720 LP JD

On a 720 LP JD tractor, there is an idler gear in the governor housing which runs the power trol pump. How does this idler gear get motor oil to it?

Oil carries up the gears and eventually gets to that idler. Not a very efficient lubrication system and if the pump is used hard like with a loader that idler bearing and shaft will fail. Deere did pressure feed oil into the end of the idler shaft on the orchard models because they had a bigger pump. Why they didn't do that to all models is a mystery to me. The idler shaft is already drilled to have pressurized oil pumped into the end of it on all models but only the orchard governor housing had a factory drilled oil hole in it to feed that shaft. There is no other difference in governor housings between the orchard and row crop/standard that I know of. On a late 30 series the hole is there from the factory. They finally got smart at the end of the series? A lot of the guys who had a loader drilled a hole in the back side of the governor housing, right at the end of the idler shaft to pressure feed it if the hole wasn't there already.


When I put a loader on my 630 the idler went out in fairly short order. I replaced it and it didn't take long for the replacement one to fail. I was complaining about this to the parts man and this is when he alerted me to pressure oiling. He told me the later 30 series housings already had the hole. This is a later 630 so the governor housing was the orchard housing with the oil hole already in it. Made the job easy. I did this simple conversion in 1975 and that idler is still in the tractor and working. It does have a slight rattle now, but it's been 38 years ago. 35 of those years were spent with a loader on it.Jim

Link to previous thread... NOT sure if it"s accurate, or not.
Oily