The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

My dad bought a fordson major diesel tractor that he used for several years before it sat these last two years. Upon starting it up this spring, he noticed that the hi-lo lever will not move. it is stuck in hi range. does anybody know what might be wrong and how to go about fixing it?
thanks for your comments
bjelojac

Welcome to the board. I have moved the post because the E27N is a different Major which did not have a high/low.

It might be worth taking the plate (or pulley) off the right side near the handbrake and checking in there. Sometimes the nut that holds the pulley drive gear in position breaks its locktab and comes undone, This can jam the High/Low range.

It could also be bearing failure so the next thing to do would be to remove the main gear selector plate near the clutch and look inside to see what happens when you move the High/Low lever. You could then put a lever under the gear shafts and see if any move up and down indicating a broken bearing. You can also see some of the bearings.

I hardly dare to post a reply underneath the Great One. but was it working last time your father used it? Has it been used since?
I was just wondering if it could be a component seizure due to standing and water ingress.

I could suggest you know your place Pete!

Hello;
Thanks for the responses.
To answer one reply, a couple of years ago when he ran this tractor last, he had a brush cutter on the three point hitch and at the end of the day of cutting, he hit a stump and took out the pto gear box under the transmission. He bought one from someone and installed it. He does not remember if he needed to use low after that or not. It is possible that there is a bad bearing or something out of place. ( last night i was talking to my dad and he gave me this additional information, which may or may not help to solving my original question)
Also, my original thoughts were wondering about condensation in the transmission that possibly caused something to seize up. If something is seized up, what is the best way to inspect and free it up? Is there a sliding gear for hi-low that could of rusted?
Again, thank you for your advise and direction, you guys are great!

P. S. what is the best way to find the value of this tractor? it's serial number is 1440299 and on the hood it says "FORDSON MAJOR". on the right side there is a tag that is all worn down, hard to make out. (4 cyl diesel) Dad was also told that this tractor is a 1957 year model.
bjelojac

The PTO problem would have nothing to do with you High/Low problem.

Yes the High/Low is a sliding gear but you do need to get the plates off to see what is going on. We could speculate for months.

She is a July 1957. Value would depend on condition but realistically it could be from around £300.00 to around £1000.00 for a really good one.

I am going home this Friday and I will be digging into it then. Just thought I would tap into the advice before I went. Again thank you for the opinions and advice. I will let you know what I find.

so long,
bjelojac

Figured out the problem. I took the plate off on the side and saw that the sliding gear for hi-low was hitting some shoulder down low. we took off the new pto gearbox and found that the shoulder of the upper gear attached to the pto gear box had a large shoulder and the tractor that it came off of must not have had hi-low. I machined the shoulder back to imitate the one that was originally in the tractor, and it works fine.

hope this helps someone down the road,
have a great day,

Bjelojac

I'm glad that you got it figured out. A lathe is a handy thing to have. Your "new" PTO may have been off of an E27N Major, since all new Majors had high/low.

Hi,

A E27N box will not fit under a new major. The older box is shorter because the high low range on the new major needs the pto take to to be nearer to the engine.

You could have fitted an older pto box, from a tractor with narrower gears somewhere, compared to your tractor.

Regards

Emiel

That makes sense, Emiel. I've never seen an E27N in person, only in pictures. They are pretty rare over here,so I was just guessing.
I wonder if just the PTO gear from an E27N will fit an E1A.