The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi all
although the lift arms on my 1959 Dexta have worked ok they have clearly been bodged over the years and I have:

- Bolts running through both top linkage knuckles instead of clevis pins
20180425_114311[1] by Michael Jones, on Flickr

- Instead of a bush there is a huge what looks like a trailer pin holding the rocker bracket to the rear axle which is jammed in solid
20180425_114254[1] by Michael Jones, on Flickr
- The paint on one of the arm assemblies has worn off revealing yellow paint i.e. what now looks to be an 'industrial model' part?
20180425_114303[1] by Michael Jones, on Flickr

I ordered what I thought are new clevis pins from Agriline (part no. 4126) as the local agricultural place is a distributor but these don't fit through the knuckles (inserted left to right not back to front) as they are slightly too wide which may explain the large bolts. Is there a reason these clevis pins don't fit?

Just as an aside I also ordered a new rocker bush but they sent a complete rocker (part number 4213 - if you enter this into Agriline's search it brings up the bush as a search result but I just noticed it calls it 5459 which is where I went wrong as the Agriline search is a bit wonky.

How on earth do I get that big trailer pin out of the rocker - should I cut my losses and cut the damn thing off and replace the rocker?
Have I got the part number wrong for the clevis pins?

hi , im sure you have tried wd 40 or some other penatrating fluid if , but it may be a case of letting it soak
for a time , if that a fails if you have a welder and weld around the pin,out a bit from the knuckle the heat might travel through the pin
and help to free it enough to tap it out, the other method is drill a hole up the middle of pin but be careful if you have to do it this way
all this working with it will eventually release it , dont go in thumping with a lump hammer or some thing
may break or crack , it will jut take a bit of time but it went in so it should come out good luck

Mike,

part number 4126 is listed with this measurement: Clevis Pin 5/8" Ø x 2. 29/32". Have you checked it with the one you have received? I'm usually cross reference parts with other suppliers, to see if dimensions are right, because sometimes they mess up.

As for the big trailer pin: as they have put it in there, it must be possible to get it out. Penetrating oil (WD40) a hammer and sometimes a lot of heating has worked well for me on a couple of these things. Maybe you can try to carefully turn it by putting a big pipe on the handle.

Thanks both, I will try heating and a piece of pipe on the rocker bush bodge. I tried tapping it with a hammer but no joy and didn't want to welly it in case I broke the casing.
I checked the clevis pin diameter with a vernier and it is exactly 5/8" and that's what it says it should be in the parts manual. This raises the question as to whether the link arm/knuckle is the wrong diameter but that would be weird. I'm seen several restorations which have new clevis pins installed so there must be a solution. I'm going to take the LH bolt out tomorrow and see if the clevis will fit through that one. On the RH one the hole is only a smidge too narrow.

Well I tried hammering the LH knuckle bolt, heating it, plusgas, heat, plusgas, hammer, repeat but gave up as it just wouldn't budge. It needed something more industrial so I dismantled the left hand linkage and took the offending knuckle joint with solidly attached lift arm to a local metal bashers (an experience to say the least - I was half expecting the guys from Shed & Buried to be rummaging around in there, but he was very very helpful). He heated it to red hot with a gas torch and bashed it but it wouldn't budge so he cut both ends of the bolt off and put it under a 10,000 psi press and after a couple of scary moments when his improvised drifts either bent or flew across the workshop, the stuck bolt finally succumbed!

So, all's I need to do now is to get the 5/8" clevis pins to fit through the lift arms and knuckles and also remove the equally stuck trailer pin from the rocker.... To be honest the pins almost fit and I'm sure with a bit of cleaning up of the holes and a bit of grease they may tap in, but it's not something I'm happy about; my idea of a clevis is that it simply pushes in. The existing LH front to back (bottom of knuckle) clevis pin spins fine in its knuckle hole.

Progress! Thanks to the above advice a friend came round with a substantial piece of pipe and off it came!

20180504_171952[1] by Michael Jones, on Flickr

Unfortunately the bush stayed firmly in place so this is a job for tomorrow.

20180504_172001[1] by Michael Jones, on Flickr

As for the lift arm problem once I had dismantled the left hand arm and had the bolt removed I compared it to the right hand lift arm (where the bolt just slid out) and low and behold my hunch was correct; the right hand lift arm isn't from a Dexta - it's more likely to be off a MF135 Industrial (note the square top along the shaft below) hence probably why the person who did this used bolts instead of clevis pins.

