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Farmall M clutch problems

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
I have a 1943 Farmall M.My problem is disengaging the clutch without grinding the gears.I have a rebuilt clutch,resurfaced pressure plate,new throw out bearings,and any thing else that we thought was wore enough to make the difference,with no luck.You can crank the tractor with clutch disengaged and change any gear without grinding the gears but if you put it in neutral at any time and engage the clutch and then disengage the clutch again,you can 't get it back in gear without grinding.With the engine off and the clutch disengaged,I can reach underneath the tractor and turn the shaft by hand.Any help would be appreciated!
 

It takes several seconds for the gears to stop spinning after pushing down the clutch pedal, so maybe you are just getting in too big of a hurry?
 
Square cut gears, no sync . . . As Rusty said, you generally have to wait a couple of seconds for the input shaft to stop spinning. Some guys use a thicker gear oil to help slow them down. Even at that, if it happens to stop at a point where you've got two teeth running into each other so that it won't mesh right into gear, you have to engage the clutch a bit to re-align and you're going to get the crunch again. Sticky pilot bushings and bearings will keep the input shaft turning, too, but from your description that's not a problem in your case. It really is the nature of the beast.
 
Double clutch it like in the old days. Engage clutch while in neutral and then disengage and shift the gear and re-engage clutch. Double clutching helps to bring all the gears up to the same speed before shifting like a synchro would do in a modern transmission.
 
This is a tough one. Sounds like the clutch must be draging on the pressure plate. Don"t have an answer .sounds like you covered ever thing. Might try the Farmall board,farther doun the forum.
 
If you start it with the clutch in and it in neutral, without letting the clutch out once it is running, does it still grind? If not, there may not be a problem.
 
With the aid of a helper we can start the engine with the shifter in netural and clutch pushed in by looking thru the belly pump hole the shaft starts to spin slowly but you can shift the trans. into gear with little or no gear grind, but if you release the clutch with trans. in neutral the shaft spins at engine speed if you push in the clutch it never seems to slow down no matter how long you wait and it is almost impossible to shift it in gear unless you stop the engine. Thanks to all who replied!!
 

Silly question on my part, but did you properly adjust the free travel on the clutch pedal? If there is too much free travel, the clutch will NOT fully release, and will exhibit the symptoms you describe.
 
If the shaft turns when starting with the clutch pedal depressed, that would suggest a sticky pilot bearing, which supports the front of the shaft in the rear end of the crankshaft. If that's the case, and it's not too severs, it can be overcome to some extent with the idea about a thicker lube in the rear end,as long as that's practical where you live -- that 140-150 stuff is fine most of the year but can get pretty stiff in cold weather.

It could also be that the clutch isn't releasing fully. If your pedal free-play is set up correctly, that might result from a worn out clutch cover (often excessive wear around the joint where the clutch fingers are hinged to the cover).

Trick is that to get to the pilot bearing, you have to remove the clutch, so it's as much work to correct one as the other. If you do have to tear into it, I'd suggest a new pilot bearing at the least (the least costly fix in $$$), but check out your clutch while you have it out.
 
Yes we have tried adjusting the pedal free play even going to the extreme with no free play, does not seem to make a difference. and also it has a new pilot bearing rebuilt pressure plate rebuilt clutch disc,new throwout bearing.The fingers were adjusted by the clutch shop.My first experience with this clutch shop as my old one has gone out of business. The flywheel has not been resurfaced due to the splitting of the tractor. Many thanks for you guys helping with your sugestions.
 
That kinda knocks most of my earlier post about the pilot bearing and clutch out of the running, and comes back to the other question still hanging out there. What do you have for lube in the transmission? If a hydraulic oil like HyTran, it will take a lot longer to slow down the input shaft than the customary 90 weight stuff. The few seconds wait some of us have referred to is with the heavier lube.

If that doesn't help (or you've got 90 or heavier in it, about all that's left would be the linkage. There've been a couple of posts in the last month or so about linkages failing on either the inside or the outside of the cam shaft that passes into the torque tube -- the one that connects to the pedal on the outside, and the throwout on the inside. In setting up your pedal free-play, how much of the adjustment have you used up?
 
Update on

farmall M with clutch problems Today we removed the clutch, pressure plate and checked everthing we could think of using some of the sugestions on here and our own knowledge. we do have some wear in the linkage forks,and the cross shaft in the clutch housing but I have another M with similar wear and the clutch works fine on it. We shimed the pressure plate out about 50 thousands and now after several seconds with clutch pedal pushed in you can shift it into gear.I know this didn't fix the real problem but it is liveable for now.
MANY THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGESTIONS YOU GUYS ARE VERY HELPFUL
 
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