need advice on Farmall H

old popper

Well-known Member
My brother has an H that has very bad front end "wobble" in road gear. What can be done to lessen the wobble short of a complete front end overhaul? Any help appreciated. Thanks, Dale
 
Not that familiar with an H but i simply tightened my ball joints up on my old 424. It is amazing how loose they can become as the nuts had backed off a bit on mine. I also found some other " loose " bolts on the front end by putting a socket on them and checking. You will want to be sure you are not dealing with a bad wheel bearing though as they would obviously need replacement. I would be sure and check the bearings for excessive wear by jacking each front tire slightly off ground and testing for wear by placing a bar under them and feeling for free play.
 
First take off the cowl and make sure the nut is on the end of the steering shaft. While it is off you can take the cover off and see if the sector gear is still snug on the shaft. Wiggle the steering wheel while watching the gears and you can tell whether things are loose up top. If it is the lower bolster bearing and you don't want to fix it you can improve performance by letting one tire down some to make the tractor pull to one side. That will help the symptom not cure the problem. A smaller tire on one side does the same thing.
 
LIST (NO ORDER):
Hold the steering shaft with vice grips where it enters the radiator hole under the hood. have someone move the steering wheel and check for play in the Ujoint to shaft, Ujoint, and make not of where loose.
Move the steering wheel and watch the bolster shaft (vertical. Movement in the steering shaft but not the bolster shaft will be worn gears or a bad ball bearing in the box.
Lift the front of the tractor (use the torque tube as jack point, and block up. Lower bushing on the bolster shaft can be assessed by shaking the lower bolster (do not knock it off of the blocks)
Jim
 
Some gear boxes have sector gears that are full circle and can be reversed to allow like new fit. Jim
 
Yes, remove the hood and the metal cover over the steering gear. Have somebody sit in seat and gently back-and-forth the steernig wheel, with one finger, gently, so yu can see what is moving and what is not. As I remember, the big sector gear has 6 splines, so you can reposition that a few times. [ BLACK MAJIC-MARKER=MARK WHERE IT SITS RIGHT NOW, SO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE.] If the worm gear PIVOTS back and forth, but the big sector gear doesn't, and you reposition the sector gear a few times with no improvement [ as mine did ] you just bite the bullet and go on the site and buy a new steering shaft with new built-in worm gear. Fixed mine perfectly and permaneltly.
Note - if you have no grease or oil in the steering gear housing, you need to pull in new seals. They're cheap, IH dealer has them. You have to borrow the IHC puller from the dealer, or invent your own puller, made out of washers, sockets, wire, duct tape, all-thread, more washers .... You pull the seals in from the bottom. Get several, you'll damage a few trying this stunt.
But be of good cheer, you're on the way to completely fixing this.
BTW, I whipped up a 50-50 blend of red wheel bearing grease and 90 wt. oil with a coat hanger in my drill, and poureed that in for oil. Works perfectly. Grease must be RED for this stunt to work.
 
New bearings in the steering shaft and wheels fixed mine but there are other things as the guys are saying that could be worn.I guess I was lucky for once.
 
Everyone pretty well covered things, but if that doesn't fix it I well tell you what's happening on a project of mine.
First though remove the hood and grill. You can grab the steering shaft over the engine and turn back and forth. Watch the universal joint and where the rear steering shaft slides on the worm shaft for play. If no problem remove the hex plug on the front of the bolster. Make sure the bearing is good and the nut tight on the worm shaft end. when reinstalling the hex head plug make sure it contacts the bearing outer race and is tight. Next remove the bolster cover and see if the sector gear is tight on the shafts tapered splines. Check the bushing under the sector gear by carefully using a appropriate pry bar between housing and gear side to side and front to back. For the bottom busing clean where the shaft drops into the lower part of the bolster. Have someone crank the steering wheel back and forth and see how much the shaft moves side to side in the gap between it and housing. Next on hard level surface put blocks on each side of the front tires. In neutral have some one rock a rear tire back and fourth. see how much shaft moves in the housing.
Try this at your own risk. Just working on one with good bushings, bearings and shaft worn .002 in bushings. even turning a full circle gear to the unused part it still had more play than wanted. Got a new worm shaft to see if that was the problem with hardly any improvement. So on the front worm shaft bearing I carefully ground .035 from one side of the outer race. Go slow and don't overheat. When reinstalling use shim stock to push the ground side to sector gear and make sure front plug is good and tight. Next I got a aftermarket worm shaft bushing 1 inch ID and 1.250 OD compared to the IH 1.125 OD. Then bored the bolster bushing bore to 1-3/16. Next turned the OD of the 1.250 bushing to fit the 1-3/16 hole but with the center hole .035 off center. Install with thin side to left side to match front bearing. This fixed the play between gears in my housing using the old worm shaft. The worm shaft seal looks like it will seal being .035 off center but don't know long term. Most put grease or corn head oil in older ones anyway.
If the above didn't work I can get a 1-3/16 OD bushing to put in the bored housing to put shaft back to the IH centerline. After measuring the ID of the aftermarket bushings are smaller than a new IH by around .003 to .005 after installing for a better fit on worn shafts.
 
Go to Steiner tractor and click on the Steiner TV link at the top, there you'll find a video on fixing a wobbly Farmall front end.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top