The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi pulled the old major out today and drove round the yard then tried to put her in low range to bring her into the workshop but wouldn't go into low range at all the lever moves fine comes out of high range fine but the low doesn't seem to engage at all you can lift the clutch and nothing happens :s when she was parked up last summer low was working fine. any ideas on what is wrong and how to fix it?
thanks
oli

are you sure, the lever is engaged to the axle that goes into the gearbox. Sometimes the lock mechanisme does not work well.
Check the nut of the lock stud through the lever.

Cheers Henk I Checked the lever it was loose so tightened it up but it still doesn't help it come out of high range fine but goes solid when you try to get into low range no gear crunch or noise at all so im assuming it is something internal which will need looked at? possibly not sure never looked at a gearbox on a major before.
thanks
oli

I think you need help from grandpa or Dandy6 Dave

Is it by any chance a Livedrive? Sometimes a castellated nut comes off the top shaft and can jam things.

Has it a transmission hand brake? These can break up and bits can jam.

Take the pulley/plate off and look inside the box, what happens when you move the lever?

Remove the selector plate near the clutch and look inside, what happens when you move the lever?

I never had mine apart. Brian has the right Idea. Best do what he says to get it sorted. Dandy Dave!

Its an early E1A with no live drive transmission brake or pulley I have taken the plate off by the clutch pedal and had a look at the shaft travels fine appears to travel fine up to the point where you try to get it into low it just becomes stiff I cant see any reason for this :s
thanks for the help so far

I take it you've not had all your gearbox oil drain out into the back end ??

I found a couple of feet of large bore hose forced over the trailer-pipe tapping on the lift valve with the other end into the gearbox filler restores the level in a few minutes ticking over with the lift lever up.

Not having had this problem I'm 'guessing' a bit, the only other variable I can think of is does it matter if the main gear lever is in neutral / forward / reverse ? although if it was a meshing problem at some point gears would be grinding.

Praps someone else knows if the hi low lever is keyed to the shaft, if not and the clevis had loosened, is it possible its now been re tightened not central to the shaft travel ?

Best of luck

The gearbox oil is all where it is meant to be just checked that I changed the gearbox oil and in the old oil there was no bits of metal bearings teeth etc just want to check low range is lever pushed up? correct?
thanks

Now you've asked one Just been driving mine too............

You said previously it was earlyish, pretty sure on a '58 Mk2 'straight' major, (not a Power or Super or Livedrive) Low ratio is up and High ratio is down

Confirmed - just checked the operators book - phew - driven it since I was about 8, long while since I had to think about it

Happy hunting

(oil in the right place, no bits of gear teeth or bearing floating about, must be lack of working clearance

Hi
I can't remember how the selector works on hi low shifter but you say it goes stiff what would happen if your tractor sat in high range. Some rust from condensation got on the selector shaft somewhere, or the lubrication dried out and gummed it up, and made it go tight to select . Unless you had a problem when you parked it and didn't know, thats the only thing I think that could change with nothing else happening mechanically .
I think on dead drive if that nut Brian talks about falls off, you loose drive completely. seem to remember a used major I picked up about 20 years ago had that problem when I got it running .
Regards Robert

As you have checked and found no obvious fault I would agree with Robert that you have condensation and rust on the shaft where the gear slides. I have had this happen myself many years ago but it is rare in England.

You need to go into the gear box through the side pulley plate and apply some pressure on the gear with a bar rather than pushing on the selector lever. Good thing is that, once the gear is free, you are back in action with very little repair costs.

Thanks Brian that does sound like a good plan will have a look tomorrow drained the oil out today the guy who had the tractor before me had never used the low range all it had done was pull a little trailer around so it being seized would make perfect sense also I have had the selector lever off to free off the ball joint and spring as this was rusted and seized thanks for the help and info will see what happens tomorrow

I had a look today and found the problem the locking tab holding the retaining nut on the belt pulley drive cog came off and the nut undone and the gear slid forward off the splines on the shaft stopping the high range gear sliding far enough to let the low range engage managed to fix it without splitting the tractor by using a brass drift to get the gear back onto the splines then I reset the tab washer and tightened the nut back on and it works nicely now the tractor doesn't actually have a pulley which is the annoying bit....thanks for all the advice guys

Well Done ! Thanks for the photo, may help someone in the future

Nice one funny thing to happen, those lock tabs are pretty reliable but its nice to find a solid fault with a solid remedy.