronze bushing. My email is open.

What is the O.D. of the replacement bushing (original size). Knowing that will help me make up my mind. If I have to bore it out quite a bit, I would be inclined to sleeve it. On the other hand, when it comes to bronze bushings, how thick of wall is too thick?

The O.D. of the original bushing is 0.251/0.252, which will press into a 0.250 hole nicely. I also measured the bronze bearing stock that I have, and it is 0.285" on the O.D. Thus, if you are careful, you will only be able to get a bushing with a clean O.D. of around 0.275"-0.280 out of this stock. That being said, a relatively thin bronze bushing can be pressed into a hole that is slightly out of round (or with a small wear spot on one side). The I.D. of the bushing can then be bored or reamed round. Something else to consider is that the axis of the hole in the axle is not perpendicular to the front face of the axle. It is actually tilted back 5 degrees (at the top). This is counter intuitive, since the steering axles are tilted forward (at the bottom) on the tractor. However, the line connecting the rear ball link with the axle pivot pin is angled up (at the front) 5 degrees more than the steering axles are tilted forward. This is clearer if you study the side view of the AWF in at a parts manual for the SC or DC, or find the same illustration in the IT manual. If you get this right, then the radius rods will bolt up tight to the axle without causing any binding in the pivot pin.

It appears that the bore will need to be machined to get rid of the egg shape. If that expense is the case, it seems that oversizing the bore as needed and machining a custom bronze bearing makes sense. Assuming this is the last fix for this tractor, I would hold the bearing in the bore with red Loctite.

No doubt, the egg shape wear is primarily at the bottom of the bore because that is where the weight is carried. Being steel, an option would be to apply filler weld to the bottom half of the hole and then machine the bore to its original diameter. This option does not make as much sense as just oversizing the bore and making a custom high strength bronze bearing.