Busted

While using the 644 this evening to move some snow I had the misfortune of hearing the dreaded "POP" from the rear end that others have mentioned from time to time-sure enough oil was running out of a hole in the rear end housing. I was planning on rebuilding the whole tractor eventually and I guess now is as good a time as any. I will be starting a tear down on the rear end tomorrow and would appreciate any advice I can get as to what to look for while tearing down and what I should be looking for when taking off the top cover. I have all of the original parts books and service manuals for this tractor BUT hands on advice to Me is invaluable. I would also like the names of any trusted parts outlets You may have handy. Thank You for Your help. The old girl may have gone down with the sun this evening but She will rise with the sun again another day. (sorry for the poor quality picture)

Although the 600 Series tractors allow you to remove the top cover of the trans-axle while it is still in place....the bad news is that you will have to remove it for a proper repair. The housing is made from cast steel, not cast iron. Therefore it can be welded but it is best to weld it on a bench with it upside down because you do not want a porous weld that leaks oil. Secondly, it is common for spider cracking to take place and those cracks need to be located, chased until you find where they stop and then drill a hole at the end of the crack to minimize the chances of that crack continuing.

Seat, pedestal, gas tank, fenders, front/rear panels, wheels, hydraulic lines and parking brake have to be removed. Then, with the tractor sitting on safety stands and a floor jack under the trans-axle, you can remove the large bolts that hold the trans-axle to the frame. Get a helper to keep the housing from rotating forward off the jack as you lower it to the ground. The weight of the drive motor makes the trans-axle unstable.

You must dismantle the trans-axle completely in order to do the repair work. Once the cover is removed, you will see the carrier section where the Hi Range and Lo Range gears sit. There are four bolts that go through those gears, sandwiching the carrier assembly. One or more of these bolts has snapped off and that piece of the bolt ended up against the teeth of the Lo Range gear. The gear tried to push the bolt piece between itself and the housing but since there is not enough room, it smashed the trans-axle housing. Most of the time, the damage is limited to replacing the four carrier bolts, welding up the housing and installing new seals and gaskets.

If you have the trans-axle Service Bulletin, then follow it. As you will see, you must remove the round pin in the middle of the center section first, followed by the spider gears. That will allow you to push the axles inward to access the circlips that retain the axles. With the circlips removed, the axle shafts just pull out but CAUTION.... there are a series of shims on each axle shaft that go between the bronze bushing in the trans-axle case and the actual carrier housing. The oil will try to make those shims stick to either side but the middle ones may fall away to the bottom of the housing. Therefore it is important for you to remove one axle at a time and gather up all the shims for that axle. Put a zip tie through the middle of them or put them in a zip lock bag. Either way...label them left and right. This will save you a lot of work when re-assembling.

Use an 18 inch piece of 1/2 inch round rod to remove the brake drum shaft. Place the rod against the end of the shaft inside the housing and smack it hard with a 2 LB sledge. The shaft is held in place by a round wire clip that you cannot see until you get the shaft out of the housing.

It is very important to wash the interior and exterior of the housing in order to remove as much oil as possible that has sort of soaked into the pores of the housing. Warming the housing with an oxy-acetylene torch may be necessary. If YOU do not have excellent welding skills, then pay someone who does. Once the welding is complete, use a wire cup brush to scrub the interior of the housing around the welds. Then after using compressed air to blow that area clean, coat the area with a metal epoxy such as JB Weld or Permatex Steel Weld or Loc-tite Epoxy Metal. This is a back-up to the welding to make sure there will be no leakage of oil.

Now is the perfect time to install new axle seals, brake shaft seal, shift lever seal and cover plate gasket.

I heartily recommend EITHER of these two dealers. www.casegardentractorparts.com or https://salempwr.com/

Either Brian or Bob (respectively) can ship you the parts you need by mail the following business day.

excellent writeup and quality advice from Tom. I second the choice of parts dealers, I prefer salempwr.com.

If you find you need expensive hard parts, (gears etc) I may be able to help with some used ones.

