Rebuilding WD shift tower
Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=166327
Printed Date: 26 Apr 2025 at 5:37am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Rebuilding WD shift tower
Posted By: DonnaS
Subject: Rebuilding WD shift tower
Date Posted: 03 Dec 2019 at 1:48pm
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Hi All, after lurking for a while i finally joined the group..mainly because I have a problem, snow plowing with my WD, she got stuck in reverse, tried all the tricks to line up everything after taking shift lever out,no go. I removed the tower and it seems like the reverse lever & fork move way too loose, no tension at all like the other two. I'm thinking theres a spring missing ?. I have several diagrams that show a spring I've searched websites for hours and cannot find any place to buy these , Even tried E bay for a whole tower. Any ideas folks ? |
Replies:
Posted By: Sugarmaker
Date Posted: 03 Dec 2019 at 4:58pm
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DonnaS, Welcome to the forum! These can get worn in various areas. You might call one of the suppliers on this site. Maybe try Brenda at Sandy Lake. They are pretty good at helping over the phone too! I think reverse usually has spring pressure to make you force the shifter over into that position. I have never rebuilt one of these yet. but have had the towers off several. Regards, Chris ------------- D17 1958 (NFE), WD45 1954 (NFE), WD 1952 (NFE), WD 1950 (WFE), Allis F-40 forklift, Allis CA, Allis D14, Ford Jubilee, Many IH Cub Cadets, 32 Ford Dump, 65 Comet. |
Posted By: SteveM C/IL
Date Posted: 03 Dec 2019 at 8:47pm
| No spring resistance on my original WD for R......been like that far back as can remember.Dont know if R has a detent spring but would think so? Too lazy to look in parts books. |
Posted By: SteveM C/IL
Date Posted: 03 Dec 2019 at 8:58pm
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All three shift shafts use ball and detent . Page 230 agcopartsbooks.com WD/WD45/Power unit...sounds like you're missing something.
#70224925 spring #70915905 ball Uses 3 of each but doubt you need all of them new. Might be best to call Sandy Lake Imp like Chris says. Discuss situation with them and they can help you know what's what. You say something seems too loose. Those fork rails can swing side to side easily You should be able to slide them back and forth and feel the detents if they are ok. They need to be positioned close to what they would be like in tractor....not swung to one side. On a WD45 you need trans and shift tower in 2nd gear position to get it back together. WD might be same...not sure. This is assuming you have early WD with straight stick. Curved shifter WD is same as WD45.
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Posted By: DonnaS
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2019 at 7:10am
Thanks for the replies!, I took another look at it, (you know how it's better to walk away for a while sometimes  ) and I can defineatly see that a spring and ball are missing from reverse ,the lever/fork really flop around. I will give Sandy Lake a call with the part numbers suggested (Super help there !) And yes she's a 1950 regular WD with a straight shifter. BTW said shifter shows some wear at the base so will weld it build it back up to specs while it's apart.. |
Posted By: Sugarmaker
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2019 at 9:15am
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DonnaS, Yes you have a worn shifter system! But you knew that! Most of them are just different degrees of worn. ( I am still having minor issues with my 45 but it was not rebuilt)
I was looking through the wonderful documentation that Tom made on the restorations of his WC and WD45 diesel. Not sure who posted the link to his info but it sure has good pictures of many Allis parts including this shift tower refurb/clean. If someone can re-post Tom's links that would be great. Regards, Chris ------------- D17 1958 (NFE), WD45 1954 (NFE), WD 1952 (NFE), WD 1950 (WFE), Allis F-40 forklift, Allis CA, Allis D14, Ford Jubilee, Many IH Cub Cadets, 32 Ford Dump, 65 Comet. |
Posted By: DonnaS
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2019 at 9:31am
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Boy am I happy I took the suggestion to call Sandy Lake in Pa. Sarah in parts had what I needed in stock. Bill the service manager took the time to help me with repair tips and directed me to a link on there webpage to print out directions to put it all back together Thanks to all !.. I really like this forum already I'll post back when parts arrive and let you know how it goes |
Posted By: Sugarmaker
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2019 at 9:58am
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DonnaS, I am about 40 minutes from Sandy Lake and I go to them alot to learn about these old Orange tractors! Glad you had some positive feed back and found parts too! Take some pictures for us too. Not to many threads on this problem specific. Regards, Chris ------------- D17 1958 (NFE), WD45 1954 (NFE), WD 1952 (NFE), WD 1950 (WFE), Allis F-40 forklift, Allis CA, Allis D14, Ford Jubilee, Many IH Cub Cadets, 32 Ford Dump, 65 Comet. |
Posted By: DonnaS
Date Posted: 11 Dec 2019 at 7:15am
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Good morning all, I was able to get my WD up and running, was indeed the detent ball and spring that popped out, I don't know why reverse shaft over traveled , causing that to happen, but I put a sleeve on the reverse shaft so as not to happen again. Bill at Sandy lake suggested 1/2" EMT conduit which in my case was too small. I used a piece of brass pipe roughly 5/8 ID cut 2 1/4" long, slid over nicely.I had to loosen the set screws for the fork and collar and use a punch to get both end caps off so shaft would move far enough over to slide it on . 18g wire was perfect for rewiring through set screws.I can say it went together pretty well, I had to move around the gears in the case a bit to have them line up with the forks,which I had set in 2nd gear. Biggest problem was getting the spring and ball set ,and after about and hour and a half of that nonsense, I took it to my local tranny shop ,5 minutes and no charge !,( so I'll send him some cookies) Building up the end of the shifter with weld helped a lot, shifts nice and tight now.1st pic is brass sleeve 2nd shaft over travel ,if you look at the upper right you'll see hole where sping& ball popped out) uploads/20472/leverovertravel.jpg" rel="nofollow - uploads/20472/leverovertravel.jpg  |
Posted By: Sugarmaker
Date Posted: 11 Dec 2019 at 10:59am
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DonnaS, Awesome! It will probably work well for another 60 years! I did not know about the tubular spacer. Regards, Chris ------------- D17 1958 (NFE), WD45 1954 (NFE), WD 1952 (NFE), WD 1950 (WFE), Allis F-40 forklift, Allis CA, Allis D14, Ford Jubilee, Many IH Cub Cadets, 32 Ford Dump, 65 Comet. |