Front axle overhaul

[LesLock]

Doing some maintenance on the front axle of my Super Major threw up a few questions and points of interest. The first challenge was to undo the 6 nuts on the stub axles. Tried heat, WD40, etc and finally resorted to a slogging spanner which made short work of that task. The next challenge is to get the bolts out (because it would make fitting the bushes easier and I wanted to move the wheels out for stability). Again I tried the usual methods and in the end I drove a chisel between the stub and fixed axles which frees the bolts in the fixed axle. Still had to get the bolts free in the stub axle and used hardwood against the protruding thread and hit with a sledge hammer. This took considerable effort and time but I was able to reuse all bolts.

There is some confusion about whether kingpin bushes require reaming. Mine did. Fortunately I had bought a reamer the previous week at the Bath & West Tractor Show. Also, some bushes have grease grooves but as these were a bit scarce I got the ones with dimples on the interior. A local engineer told me that bushes with grease grooves were not fitted back in the day when these tractors were current. Does it starve the bushes & thrust bearing of grease? Anyone know more about this issue?

Fitted the bushes using a threaded bar with nuts and washers at each end then reamed them with the stub axles fitted to the tractor. Fitted new kingpins, new wheel bearings and put wheels back on. I noticed a difference in the distance from steering arms to tyres on each side and thought of the kingpin splines issue I had read about on this forum.

Next challenge is to extend the track rod which was set at its shortest length. There is a small hole in the middle of the bar which accepted WD40. I tried heating it, hammering it from the ends, and twisting it with some hefty bars. In the end I took it to a friend who put it in a vice and reckoned he just twisted them out! When I put the track rod in place the wheels were definitely out of alignment. I was about to return the kingpins on the basis of poor manufacture. My son had a look at it with me and with a bit of hammering of the bolt at the top of one of the kingpins the tracking now looks reasonable but appears to be toeing-in a little. Not drove it yet but steering is less sloppy now. I still wonder about the Kingpin quality and have read of various methods to bring the tracking into alignment to compensate for kingpin issues. I was told that some parts are manufactured from a copy but that many of the drawings still exist at Dagenham.

Working on this old machinery requires perseverance, ingenuity and patience to achieve a satisfactory result, especially if you have limited resources and tooling, and in order to avoid further work and costs. Next job could be a steering box overhaul. I do appreciate owning a Fordson Major though. Many thanks for reading and I look forward to any replies.

[Billy26F5]

Sounds like quite a battle, Super Billy's tie rod was also quite a fight to dismantle, but it sounds like your axle has been given a harder time. The repro bushes are wrong, the original ones were E27N-3109 (upper, with a blind grove) and E27N-3110 (lower with a through groove). As far as lubrication goes these new ones are far worse as the bearing is starved for ages and the bushes are for the most part too. They should always be reamed, so getting the reamer was a good move. Are you sure the spindle arms are positioned correctly? Remember that they should be at 0.025" from the extension with the rubber seal, and the bolt as tight as possible. Some tie rods (like Super Billy's) aren't as precise with the 0 toe in figure, so adjusting a few thou at both tie rod ends might sort that. The drag link is probably worth adjusting again (assuming it's the early type) as there's often play there.
Major's are always good fun to fix and use!
Sandy