The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi all,

My gear box assembly was going very well up until now. I have the gear set in the housing with all new bearings and all clearances checked, so it was time to put the gear lever back on.

The retaining spring always was on with a twist on the end and it never took much to get it to fly off. Looking through the parts book I found out why. There is supposed to be a snap ring to hold the spring down which is missing on my shifter.

Anybody got any idea where to get such a part or what could be used as a substitute? The parts book lists it as "N-7228 Ring (gear shifter lever snap)". I just can't find any parts suppliers that even have the spring let alone the snap ring.

Thanks in advance.

Regards, Frank.

Hello Frank,

I have just had my unit apart to paint and reassembled with the correct ring.

This is just a split ring of approx. 5/32" dia. spring steel. This is quite strong and a bugger to fit with one pair of hands.

I reckon if I had to replace it I would find a suitable sized coil spring, cut off one coil, anneal and flatten the coil to a ring, then heat & quench to harden
again.

Worth a try.

Bob

Think it is the same ring on the E1A Major through to the Super Major. As for fitting we used to do it with a ring spanner that would just fit over the gear lever and then whack it. That was the way I was shown by the old mechanics when I was a newby, back in the last century.

Thanks for the tips. The job is now done.

I couldn't find a spring the right size Bob, but I did find that the spring hose clamp off a 1990s Ford Falcon brake booster hose was about right. I stretched it a bit and cut the wing bits off with the angle grinder and it was about the right size. A bit of brute force turned it into a nice snap ring without the twist. I could have used one off a Holden, but I figured I would have less parts rejection problems if it came off a Ford.

Brian, your tip with the ring spanner worked a treat. You forgot to mention the fact that it was a 3/4" ring spanner but I managed to figure that out for myself. The best part of the job was the fact that it was completed by whacking it with a hammer.

All in all a very good day, the tractor is fixed (well at least the gear stick) and I fixed it by whacking it with a hammer.

Regards, Frank.

The gear lever on our N broke off at the snap ring groove, the ring long gone as a result. Fordson parts are not exactly plentiful where we are, but we do have welding and machining equipment.

I managed to groove out and weld up the lever, but I had no groove left. To over come this, I turned out a locking collar with a pair of set screws threaded in to grip the lever. I figured that this would work as a temporary fix until we could find another gear lever. 20 years later, it is still working.

Cheers - SR