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Yeah, what I meant was that when the wheels are on the ground, which is most of the time, except for when you are running over rough ground, the weight of the front end forces the shaft up until it rests on the thrust plate (later mdeols used a thrust bearing which would indeed be an improvement) in the bottom of the pedestal. That's what carries the weight. The shims are only used to decrease the amount that the shaft can fall if the wheels are ever in the air, which is rare, but during some in the field bouncing, a front end that has a lot of vertical play will clunk and knock. And that can be hard on the thrust parts as they can get hit with a pretty severe force. The force it takes to turn that shaft is born entirely by that lower plate, washer, and bushing, so if you have the worm out, and you try to turn the front wheels by using a wrench on the top of the shaft, that force of the friction of the tires on the pavement and the drag of the thrust components. Now none of the manual steering tractors turn all that easily, but I would think a "B" with fully aired up tires (tighter, stiffer tires will make them turn much easier), plenty of grease, and good thrust parts should turn pretty decent, but none of them are a joy to turn when the tractor is sitting still. And now you know why power steering became such a popular option! If you can get the shaft out, which is a treat because you either have to remove the pedestal so you can lay it down, or hoist the front end 6 feet into the air, you might want to have a look at the bottom end parts. They might be significantly worn and merit replacement, which will also provide you with an opportunity to grease things up really well. Now, I would do the indicator measurement, and jack it up to see how far the shaft falls down. If it's a lot, you might even have one of those thrust parts knarled up and nearly digested down below, and it might be making it bind. Frank
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