The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hello from Australia,

I have just purchased a FMD, I think around 1955/6(used to have a TEA20) and want to change all the oils.
I have found which oils to use here but need to know how much the transmission, hydrolics and the engine use respectfully.

Also on another topic, the gear lever jumps out a lot. I have taken the gear lever cover off and found that the "socket" that holds the ball of the gearlever is very worn...How do I take the "socket" out to repair it?. It slides on a rod that does not look like it will come out easily.

Hope someone can help. Stephen.

Welcome Steve,

Don't know about the gear lever. Haven't had that problem.
The oil for the engine would be 5 liters. Gearbox 20 L and rear end 60 L. There are no hydraulic oils needed. You can use the same oil for all parts.

There are some topics about the required oils.

Hello Steve, you have found a great site for Fordsons. Do a search on your gear shifter problem, there was a post on here regarding this. I beleive Brian put a pic up showing how he fixed it. Good luck.

Thanks for the quick replys guys, much appreciated .

I saw the pics of the repair but that was to the ball on the gearstick itself at least that is what it looks like....my problem is the cup or socket that holds the gearstick ball inside the box is practically worn away.

The gearstick ball seems to be fine.

I have looked at the exploded views of the transmission on the New Holland.nz site but it doesnt tell me what to undo or give me a clue on how to take the cup/socket out!

Maybe the previous owners thought they were driving a F1 car!!!..quick and often gearshifts.

we have this gear stick problem as well
the gear stick is very .. sloppy, think the stick even turns around somewhat as well

What you may find is the ball on the gear lever, where it goes into the socket is fine but the bottom piece does not go deep enough into the socket. If the socket is worn, its a split at the transmission job to get it out.

henk wrote: The oil for the engine would be 5 liters. Gearbox 20 L and rear end 60 L.

Steve
The rear transmission oil capacity is 40 litres. (60 litres will do both gearbox and rear transmission as it's the same type of oil)

Kiwi Kev

Stephen, the socket can be removed through the shifter hole fairly easy. There is a set screw/bolt locking it to the shaft and a safety wire holding the screw in place, remove these making sure not to drop them into the transmission, then push the shifter rod and socket assembly forward shifting the trans into gear. You should now be able to slide the socket assembly off the shaft and out, again do not drop it into the trany. I drained the oil out of the rear axle on one of my Majors and found one of the setscrews in the drain pan. If the socket were to fall in and couldn’t get fished out from the top you can bet the tractor will have to be split. Welding the socket is a littlie tricky, leave enough of a hole to get a die grinder in there to make the hole round again after welding.
You may want to note the arrangement of the socket on the shaft, if memory serves me it is possible to install it backwards.
Pat

Steve and Kiwi Kev,

Your right Kiwi.

Now from the book: Sump 6,8 L Gearbox 20,4 L Rearend 40,9 L.

Thank you Pat for the instructions for removing the gearlever socket, I had looked at the transmission diagram and saw the screw and thought it must be able to be removed...just needed an experts opinion...again thank you !. I will be sure to hang onto the bits with a tight grip, I dont want to have to split the thing.

...and Kiwi Kev thanks for the oil quantities...now I can go into town and buy the right amount...I never had guessed it all held that much...saved me an extra trip.

The previous owners didnt take much care with the old girl...they even tried to make it look like a fergy by painting the whole thing GREY...sacrilege ...painting it blue will be the next thing to be done when its working fine.

What a great forum!!!Thank you all.

Photos of your problem would be nice but lets see your tractor!

Here are a few pics of my newly aquired 1955 Fordson new major, Hope the link works.

http://s780.photobucket.com/albums/yy84 ... 20tractor/

I got it with a 5 tine plough, carry-all, single furrow plough, fertiliser spreader, 6ft rear grader blade and rear scoop. All used well but still in good condition.

I put the gear lever back together just so I can drive it, if I'm careful I can still select all gears, they dont get stuck or jump out. I will attack the problem later and post pics as I go.

I am in the process of changing the oils as there is a bit of water in the hydrolics.

Condensation from the inside of the castings makes the oil go milky, shouldn't be an issue unless its rearly thick and gloopy.

Nice pics thanks for sharing - I see you have some hefty rear wheel weights too.

Where can I find the thread on fixing the gear lever ball? I remember seeing it on the old forum awhile back but I have searched and browsed the old forum and can't find it. I'm restoring my Super Major and this repair is very high on the todo list as it was always popping out at the worst times. I was plowing snow one year and the damn thing jumped while I was sitting in the middle of the public road I live on. There was a lot of pi$$ed off people waiting while I fix it.

this is interesting, i dont have a problem with my majors gearlever, but the whole shaft twists right round, and ive never figured out what that spring does? sometimes it crunches into gear slightly, usually at higher revs, and i can never change gear on the move (i have to stop to do this).

Hey Nick. My Power Major's shifter does the same. I understand there is a pin that keeps the shifter from spinning and on my Power Major this pin is sticking out a little on the left side of the shifter. You can see the pin in this pic on the spare I have. I have never tried to push/hammer this back in, mainly because I have a shifter from a Major that is good and plan to change them out at some point in time.
Good luck.

I had the same problem with my Power Major. All i did was position the shifter where it belonged and tapped the pin back in. haven't had a problem since.

Nice clean looking FMD you picked up there. The steering wheel and charging system are not factory correct, but are available aftermarket if you decide to put her back as original. Dandy Dave!

Can someone post or send me a picture of the ball at the end of the lever. Gman has a nice shot of the bottom but a side view will help me get a idea how long the ball should be. My lever wiggles and turns also and the pin looks like it has been welded in place a couples of times. I haven't really studied it completely to see what needs done to fix that part of it. I figured I'd start with researching the worst part first.

Picture one titled "what is this" and circled , looks like a Tachometer drive, with the flexible drive cable chopped off.