Ford 7600 FWD planetart gears

Eastcan1

New User
Hi, Just recently purchased a 1981 Ford 7600 FWD, previous owner had removed the front planetary gears probably due to being broken. I'm hoping to get the 4WD working again so I'm looking for the planetary gears and sun gears (hard to find). Would like to know what other tractors used the same final drives, its a ZF axle with off-set housing.

I want to also confirm what the correct tire size is for this tractor with 4WD as I'm not sure if they changed tire sizes after they dismantled the gears, current back 16.9x38, front 14.9x24. Don't want to get gears and find out ratio of tires is wrong
 
A&I has aftermarket for some of the ZF hubs. You can try it. Also look on partspring... I think. Also, if you can track down the original ford number through the parts online system and google that part number you may turn up a bunch of stuff.
NH is no longer supporting most of the early ZF stuff anymore so aftermarket sources are about all you have left.

The present tire combination sounds plausible although the fronts may be a bit small with the 38" rears. The only real way to figure that out for sure is to obtain the front axle total reduction ratios, transfer box ratio, transmission output ratio and the total rear axle reduction ratio and calculate the travel speeds for front and rear tires based on the rolling circumference of each tire. I can possibly look up the transmission output and rear axle ratios for you but you still need to retrieve the transfer box and front axle total reduction ratios from their respective tags.

Rod
 
(quoted from post at 18:33:18 12/03/14) A 2940 JD 4WD axle should be nearly identical. I know that the u-joints are the same for sure.

Thanks, i will look in that area as well. Wish i had an old one to compare #of teeth and dimensions.
 

This will take some calculating, since I don't have the front planetary I will need the ratios from a manual.
 
I'd love to see a picture. that's got to be a rare bird. They only made that tractor for a few years. Never saw one with a fwd axle.
 
Hi If your real stuck Google search Robert wraight limited in the U.K. He wrecks ford tractors and sells new used parts. will ship world wide to.
May not be the cheapest, but that tractors junk without the 4wd working if you need it.

You could also try Frank s foot and sons limited, also in the U.K, they do parts and sell fords worldwide. Nearer home what about somebody like Wengers out at meyers town they have some odd ball stuff their. there was a ford wreckers on ebay somewhere also i used to buy from. if i think of them i'll let you know also, just found these guys they are helms equipment, but won't ship out of the U.S any more depending where you are.

There is a guy Trading as Stephen Robinson tractors in Ireland has used to. To be honest I think you got more chance from guys over seas, as there was more of those tractors in the U.K and Europe, than here in North America.

I wouldn't think the forum sales here would have anything but you could try that also if you haven't already, they would like your jobber parts business if they have or can get the parts wink wink!.
there might be a couple yards here in Canada have something where are you located would help to?
Regards Robert
 
7600's were made from 1976 through 1981. As far as I know
only the '81 x600 and x700 models were available with fwa, and
only 4 cylinder models.
 
(quoted from post at 17:26:20 12/05/14) 7600's were made from 1976 through 1981. As far as I know
only the '81 x600 and x700 models were available with fwa, and
only 4 cylinder models.

Parts site shows the 3 cylinder 4600 as having FWD available starting 1/1/80, and the 7600 had it available starting 1/1/77.
 
That's gotta be a misprint in the parts book. 4WD didn't come out until 1980. I've never seen an FWD on any of those series tractors other than on a Blue Power Special version.
 
That's what I was thinking. I have '76 and '79 or '80 sales literature that I just paged through... no mention of fwa except for being a factory option on the TW series.
 
I can't lay my hand on it right now... but IIRC, Gibbard's book indicates a date earlier than the Blue Power's... More like 78 or 79 I think. There was a couple years of production done outside at SEM with Carraro components before it came in house with the ZF parts. That's not to say it was available on this side of the pond but moreso in the UK I think... I do remember that the original design modifications were not done by Ford engineering but by SEM...

Rod
 
There's little doubt in my mind that it had been done by another company prior to the Blue Power Specials. I've seen pics of 800s with FWD conversions on them. What I'm saying is that it was not available from factory until that time.

I have some Blue Power lit at home that I can scan when I get some time.
 
My point is that the first Ford authorized conversions were done by South Essex Motors on Ford's behalf and distributed by Ford in limited numbers... and I think, although I am not positive.. that it predated Blue Power by a little bit. Not a lot, but a bit.
The first full authority, in house MFWD system by Ford were ZF units as fitted to the 10 series.
I'll see if I can find the bible sometime in the next few days and read up on it again. I may be wrong... but I think there's a bit more to it than you're remembering. Again, I'm not referring to the County, Roadless, etc conversions... but Ford authorized stuff.
Rod
 
I guess I'm stuck in the NASO world whenever I post. I'm unsure what was going on in Europe during that era. I suppose it's quite possible that a 4WD 76-7700 existed in 1978 or 1979, I don't know for sure.

