Need help with clutch for 1948 JD B

I have a 1948 John Deere B, serial #223892, that I"m having problems with the clutch. The tractor wont move forward when engage the clutch. Last year I had to replace the driving disk and the inner facing. Put it all back together, and everything worked. Tractor worked fine for a year. This weekend I was cutting wood for winter. I left the tractor idling because it had died earlier that morning. When I got back to the tractor a little smoke was coming out of the clutch/pulley assembly. Shut it down and let cool down. When started back up, the hand clutch lever was completely back, but the tractor started moving forward. Not good when standing in front of it to start. Got it back to shop and pulled: adjusting plate, outer facing, sliding drive disk, and facing disk. Nothing seemed damaged. Outer facing and facing disk were worn, but not to the rivets. Put back together, and now to get tractor to move, all three adjusting nuts have to be tightened down completely. However, tractor again starts to move when starting tractor. Back adjusting nuts off less than half turn, and then tractor would barely move in 1st gear, but not at all in 2nd. What happened? Any ideas how to fix it? I did not pull driving dick or inner facing. I"ll do that tomorrow.

Always leave the clutch engaged when idling. Therefore, there is no wear on the clutch bearing or the crankshaft. What has happened is your bearing got dry and the pulley is binding on the crankshaft. Probably needs a good lube job..

Thanks Pappy! But what should I lube on it? What bearing dried out. I'm pretty new to this old tractor. Thanks again! Mike

throw out bearing

Thanks, makes sense. I wasn't thinking that deeply into it. I'll pull it apart and let y'sll know what happens. Mike

You might have to pull the pulley off and lubricate the shaft with motor oil and repack the outer bearing with wheel bearing grease. You might be able to pull the clutch operating lever cover off the front of the cover and squirt oil in and arond the clutch bearing. Be sure to add 1 pint of motor oil to the primary reduction gear cover. This will keep the bearing oiled.

Well guys, I'm stuck. I have not been able to get the driving disk off the crankshaft. The cap screw came off with no problem, but the drive disk will not budge. Last year I used a front wheel drive hub puller and two 1/2" bolts threaded into the drive disk to pull it off last year, and it came right off. This year, it will not come off. The 5/8" drive bolt that pushed against the crankshaft (actually against a 3/4 bolt and nut so I wouldn't bugger up the threads in the crankshaft) bent, and then twisted off. So I rented a second FWD hub puller from AutoZone. This time I'm using my 1/2 drive impacts wrench with compressor turned up to 160 PSI, and with pounding on it for over an hour, but the drive disk is not budging. Any ideas?

I'm about to make my own puller out of square tubing and angle iron unless anyone has a better idea. Thanks, Mike

Hi Mike, check the postings in the JD section from around 23 April. I had the same issue and some folks posted good info and pics for me.

Thanks thdrduck. I'll try the tool in the picture, but will hitting the end of the crankshaft hurt the bearings?

Don't think you need to worry about screwing up the bearings. I didn't even need to hit the thing, just turned the nuts and she popped on her own.

Well, thdrduck, I made the tool like the one shown in old popper's picture, but I used 1-inch x 1/4 thick square tubing and it worked fine. I'll finish tomorrow.

Happy it worked for you.

I was out of town for the last week and a half, and finally had time to grease the pulley bearing and squirt a bunch of oil into the holes on operating sleeve so it slides back and forth relatively easily. I then put it all back together, but had the same result - tractor would only move if the three castle nuts were tightened nearly all the way down.

I took it all back apart and measured the thickness of all components: outer facing 19/128" (just under 5/32), sliding drive 41/128", facing disk 27/64", drive disk 2 and 11/16" (new last year) and inner facing 5/32". Yesterday Tractor CO's (YTC) new facing disks are 5/32", so they are the proper thickness, However, YTC does not say how thick the new facing disk (called clutch disk on YTC website) is. Not too much grease on the facings (will clean with brake clean tomorrow), but they might have been a little glazed. Can they be lightly sanded? Also, I noticed the pulley does not go all the way onto the crankshaft (see picture). Appears the bearing retainer is hitting on the end of the crankshaft. Is that supposed to happen? is it okay for the pulley to be about 1/4" to 1/2" away from where it looks like it should ride?