M John Deere 2 cylinder

Old Bob

Member
Got a John Deere M 2 cylinder tractor.

Tractor hasn't been started in 4 years.

Filed the points today and got it fired up.

Ran good except.... The front engine seal is leaking. Probably leaked a pint in 15 minutes.

Any suggestions for an easy fix?

If I have to replace the front seal is this going to be a hard fix?

All thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks.
 
It will be fairly extensive, but not terrible. All the components on the front of the engine will need to come off including the radiator and touch o matic pump. I had the front pedestal removed when I did mine, I am not sure if there is room to do all that work with it attached.

I replaced the front and rear main seals on my M. The front has been fine, but I have had constant trouble with the rear. Replaced it twice and it still leaks.
 
Old Bob,
Sounds like an awful amount of oil for a front seal leak. I'd bet on the rubber packing on the front pump intake line. Probably shrank up from sitting. The hydraulics use motor oil so it's easily confused. Good Luck!
John
 
A thought on this - did you try finding a double lip seal or possibly getting two thinner seals that fit in the same place as the original? I never got into the engine on my MT so I am not sure any of that is possible but a good engine shop may be able to find you something. Also, is the new seal trying to seat exactly where the old was? There might be enough wear where it won't seat. If you have any room to move the seal in, or leave it out of the housing a bit it might help. I'm not sure a speedi-sleeve on the crank shaft is appropriate but that might be another option.
 
Question 1 - is the crankcase oil overfilled? The Hydraulic or Touch O Matic pump on the front left of the tractor has seals that are known to leak and allow oil into the crankcase from the hydraulic system. I found out my pump was leaking because my the rear main seal on my MT started leaking. Pump is pretty simple to rebuild and after I rebuilt mine, no more rear main seal leak because the system had the correct amount of oil in it.
 
So your rear main seal leakage issue was related to the touch o matic seal going bad? Maybe that's what I have going on? How would I check or confirm?
 
Does your engine oil in the crankcase increase on its own? I didn't notice it at first but after a few runs when I first got the tractor my TOM would barely go up. I added oil and it worked fine. Then it wouldn't work well again, added oil, worked fine. All that oil was just working its way into the crankcase. Took me a few weeks to figure it all out but by that time I had over double the amount of oil there needed to be in the engine and it was finding its way out through the rear main seal. On the hydraulic oil pump on the front of the motor there are seals. Mine had the original leather seals in it when I replaced them. They were dry rotted and clearly had been leaking.
 
I have noticed that it does seem to keep a high oil level, and it never seems to decrease on the dipstick even though it is clearly leaking out of the rear main seal which puzzled me. Oil also gets a gray color to it. I have never had any issue with the touch o matic system not functioning however.
 

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