I think it's fairly certain that no factory supplied FWD 4-cyl tractor came into the NASO market until October 1980, with the introduction of the Blue Power Specials.

The attached image shows the front cover of some BPS literature that I have. Inside the brochure, it clearly implies that a powered front drive axle is a new offering.

I don't understand what you mean when you say that the first in-house, full authority ZF axle started with the 10-series tractors. This is simply not true. The BPS x600-x700 tractors offered a ZF axle as optional equipment.
a175928.jpg
 
It was certainly zf on the blue powers... But iirc they were still an SEM conversion done with Ford's blessing. The 10's were Ford's first inhouse design..

Rod.
 
I found the book and did some reading. According to that... the 87/9700 got the MFWD treatment by SEM in 1977 and were basically only available as such in the UK and northern Europe. NASO production of those tractors was still at Romeo and they didn't install MFWD kits at Romeo.
The 4 cylinder tractors as you indicated got the ZF MFWD axle on 10/79 as part of the Blue Power update, again installed by SEM rather than Basildon. The 3 cylinder chassis tractors got the Carraro axle at that time as well. 10 series production brought MFWD assembly onto the main lines at Basildon, Antwerp and Romeo.

Rod
 
Rod, thanks for taking the time to research this. That makes sense on the 87/9700s. I've heard of FWD for those tractors, but have never seen one, so I have to think it was Europe only.

As for 4-cylinder Blue Power, I think you mean 10/80, rather than 10/79.

So I'm left with one primary question: Is/was SEM a European company or American? If European, does a "C" serial number 7600 with FWD mean it was assembled in Romeo, or Basildon, or both?
 
(quoted from post at 08:30:13 12/05/14) There should be a tag on the axle housing somewhere with those numbers...

Rod

The only thing left where the tag was is the 4 rivets that held it on. The ZF logo cast in the housing identifies the manufacturer. I will look further to try to identify the model. As far as I have found they made the 7600 FWD from 1977 - 1981, this was the last year for the 7600 series, then they went to 7610 in 1982 which had a center housing and different gear ratios so I have been told.
 
I'd be interested in knowing how it is you think a 7600 FWD was offered in 1977-79. At least in the USA, it was not available until late 1980. See my discussion with Rod about this.
 
This is why I asked to see pictures, to see if it had the European headlights in the front grill of the tractor.

I thought I was fairly well schooled in blue and gloss gray.

I do remember seeing the blue power special literature you show. We never kept any of it, as it was just stacks and stacks of garbage at the time, according to my mother. She did start many fires in the woodburner with probably thousands of dollars of literature, in today's market.


I remember a gas company around here that bought the blue power 4wd tractors for right of way mowing, but never a 7600. Maybe it was a cost thing? Maybe ease of hauling? I don't know... Previously, they ran Elenco converted red and gray fords. Figure they updated every 20-25 years for specialty tractors?
 
Yes, that should have been 10/80. And yes, the 87/9700 at that time only offered the MFWD in Europe.
SEM.. was South Essex Motors. IIRC, they were a major UK Ford distributor at the time that had grown into specialist engineering and manufacturing (something in the way Rocan did over here).
In terms of the serial number... that is a really good question. I would assume that a C prefix was indeed a Romeo tractor at that point. Also remember that this book is of UK origin and it's bias is largely towards what was going on through Basildon and the people who provided information were largely from Ford UK... so I would imagine there were things that happened over here that were not entirely known to them..

Rod
 
OP's handle is eastcan1, which might mean he's from eastern Canada, and it's possible that his tractor came from Europe, so it could be a pre-1980 FWD 7600.
 
(quoted from post at 07:31:18 12/09/14) OP's handle is eastcan1, which might mean he's from eastern Canada, and it's possible that his tractor came from Europe, so it could be a pre-1980 FWD 7600.

I'm in New Brunswick, Canada, tractor came from Nova Scotia on eastern coast. The tractor serial # indicates that it is a 7600C, 1981 (Ser # C668210*). Not sure about its origin but Ford/New Holland do list the parts on their NA web site with parts diagram but all are listed unavailable. Looks as though the 5600 & 6600 had the same differential and the 7600 had one of its own.I did get a response on some used gears, $285 ea x 6 for the planetary x $825.00 ea x 2 for the sun gears plus rollers and pins. BIG $$$ for used items. Will keep looking.

By the way guys thanks for all the help, my first time on a forum. I will take a couple of pictures but its in the garage and it fills my garage so when it gets out i will take some.
 

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