1951 WD

One of the three little springs broke (rusted) so I'm waiting on that from my AGCO dealer... $22 for the shorter 2-disc spring, vs. $5 for the 3-disc spring from the later WD-45s, so I didn't get lucky there. The discs appear to be in good shape but the pressure plates are pretty ugly from the moisture that was in there. I just cleaned them up with a wire wheel and a flap disc but I may try something a little more aggressive. It's times like these I wish I could justify buying a small mill or surface grinder. The plates (one of which is NLA) are about $180 each new from AGCO.

Anybody want to talk me into replacing the pressure plates? I'm on the fence. Not sure I would want to reuse them if I had plans to run Rotobaler or something where I'd constantly be on the hand clutch.

John, here's a thread where I went through the hand-clutch on one of my 45's. It may help?

Thanks Mike, I had not found that thread. From what I can see of the plates you ended up using, they are much nicer... And it looks like the ones you started with looked more like the ugly ones I have now.

You folks with the 3-disc clutches get lucky on those 3 little springs... They're way cheaper than the ones for the 2-disc clutch.

 I may have mentioned it, and you probably already know but don't forget to go through the oil pump. I forgot that and had to pull the engine again to improve the oil pressure on my WD45 rebuild.

 Regards,

 Chris

I also got the torque tube/clutch housing joined back up to the rear end. It's starting to look like a tractor again.

Chris, you'll be happy to know I did get into the oil pump. There is very little wear on the bottom plate. There are some paint markings on the body of the pump that make me wonder if it was rebuilt at some point. Play between the shaft and body is also almost non-existent. Per the book .015" is the max gear backlash clearance and I can get a .018" feeler gauge in between mine. I'm not terribly excited about that. Might check with my dealer in case they have any NOS lying around but otherwise the WD gears appear to no longer be in service. Not that I could easily measure wear on a set of used gears anyway without having them in hand and fitting them up.

I am wondering if I would be okay with everything else (cam bearings etc.) getting refreshed? I guess worst case I can drop the oil pan and get to the pump without pulling the engine, but if those gears are shot, I'd rather know now.

I'll clean it up and put it back together. That bottom plate won't need much lapping to clean it up.

I tackled the steering shaft u-joint today. I may just not be used to these but it was the most difficult to service u-joint I've ever done. Once I figured it out and cut a piece of 1" pipe to press over the top of the caps, back and forth, and then let some needle rollers fall in to help push the caps out even more, it wasn't too bad. The new u-joint has no play in it and will be a big improvement. There is just barely clearance for the grease zerk. I wonder if I will be able to get a grease gun on it once everything's put back together.

I need to finish cleaning up the front wheels and get some tires ordered for this tractor, too.

I got a chance to put the new to me drill press to work on the thermostat housing casting. Well, mine had no thermostat, so call it whatever you want... I'm adding a thermostat to mine like the later tractors had. All three bolts broke off. I understand from reading on here that this is pretty common.

Two were easy but one is under the inlet and I had a fun time trying to grip the casting well enough to hold it in alignment with the chuck. I did lose some threads at the end of that hole when I was drilling out the broken bolts, but I think there are still enough left to hold. Most things won't be so weird shaped and will be easier to clamp down to the table.

For sure this was way better than using a hand drill like I had been doing.

 Those front rims are going to look real good on the WD, glad your back on it too!

 Regards,

 Chris

I've been putting the front end back together - new bearings and seals were in order. I realized that the part number for the seal assembly must point the AGCO guys to the individual retainer and cork seal, and I only got one of each when I ordered the complete seal PN, so I need to get a cork seal. I was able to save both of my retainers so I have one extra new retainer now.

The bearing cone I am pointing to in the pic below can spin on the shaft. The raised lines meant to lock the bearing to the shaft must have worn down due to to old bearing rollers being crudded up. Looks like I could either peen the shaft to make some raised areas to grip the inside of the bearing, and/or use the right Loctite?