1977, B7100 front drive shaft removal

[procraftmike]

I looked through the service manual that I printed, but I am not seeing any instructions on how to remove the front drive shaft on this gear drive tractor. I want to take the shaft down to inspect all the U-joints and to see where that shaft spline to coupling play is coming from and how to resolve it.

From what I can see the couplings are held onto the splined shafts by roll pins. How many of those would I need to drive out to remove the shaft? I know I need to remove the cover and such from the back side of the differential. I am guessing there are shaft roll pins to remove there as well. This tractor has the B219 FEL on it, which limits some of the accessibility. Can I get the front drive shaft down with out having to remove the FEL frame, the front axle or splitting the tractor?

Thanks!!

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Geared and HST are essentially the same parts.

You will need to get to and remove the roll pins (in yellow) on the front and rear yokes, there are no couplings on this model.

It's also possible that you will have to remove the front axle and yes possibly the FEL and sub frame in order to remove or get access to the drive shaft.

 

[procraftmike]

Thanks NIW. I believe there is enough room to get the shaft down, with the FEL installed. I just wasn't sure how much movement would result, to get the yokes off of the splines, once the roll pins where removed from the yokes. I guess I could always remove the additional yoke pins, which should provide even more movement, in order to remove it from the tractor.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Thanks NIW. I believe there is enough room to get the shaft down, with the FEL installed. I just wasn't sure how much movement would result, to get the yokes off of the splines, once the roll pins where removed from the yokes. I guess I could always remove the additional yoke pins, which should provide even more movement, in order to remove it from the tractor.

You really won't gain much via removing the other roll pins as the shafts don't really slide in the yokes.
The best and easiest bet is drop the front axle out and move it forward if you need more room.

 

[procraftmike]

You really won't gain much via removing the other roll pins as the shafts don't really slide in the yokes.
The best and easiest bet is drop the front axle out and move it forward if you need more room.

Well, the reason I say this, is I can see an area of shaft splines on the shaft, behind the upper yoke. I assume once I remove the roll pins, that the yoke can slide down the shaft further, possibly allowing enough room for the other end to drop free. Well, maybe in a perfect world...lol