M Shimmies!

Hey gang....got the engine right....brought the tractor home from the farm yesterday and she ran great.
This M is a tricycle front end...and I guess from what the guys are telling me...the front wheels are set wide? I guess I'm supposed too swap sides too bring them in narrow. Anyway, I also had one tire low on air and no air tank with us....so down the road we came on a 30 minute ride too my house.
Once I hit the blacktop.....the shimmy's started.
Pretty bad too.....I almost went back too the farm but I slowed a bit and they werent soo bad.....got it home!
Now then......I guess I'm going too be addressing this issue next.....so what do I do first?
Is there any kind of tricks too help save some dollars and get rid of the shimmies?
Someone mentioned turning a sector gear over????.....I'm new too these M's and its a learn by doing thing.
I'm thinking too start with narrowing the tires, getting proper air pressure, checking all the steering linkage, and then on too the sector gear?

Thanks for any help here in getting me going in the right direction.

Like anything. Just start on either end and follow your nose, looking for play and slop as you go.. That nut on top of the sector gear could probably use a turn or two. Wheel bearings? Drive one tire up on a 4x6 and pull the other one. Odds are there's lots in there to clean up and repair.
Mount inside when done for narrow setup.

Gordo

like gordo said, you need to start at one end and work your way thru. first thing, get the front tire pressures even. then check for bent front rims,also for wheel bearing slop. from there, take the cover off the bolster and check the worm and sector gears. on the older m"s the sector was a half gear, the later were full round gears. the full rounds can be removed and turned 180 degrees to get fresh teeth. check the bearing on the end of the steering shaft, it is behind the pipe cap on the upper bolster. there is also a lower bearing in the lower part of the bolster, and also bushings in there. also check the u joints on the steering shaft for wear. if you need a rebuild kit for the bolster, check out carter and gruenwald, they have a complete kit for about 160 dollars. here is a link to carters site
carter and gruenwald

could be any of the things folks have already said. However, I'd try the cheapest fix 1st. Put the corret amount of air in that low tire and see what happens. It is at least part of the problem

I guess I do things differently but my M shinmmies a lot when I have weight on the drawbar such as pulling a trailer with another tractor on it. Tried running one tire with less air so it would pull to one side, tried ti balance the wheels, etc but finally got front wheel weights and that helped a lot Henry

And check all the bolts, front and rear, holding your rims to your wheels.

I would fist check the tie rod ends all the way back to steering box these come loose from wear and let the front end shimmie. Cars have shock asorbers to take the shmmie out but tractor rely on a good tight setup and that doesn't always do the job. My case LA will get the shimmies now and then I just slow up and then let it stop then go back to speed.

Walt

I got it fixed!

We took the whole front end apart and the sector gear had slop between the main shaft and the gear....movement back and forth. The nut was tight so I removed the sector gear and spent the next 3 hours cleaning lots of grease out of there.....everything looked good except the Steering column was out of correct adjustment and the u-joint isnt the greatest...I'll replace that as soon as I pick one up.

Here's what we did too fix the problem though.....the sector gear had a shim under it....we removed it and reinstalled the gear but still had slop. Now that gear and main shaft is a tapered splined shaft so the farther down the gear goes...the tighter it is too the shaft!.
There's plenty of room on the worm gear for the sector too slide up and down a bit and there's plenty of threads on the main shaft for the steering.
We chucked up the sector gear in the lathe and took .060 off the bottom end of the hub....put it back together and she's as good as new.

I took it down the road and back in high gear wide open throttle and it steered great.....lots tighter now with only about 2" of free travel in the wheel now...(I'm sure that's the worn u-joint).

No shimmies whatsoever. Quick fix!

Also....it looks like someone had been in there before and replaced the bushing in the rear of the casting that the worm gear rides in on the back, it had good bearing in the front under the pipe plug and the worm and sector gear looked brand new!. I think someone had replaced them and just didnt know how too set them up right.

Thanks for all the replies guys. Hope this helps someone else out....its really an easy (but dirty) job.