How to remove rear axles from JD H

Lieu

Member
I am restoring a 1940 H and it has a lot of oil leaks beneath the transmission case. I figure the axle seals are bad. Does anyone have any link to a video or more detailed and clear instructions other than what the IT shop manual has for how to remove rear axles? Any help anyone can give me would be appreciated. I am especially confused on whether the axle slides out of the differential gear; or does the gear have to be removed first? Also, the IT shop manual says when you reinstall you have to adjust the bearings with shims. The only shims I have will be the ones I take out. Do I just put back in the same number I take out or what do I need to do to adjust the bearings?

Thank you.
 
Unless it has really been used you should be good with the same shims. They're under the caps on the ends. Take off only one side at a time. The differential isn't on bearings, it hangs on the inner ends of the shafts. It falls if you take out both sides then you have to remove the rear cover to put it back. There is only a felt seal where the shaft goes into the case. Check the oil level. It should not be high enough to get to those seals. It could be overfilled or have taken in water. Also may leak from the reduction gear cover on the right side.
 
Mike: Thanks for your help. I took off the reduction gear cover and used silicone sealer. I plan to do the same on the differential cover because I think it was leaking too. Is there a keeper of some type that has to be removed before the shaft will come out of the differential?

Why would this tractor have a grease zerk on the right axle housing outer bearing but not on the left? I thought perhaps it was broken off but there is no evidence of a hole where there was one. Curious!

I plan to go ahead and replace the felt seal on the transmission case that the axle passes through. I hope my bearings are re-usable because they are quite expensive.

Thanks again for the tips.
 
P.S. Mike do you think I should go ahead and pull the axle and replace the felt seals? It would be easier to clean the axle housing for painting, but does add considerable work.
 
Lieu, the first thing you should do is to drain your transmission case. As Mike indicated, an overfilled transmission case is typical for "H" tractors. They were notorious for taking in lots of water, primarily via the gearshift lever opening. I've seen a tractor with more water than oil in the transmission - and the water, being heavier, goes to the bottom and the oil level will then be higher than the axle seal level which is the cause of a lot of external leakage. There is a small (1/4" diameter) weep hole in the very bottom of the axle housing, right next to the bolting flange, directly under the brake shoe area. This hole is supposed to permit any escaped oil from the transmission to exit the axle housing. But since this hole is typically plugged with crud, oil can pond up inside and mess up your brakes. Incidentally, that inner-most axle seal is not a felt seal, but is a conventional lip seal pressed into the main case. The only felt seals in that axle housing are those surrounding the bearing at the outer end of the axle. So the lip seal and the outer race of the inner axle tapered roller bearing are in the main case. When you remove the axle housing assembly, the differential assembly remains suspended and positioned on the other axle shaft inside the main case, and the cone & rollers of the inner axle bearing come off with the axle housing assembly as seen in the picture. The outer axle bearing is also a tapered roller bearing and the bearing adjustment is made with those shims at the outer end of the axle. And that grease fitting? Some enterprising farmer decided he was smarter than the designers and decided to add his own lubrication provision. Perhaps that bearing gave out years ago and during the repair activity that zerk was installed. And why not the other side? If it ain't broke, don't fix it....
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Lieu,
Dan gives a very good explanation. It's been a while since I was into one and was going on memory on the seals. I'll add that if you find water in the case I'd pull the rear cover and clean it out good. Check the differential for rust or damage. Same goes for the lower transmission shaft. The drive pinion runs on needle bearings and if water was that high they could be bad, too. Locateballbearings.com is a good source for seals and bearings. Generally the best prices I've seen.
 
Thought I'd mention one more thing: Regarding the bearing adjustment with shims, the procedure above was shown in all of the old original Instructions and Parts Lists for the "H". Notice the result is no preload on those tapered roller bearings since the instructions say to keep adding shims until the axle doesn't "hinge" up on that barely-snug capscrew on the top of the axle housing flange when tightening the dust cover capscrews. I'm emphasizing this point because you said you're using an I&T manual and my I&T manual (paragraph 252) says the bearings should be adjusted to 0.004 to 0.005 PRELOAD by using a similar method of using a feeler gauge. Don't think that makes much sense because Deere's recommended method results in 0.000 to 0.005 looseness.....
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Dan, I never noticed that and I have the original OP manual for my 41. When I did mine I set it to .005 preload. I don't think that much preload will do any harm. I have found the occasional error in the I&Ts, though. My Oliver manual had the wrong dimension for the water pump pulley.
 
The part X'ed out is important too. The shim washers to control the diff. side play if yours happens to have any can fall out of place when an axle is pulled out. It's a good practice to just go ahead and remove the rear cover for a good cleaning in there and check of diff. side play while your at it.
 
Dan; thanks for the great information. Would you mind sharing your email? I could probably use your advice again if you are willing. Yesterday, I took the differential cover off and in the bottom of the transmission housing, I found a square piece of steel with a hole in it. I believe it is retaining washer #H133R from a differential bolt. I can see there is one missing. Looks like I will be taking the differential out too.
 
Glad to convey a little info; hope it helps. My email is open and you can send me a PM from the link at the lower right.

Interesting that you found a loose retaining washer. Your 1940 "H" was originally equipped with (and may still have) 7/16" diameter bolts that fasten the big final drive gear to the differential housing. At S/N 41466 those bolts, along with the gear and housing, were changed to a larger diameter of 1/2". Apparently, there must have been a problem with those bolts shearing or something. And there were kits made available back in those days so that earlier tractors could be updated with those improvements. Wonder if one of your bolts broke sometime in the past and fell into the gear train causing a crash and necessitating a repair - and maybe the farmer mechanic pulled out the loose bolt pieces, replaced them with a new bolt, but missed finding the loose retaining washer...

That guess of why the washer was loose might be a little far fetched, but the other possibility that someone was attempting to remove the gear from the differential - while everything was still in the main case - doesn't make much sense, either.
 

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