Ford 601 rear differential gear box seal.

I tried to top of the oil in the rear differential gearbox the other day and as I kept pouring and pouring I noticed it was pouring out of the bottom. it must be the seals but I dont know much about it. How hard would this be for an amateur to fix and how long will the gear last if I do nothing and keep running dry?
 
If you have run it dry already, you may have caused damage, its a splash lube type arrangment, gears in an oil bath. If you have not run it, don't until it holds oil.

You don't hear much about these with differential problems very often, not sure if new gears are available, salvage probably.

There will be a hexagonal sewer drain like plug on the bottom of the differential, it sounds like that is missing, you have a cracked housing, a leak at the axle housing where it meets the differential housing, (check for loose bolts or leaks) or the pto shaft seal is leaking, though I've never seen one of those leak that profusely before, hard to say.

Clean up that part of the tractor, place a pan under it, and pour some oil in and look for the leak.

Do NOT run it DRY !

It may be prudent to look for metal fines or inspect the gears at this point, or later monitor the oil, drain some out and check to see if there is metal particulates, that may indicate a problem.
 
Yeah I took the side plug out so I would know when its full, sadly the fill level never made it up that high before I noticed it on the ground. Ill fill it again and try to see where the leak is starting from.
 
Filled it up again and it didnt leak until I ran the tractor. I found out it is leaking out around the pto shaft. But I can mostly stop it by grabbing the shaft and pushing in. It has about 1/4"-1/2" forward backward play. Can I fix this?
 
(quoted from post at 17:26:02 08/01/15) Filled it up again and it didnt leak until I ran the tractor. I found out it is leaking out around the pto shaft. But I can mostly stop it by grabbing the shaft and pushing in. It has about 1/4"-1/2" forward backward play. Can I fix this?

Yes, most likely. Pull the shaft and inspect the splines on both ends. If they look good and not twisted or worn, then take bearing carrier odd and see if the seals have worn a groove. If not, then a new bearing and seals are in order. Can get from this site. You can also get a new shaft with bearing carrier and seals already on it and just slide in. Depends on how much you want to spend .
 
There you go, that's relatively easy, I pulled the parts diagram up from CNH and got mine locally, but YT has them, as do many other sources. Good time to inspect the differential as you 'll either want to change out the fluid there and the hydraulic compartment, I changed all 3 (trans. too) when I did mine. I think you can nose the tractor down to offset the fluid leave it in there and prevent it from leaking, I've never tried it. The parts that go onto the pto shaft, I used a pipe that fit over the shaft, but lined up with the new part,(I forget all the parts without looking in the book). it drove on easily to where it needed to be and the new seal was easy enough to change, don't pry and make any burrs etc. Check the shaft for a wear groove if thats possible with these, making sure the seal rubber wiper is a good fit. Mine was leaking, but not like that, also had the end play. Did the same thing and got some good tips asking here, the repair went smoothly.
 

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