20180504_165439[1] by Michael Jones, on Flickr

I am looking at replacing at least one, if not both, lift arms plus the rocker, but before I do can anyone tell me if these lift arms are supposed to have bushes in the fork holes? Take a look at these pictures and you will see that the front hole doesn't have a bush (probably came out in the press) and the new clevis is too small for the hole, but the other hole does have a bush and the clevis fits fine. The parts manual doesn't show the link arms unless I've missed something?

20180504_165349[1] by Michael Jones, on Flickr

20180504_165405[1] by Michael Jones, on Flickr

Mike the lift arms are supposed to have bushes fitted in them. I ordered mine from my local NH dealer and they were quite expensive at £9.63 each so it was a total of £38.52 plus the dreaded V.A.T. The NH part number for them is NH81718786.

Mike I also forgot to say I had the same problem with my rocker bush in that someone had mashed a pin which was seized in mine. I ended up having to cut the pin flush with the rocker bracket and bought a new pin which I used as a drift to remove the remainder of the pin and then the bush. I soaked everything in WD40 over a period of a week before trying to remove them and finally managed with some perseverance. I have the part number for the rocker bush somewhere which I will give to you once I find it amongst my many receipts.

Mike, top rocker bush from Mayhill Tractors, product code 650 for £5.95.
When I fitted my new rocker bush I coated the outer of the bush with copper grease to help it slide into place as it is a very tight fit.
The new rocker bracket that I purchased from Agriline I had to grind the bottom face to shape it properly as it was fouling against the rear axle casing and would not sit properly but only needed a minor adjustment but was annoying all the same.

Thanks a lot Charlie, I tried a cobbled together press using a 10" x 1/2" coach bolt and 2 sockets and a breaker bar but the bolt just sheared, so it really needs a high tensile nut and bolt but I can't easily get one. I will persevere with the plusgas and meanwhile try a new hacksaw blade (my old one did manage to create a cut).

cheers
Mike

Charlie
When you say you purchased a new pin - what pin was this as there is no pin supposed to in the rocker bush?

Did you use heat at all? If so how did you apply it?

I am getting nowhere despite loads of plusgas and walloping a socket drift and today a top link pin (which just started to buckle)

thanks

Mike

MikesDexta wrote:Charlie
When you say you purchased a new pin - what pin was this as there is no pin supposed to in the rocker bush?

Did you use heat at all? If so how did you apply it?

I am getting nowhere despite loads of plusgas and walloping a socket drift and today a top link pin (which just started to buckle)

thanks

Mike

Mike,

To remove bushes and outer races of bearings I use a stick arc welder. I do some welding on the inside of the bush. The welding causes the bush to shrink a tiny little bit.
You don't have to be a good welder to do this job
As a picture says more:

Thanks Mathias but I don't have an arc welder. I've never done any welding since college but always fancied giving it a go. Sadly I have more pressing (pardon the pun) things to spend my money on such as the recently discovered rogue lift arm.

I will get the Dexta going now (just needs a fuel primer leak fixing and a final check over) and take her up to the local metal bashers and see if they can try your suggestion.

much appreciated

Mike

Mike if you dont have access to any form of heating/welding buy some new hacksaw blades and enter a blade through the bush and refit it to the hacksaw. Make at least 2 cuts along the bush. I know it will take a bit of effort but if make a few cuts through the bush it should come out with a gentle bit of persuasion. I bought a Cat 1 pin and turned down the head of it to just slightly less than the external diameter of the new bush and then inserted this into the old bush and used it as a drift. It took a fair bit of effort to move it initially but once I had it moving it came out no problem.

Thanks Charlie, I've used 2 new blades and managed to cut the bush twice but it still won't budge so I need to take it up the metal bashers now.

On the subject of the lift arm and bushes - I phoned a New Holland dealer and he said NH81718786 is the part number for the bush and they come in pairs at £20 + vat so I will order 2. However the lift arm is no longer available so I'm resigned to ringing around breakers.

Mike

Mike,
I would have thought making a couple of cuts along the bush would have made it easy to remove. It must be well seized in there. Heres hoping that the metal bashers are able to remove it for you without causing any damage.
Thats around the same price as what I paid for my arm bushes. When you actually see them its pretty expensive for all you get.
Now for your arms. They are hard to come by now and when I did my hydraulic lift the arms had to be cut off and they had been bodge weld repaired as well and in really poor condition along with the crosshaft. Rob( Dungatherer) very kindly let me have a pair of very good arms and a crosshaft for the price of the postage which was very decent of him but Brian Dye also kindly offered me arms as he said he had a complete spare hydraulic top so its maybe worth asking Brian if he still has them. Goodluck.