Seals, grade 8 bolts etc are best sourced from the dealer above.

I feel for you man. As if things aren't already bad enough you have this load dumped on you.

I would not recommend casegardentractorparts.com for any kind of parts purchase. I placed a parts order with them last April and have yet to receive my parts. Several emails have gone back and forth with promises made and broken. So I am done with them. Salem Power is excellent and so is Barneveld.

wgm,
I am not here to dispute what you said because I do not have all the facts. What I will say is that I have known Bob since 2000. His history as a CASE dealer goes back a lot further than that. Bob was a regular contributor to the Yahoo Case forum and did business with many of the members there. I have never read a single complaint about Bob until I read yours. In all businesses, things can and often do go wrong. For the past 10 years, there have been problems with the parts side of Eastman Industries, the company that purchased the bankrupt Ingersoll Equipment Company. Currently, the parts business is being handled by CPD and they are doing their best to produce parts that Eastman refused to make.

I am sorry to read that you had a problem with Bob's company. I am going to contact Bob to get his side of your story. After all, that is only fair.

I too agree, that Barneveld is a great place to do business. I support all three.

(reply to post at 09:02:08 02/02/17)

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Hello Tom,

Thank you for your kind words, the following is the response that I offered to WGM:

Hello WGM,

I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with our company. I'm not sure what happened but have checked our orders and do not have any record of an online order received from you or any evidence of funds collected for goods not shipped within the past 12 months. We processed and shipped over 3000 Internet orders in 2016, 99% the next business day or sooner. The only thing that I can think is that perhaps you may have emailed us with a special order or requested a part that was not currently offered for online purchase. If as you mention this goes back to last April something may have fallen between the cracks for which I sincerely apologize. During the peak season we receive nearly 4000 page views per day which generates many email and voicemail inquiries. I do try to personally answer all of them in a timely manner but if ever you do no receive a response within a reasonable length of time please resend your message as a reminder. Our number one priority is to ship current orders. If you have been to our website you will have seen that we take a great deal of time including information regarding part descriptions, fitment and helpful service tips rather than just uploading the entire price list with no photos, additional information or indication of in stock status.

WGM,
As stated previously by me, I alerted Bob to this thread and he has given his reply.

I would like to add the following.

Case Garden Tractor Parts was started up by Bob several years ago when a void was created due to the demise of the site known as Case Garden Tractor, run by Ed Boudro. Ed began his on-line site in October of 2003. If I recall correctly, Ed shut his site down about 7 years later because he was unable to handle the daily pressures. Many people complained about Ed because he never answered his phone and rarely found the time to return e-mails. The FACT is...each day has only 24 hours in it and one must find the time for things such as eating, sleeping, bathing and so forth. Both ED and Bob are one-man band operations. It is very difficult to train someone to do this job because over the years (1963 to 2017) many parts manuals have been issued for the tractors and implements.

There is no Master Catalogue to consult and many part numbers have been "changed up". In other words, each customer order takes quite a bit of time to fill CORRECTLY and that fact tends to slow things down for anyone in the CASE parts business. The ONLY two on-line stores for Colt, Case and Ingersoll parts are run by Bob Meyers and Brian Hildreth of Salem Power. Yes, there are a FEW other dealers out there. A small percentage of the remaining dealers have been found to mark up the factory suggested retail prices by as much as 80%. Neither Bob or Brian engage in this practice and that fact speaks loudly for their honesty and integrity as certified Ingersoll Dealers.

Another thing that you may not be aware of is this. Last March, Eastman loaded up the contents of their plant into semi-trailers and have not re-surfaced. Other people who are dedicated too the three CCI brands have been working diligently to overcome this latest handicap in the parts stream. As I said before, I do not know all the details regarding your experience with Bob's company. What I do know is that all of us should be happy that there are companies such as Casegardentractorpartsdotcom, CPD, Salem Power, Barneveld Implement and Sheridan Service Garage because all five are dedicated to supplying people like you with parts, even though the parent company is essentially defunct.

Owners of other brands are not so lucky.