John Deere No.44 Plow Trip Lever Spring

Jim R

Member
I recently purchased an old Deere No.44 trip plow on rubber tires to fix up for the local plow days. I discovered that the internal spring that makes the trip lever spring back, is broken, so consequently the plow will trip but won't raise up. Can any of you old experienced plow guys out there tell me how big of a job it is to replace that spring and are there any secrets to doing it? Thanks for any advise!
 
I have done it a few times going through the hole process of taking off the wheel and splitting the case . If you take the wheel off use care and some wedges to slide the wheel off the hub . Maybe one could just split the case without taking the wheel off .
 
Take your time as you remove the wheel. After you have the end cap off, it will take a good whack with a heavy hammer or maul to slide the wheel off as it has a wedge type design and will tighten up when you put back together.

Keep searching in that hub....any same size spring should work. When you put wheel back on make sure you don't have it "reversed" as it will not go on that way...now, how would I know that???

This operation will take a few hrs considering you might have to go buy a spring.....just take your time.

The JD plow hubs are complicated compared to the IH plow hubs.

LA in WI
 
If the trip lever (external) won't return to the home position, then the heavy extension spring inside the gearcase is likely broken or someone has tried to loosen the square headed bolt that attaches to the cast threaded plug which goes in the open end of the spring.

Remove the 3 bolts, cap, cross pin, adjustable washers and flat washers. Disconnect the axle from the lift strap on the back side of the clutch. Gently knock the shaft inward until it clears the outer end of the hub (this will be sticking through the center cast housing of the wheel about 3/8"-1/2"). Using something solid as a bucking bar (I have a piece of old square pto shaft from a No. 5 mower that works good) hold it between the end of the hub and a heavy sledge. Smack it as hard as you can until it's broken loose. It's a tapered fit on the hub, so once free it will easily tap out of the wheel and the wheel will come off.

You can split the case if you want to, but I'd personally take the wheel and hub apart to inspect while you're in there.

I have good used springs if you find one broken inside the case. Hopefully the threaded plug simply backed out of the spring causing the problem.

When you're finished and everything is reparied, I recommend filling the case with about 1-1/2 tubes of 'corn head grease' available at any JD dealer. It's semi-solid at room temp,but becomes liquid when warm so acting like gear lube when warm, but not nearly as bad about leaking out seals as gear lube.

Hope this wasn't confusing.
Tyler in IL
Plow Information
 
Thanks Tyler for your response and help!! I really appreciate you and all the responses here! Jim
 

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