8N Sherman Step-Down Installation Done!

Definitely A Day To Celebrate...


after 2 years of searching for a Sherman Combo or Step-Down transmission for a reasonable price, we were fortunate to get a Sherman Step-Down with cable shifter for about 500.00 and WE NOW HAVE THE SHERMAN STEP-DOWN REBUILT, INSTALLED, AND WORKING FLAWLESSLY... well except we should have replaced the cable as this one is quite stiff even after soaking it and working it back n forth for several days.

But before going any further me and my wife want to give special thanks to:

John Smith (OldFordTractors.com) as most of you all know he has put a lot of his time and work researching information for the aux transmissions, providing instructions on how to rebuild and install the aux transmissions, and if you browse his site you will see he provides links and a lot of other detailed and misc info covering a variety of categories for these good ol' tractors. Oh and we have to say thank you so much John for the quick replies... whenever we had a question, he responded with in 24hours which made it very nice so that we could get back to the Sherman and finish the next step! Now to cover his back...I can't say he will always reply that quickly since I'm sure he has a life too and especially with nice weather here he is going to have his busy days as well as having those days he just want to relax and can't blame him :)

Phil Smith (RedRockMFG.com) he provides a variety of specialty parts/accessories for the N-Series tractors and possibly others. Most importantly to us, he had the rebuild kit needed for our Sherman Step-Down transmission. Also gotta add that he is very easy to talk with and a lot of times sellers are what they are, just sellers but then there are the sellers who really want to help their customers on more than just because it is going to put money into their pockets where as Phil was willing to go that extra step to do a little info searching on the side for some if's and's n but's we had on this Sherman.

ChadC who's a member here on yesterdays tractors, provided the one and only key picture that we needed to know where to drill the hole that the shifter cable goes through to connect to the Sherman transmission. So again thank you so much Chad... we printed out your picture and took it to the garage, laid it right beside the transmission housing and was easily able to get the hole drilled with in about a 1/4" of where it is supposed to go.

And also wanted to thank the other few people who responded to our posts and provided that need-to-know info that made this job a bit easier...gotta love yesterdays tractors members who take their time to pass along their know-how to others!

Well back to the rebuild and installation...

As we mentioned in a previous post, the rebuild kit at RedRockMFG costs 140.00 and that includes shipping and there's no tax...it was well worth the cost because it saved us a possible headache of trying to match up, cross reference, etc etc the bearings and seals, and this kit comes with Made-In-USA bearings which is a must as we have personally witnessed some pretty pathetic quality concerning china-made parts including bearings. You will have to make your own gaskets as Phil pointed out to us that these are only available for the Combo transmission and not the Step-Up or the Step-Down transmission. Also keep in mind that there is no rebuild kits that are specifically sold for the Sherman Step-Down...since the Step-Down uses the same case and generally has the same internal parts as the Step-Up, you will have to order the Step-Up rebuild kit.

Well here are the pics for the rebuild/installation. We didn't do a step-by-step on removing the parts and how to install them as John Smith already did a good job doing that and so we were mostly wanting to provide A LOT of pictures because of the rarity of the Sherman Step-Down only transmission and the very few pictures/info on it.

The wire you see in the pictures is titanium wire...never going to rust although you don't have to worry much about steel wire rusting inside of a lubed transmission or where the shifter cable pushes down into its cradle, but since we had the titanium wire we thought hey why not use it, right!

We will upload some more pics of the whole tractor but first wanted to get the cab/canaopy back on the 8N, get the front and back wheel weights done, and get a fresh coat of paint on the tractor :)

Oh and we included a picture which will show the serial number incase anyone wanted it for researching purposes.

The serial number is 76675

Thanks Again Everyone! Have A Great Weekend And Enjoy That Sunshine!























































 
Congratulations I think the step downs are
much handier than the combos. I have one on a 52 with a Dearborn front dozer blade I use in the Michigan winters.
Works great. Enjoy yours.
 
Nicely done! Glad my old girl could help your old girl get moving again. I've actually been thinking about switching out my step up for a step down. I like the cable shift so I'll probably keep it that way. Post more pictures!
 
