The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Has anyone an idea of what this is - it fell out the gearbox drain plug when I changed the oil.
Gearbox works fine in all gears so I'm not concerned (unless someone tells me I should be) just interested.

http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo40 ... age048.jpg
http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo40 ... age049.jpg

Regards
Andy

Nevis,
That appears to me, to be part of a bearing, was there anything else that came out with the oil? You might want to stick a magnet up in the drainage hole to feel around a bit. If this is indeed part of a bearing, then it would pay you to have a look at your transmission to head off a costly problem. Bearings are quite expensive over here, and gears are hard to come by.

Bearings are cheep comparing to the cost of not changing them in time.

Thanks for replies - I am now concerned!
Nothing else came out - if it was a bearing would you expect any other symptoms eg noise or difficulty in engaging gear? Obviously the only sure way is to inspect the transmission but I'm just trying to gauge how terminal this might be.

Regards
Andy

Andy,

It is part of the bearing cage that holds the balls in place. At the moment the balls are most likely still in the two races but instead of being equally spaced, they are free and will become clustered on one side. Loading will cause the shaft the bearing it is on to flex and this may release the balls into the gears doing major damage.

This has not happened yet, that is why you have no other symptoms but it may happen at any time. It is possible that there are no other bits at this time.

Cheers for the advice - I'll investigate and let you know.