6000 3-point fixed

A few months ago I asked how many fellow 6000 owners had stuck 3-point lift linkage. I discovered that I was not alone. Mine was stuck so bad that it would take a decent size loader bucket to force the arms down. Hooking up a rotary cutter and doing some mowing while raising and lowering it a few dozen times did nothing to free it up.

I set out to fix my problem. A 10-ton porta-power was helpless in pushing the shaft out. I could have used a bigger bottle jack and some wood blocks I suppose, but I thought of a better plan. With the porta-power maxed out on pressure, I used the loader bucket to raise the arms a few inches at a time. Each time I did that the shaft moved, barely at first but then maybe 1/8 inch or so at a time. It was a slow go because I was by myself, but after about a dozen back-and-forths between the loader bucket and the porta-power, I knew that I was home free.

As you can see, the bushings and shaft surfaces were nasty, but cleaned up very nicely with a wire wheel on the shaft and a hone for the bushings. It's as if the 50-year old grease turned into a gummy glue that would not let go. Throw in a little water and some rusting action, along with sitting outside for a dozen years and you have some seriously stuck parts.

I added some grease zerks to the lift cover so this does not happen again. The factory set-up used felt seals around the OD of the bushing that was to be soaked in oil, but neither it nor the owners manual spoke to putting oil in the drilled plugs in the lift cover, which I'm sure most owners don't do.

Imagine driving a nail half-way into a piece of wood before you decide it needs to come back out. You can grab the nail with a vice-grips and pull, but it probably won't budge. Pull and twist at the same time and you'll likely have success.

Nice work. It's satisfying when a nagging problem gets solved. Reminds me of all those rusted brake shafts that go thru the 8N housings.

Nice work Bern, that's one problem none of my Ford 6000 tractors have..

That was a lot of high friction surface area!

That was a lot of high friction surface area!

(quoted from post at 08:59:58 03/25/22) Nice work Bern, that's one problem none of my Ford 6000 tractors have..

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Me too, I feel lucky. I might have a ton of problems, but this one doesn't look like fun to fix.

Hey Bern, You want to come and loosen mine up to?

Not really, I've crossed this job off my bucket list. Let me know however if you need any more pointers in addition to what I posted yesterday. I'd be happy to share more detailed advice and insights while it's still fresh in my mind.

To add to my last post, I hooked up a rotary cutter to my 6000 yesterday after I got it all together. I raised it all the way up and let it hang there overnight. To my absolute surprise, that hitch didn't drop so much as an inch. I was impressed!

So did the bushing come out on the shaft or did you have to remove the bushing after the shaft came out? Excellent use of physics to get it done.

Both. One side came out one way, and the other side vice-versa. This is because of the design of the shaft - the inner splines are larger in diameter than the outer splines, which means the bushings will not pass completely over the shaft.

As you can see, the one bushing still fought me after I got the shaft out. I put as much force as I dared to on it with a 12-ton press, without success. A rosebud finally convinced it to move.

After they stopped making the 6000, Ford had the engineer that designed that system, design the adjustable tie rod on the 5000!!

Smart thinking. We all know to do that on the small stuff but figuring out how to do it with the loader is too cool.

Your comment about the grease reminded me of some hi tech white grease they bought for us to use at a textile plant I used to work at. It was supposed to stay there just by rubbing it on. Problem was a week later you were having to use a punch and hammer to get the seized pieces back apart. That one cost us a fortune.