(quoted from post at 06:25:53 04/16/16) Congratulations I think the step downs are
much handier than the combos. I have one on a 52 with a Dearborn front dozer blade I use in the Michigan winters.
Works great. Enjoy yours.

Can't agree with you more... from what we read and personally experienced with a step-up transmission, they are useless because the tractor's original transmission is already fast enough and so add on a step-up transmission to it and wow that thing went so fast that it was only good for if we wanted to race and whip the pants off of a john deere lol

but now that we have a Sherman Step-Down and definitely like the lower speed which makes controlling it much easier, we now want a creeper transmission! I know, good luck right... they are rare! Sure would have been nice since Sherman made a combo which had both step-up and step-down in one transmission, that they also made a combo that had both Step-Down and Creeper in one.

Hey I know, let's start a petition for a combo step-down and creeper to be made :D
 
(quoted from post at 07:16:08 04/16/16) Nicely done! Glad my old girl could help your old girl get moving again. I've actually been thinking about switching out my step up for a step down. I like the cable shift so I'll probably keep it that way. Post more pictures!

Thanks Chad! Not trying to rain on your parade but from what some experts have told us and through what we have researched ourselves, a step-down with cable shift is a bit of a rare thing to come by. We just got super fortunate to come across the one we did and at the price we got it for as well. It's also possibly a bit harder to even find a Sherman Combo Step-Up Step-Down with shifter cable but with a little time and patience, can definitely get what ya need :)

We would have went with a combo since they are more common compared to the step-down only and parts are easier to come by but we couldn't find any that had the cable shifter. The reason we wanted the cable shifter is because it makes it more convenient for me since I'm a recovering paraplegic and so have my individual disabilities that makes it easier for me to use the cable shifter verses having to bend down a bit further each time to reach a shift lever.

Well hey headed outside to work on wheel weights. Hope you have a great day!

Oh and will upload more pics soon after getting a few more jobs done on the 8N :)
 
(quoted from post at 15:52:38 04/16/16)
(quoted from post at 07:16:08 04/16/16) Nicely done! Glad my old girl could help your old girl get moving again. I've actually been thinking about switching out my step up for a step down. I like the cable shift so I'll probably keep it that way. Post more pictures!

Thanks Chad! Not trying to rain on your parade but from what some experts have told us and through what we have researched ourselves, a step-down with cable shift is a bit of a rare thing to come by. We just got super fortunate to come across the one we did and at the price we got it for as well. It's also possibly a bit harder to even find a Sherman Combo Step-Up Step-Down with shifter cable but with a little time and patience, can definitely get what ya need :)

We would have went with a combo since they are more common compared to the step-down only and parts are easier to come by but we couldn't find any that had the cable shifter. The reason we wanted the cable shifter is because it makes it more convenient for me since I'm a recovering paraplegic and so have my individual disabilities that makes it easier for me to use the cable shifter verses having to bend down a bit further each time to reach a shift lever.

Well hey headed outside to work on wheel weights. Hope you have a great day!

Oh and will upload more pics soon after getting a few more jobs done on the 8N :)

Unfortunately, there are no cable shift combo transmissions. No way to shift it with just one cable. The step-up and step-down were the only ones.
 
(quoted from post at 15:07:51 04/17/16)

Unfortunately, there are no cable shift combo transmissions. No way to shift it with just one cable. The step-up and step-down were the only ones.

Was starting to think they didn't exist since we couldn't even find a single picture or a comment about a Sherman Combo with cable shift.

By any chance was there ever a Combo by any manufacture that had step-down and creeper
 
(quoted from post at 12:15:59 04/18/16)
(quoted from post at 15:07:51 04/17/16)

Unfortunately, there are no cable shift combo transmissions. No way to shift it with just one cable. The step-up and step-down were the only ones.

Was starting to think they didn't exist since we couldn't even find a single picture or a comment about a Sherman Combo with cable shift.

By any chance was there ever a Combo by any manufacture that had step-down and creeper


Not that I know of.
 

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