odd tractor behaviour

[Kirbust]

hello club members,
as I was driving my fordson new performance power major up the islands road towards home something very weird happened today and that is that the tractor suddenly lurched over to one side and started diving for the ditch on the road side (no it did not have tyres that went flat either) but once recovered it suddenly lurched or heeled over whatever you wish to call it on the other side and again started diving for that side of the road and just avoided the road side ditches, both times when this happened the bonnet and seat I sit on was what heeled over like the tractor fell over as if it had a rear flat tyre but it didn't and the steering was hard to turn to correct for a second or two at those moments causing me to strain my right hand and arm and left shoulder yet it has power or power assisted steering whichever its called and I am puzzled as to what could cause this, any ideas?.......ever hear of this before?....the fordson power major has a front end loader on it and always has but the new addition as of thursday is a 3 point hitch mounted finger bar mower....what should I look for as to the cause of this as the tractor is now in my opinion out of service until I know why and I was about to start using it soon for field mowing but a days work and I can get the mower changed to my other fordson, the one you ID'd as a june '54 model so I have that as a backup tractor at least.
I plan to have the fordson new performance power major dated like I did the other one sometime later this year but first I wish to get to the bottom of this heeling over bit as I find that very odd AND unsafe

[curtsat15]

I had an old Dodge Dart that did that once as I was driving it home immediately after purchase. Unfortunately, the bill of sale said "As Is". After tearing apart the entire front end, I discovered that it was the steering box that was the culprit. I don't know if that will be your issue, but I hope this helps you locate the issue.

[henk]

The steeringbox was my first thought to.

[Nick]

could it be one of the brakes binding on one side?

[scoobyjim]

if there is no play in the steering i would go with a brake binding. i have had a box go before but all that happened was very bad wheel wobble.

[fenhayman]

Have you examined the road surface where the incident occurred. Big hole in road?
Did the base of the cutter bar mower catch the roadside and pull the tractor that way and then it compensated by going the other.
Can't see it being the brakes if it pulled both ways.

[Pavel]

I would suggest that the brakes are unlikely to have caused such abrupt and violent behaviour -- especially as there is no suggestion that they were in use at the time.
More likely is that a broken, or loose bearing in the steering box has allowed the rocker shaft and worm nut jump out of mesh.

Pavel

[Dandy Dave]

My thought on the brakes. I have seen linings that have broken free from the shoe and end up binding. Could also be a bearing that is comming apart in the axle and the rollers are piling up because the cage has turned to shreads from lack of grease. Dandy Dave!

[Kirbust]

yes there is steering play and its power assisted steering and to answer another members
question I am not sure that the brakes are part of the problem as the last owner tore them
apart for some issue and had not enough knowledge to know what he was doing so there are
no brakes on that tractor apart from the hand brake at present which I intend to fix as soon
as the weather warms up a bit AND there was/is an issue regards steering anyway as it is very
hard to keep near a straight line as the tractor likes diving from one side of the road to
another and that was the normal for that tractor before a finger bar mower was added to it as
that was not the tractor of choice I was going to mount that mower to, the other one dated by
you folks as being 6/1954 model was the one I was going to have that mower mounted to but
some idiot on this island disturbed the fuel filter canister so that it started leaking again which
though not on topic here reminds me, I have the fuel filter canister type that requires an 84cm
cartridge filter that sits inside a blue steel canister with a bolt going from bottom up through the
centre. Is there supposed to be a metal washer I.E. copper under that metal canister on the
inside of the bolt head?

[fenhayman]

Must be the steering.
Worn out steering is just about controlable at low speed. Faster and the you get a "snaking" effect, like a badly loaded trailer.
Stick some weight on the back, mower?, and the problem is ten times worse.
Stick some weight on the front, loader?, and it will get ten times better.

[Pavel]

Yep; copper, aluminium or fibre.

Pavel

[Kirbust]

hello members, sorry for taking so long to get back to you, that odd behaviour as far as I can tell is this: that tractor has power assisted steering, now what I have found is that where the hydraulic ram for the assisted power steering is on the front has something wrapped around the front part of the hydraulic ram that holds a part of the steering system together that has rusted to such a degree that its floating almost free, the part being the drag link?, that connects back to the arm that is on the outside of the steering box and also on the other end of the drag link? is so worn it looks ready to fall off, I am in the uk so any ideas where I can get replacement parts?

[Kirbust]

Must be the steering.
Worn out steering is just about controlable at low speed. Faster and the you get a "snaking" effect, like a badly loaded trailer.
Stick some weight on the back, mower?, and the problem is ten times worse.
Stick some weight on the front, loader?, and it will get ten times better.

funny you should say that fenhayman as that is the problem, steering system, and how you have described the tractors behaviour is what I experienced and basically I need to replace everything except the power steering pump, steering box and the 2 kingpin arms and tierod bar, all else has had it in the steering system

[Nick]

agriline sell a complete drag link with new ends fairly cheap