L245 transmission problems

[Far north]

First post on here, and first tractor. I have a 1978 L245 that I bought a year and a half ago. Has 2000 hours. I mainly use it for blowing snow with the front mount blower, and occasionally use rear brush mower and forks.
I have had no problems with it at all until a few months ago the clutch acted like it was going... Grinding, slipping etc. but was driveable.
Ordered and replaced disc, pressure plate, bearing and return spring. The old disc did not look too bad but the "fingers" on the old pressure plate were all loose and one was broken off.
Now my potentially boneheaded move was while my father in law and I were attempting to bolt the split tractor back together, lining up the splines into the disc, evidently we were off a bit, and due to lack of experience attempted to suck the halves together with the bolts. Well, it didn't want to go together and as I tightened the bolts, very tight at this point with about 3/8" gap still, it suddenly slammed up together.
Didn't sound too good but I hoped for the best and hooked up what I needed to test it out, adjusted clutch. When I had the engine running, in neutral, high/low selector in neutral all was ok. If I put the selector in low or high and let out clutch there's a terrible grinding. If I put tranny in gear and let out clutch tractor will move but with the constant loud grinding of gears.
So, I split it again to see what I may have messed up. Everything looked fine except i had dinged up the splines on the disc. Cleaned those up and all looked good. Bolted it all back up, using more care this time and went much easier. But same issue.

Could I have broken something in the tranny? Any ideas what to look for?
Also, does the rear PTO shaft always spin when clutch is released? I thought it did, but can't recall for sure. Still spins even with selector in neutral.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Russell King]

Can't help you with the first part, can only wish you luck on that.

The PTO shaft should not turn if it is in neutral. I think that some tractor's PTO will turn slowly due to some drag in the gears but if you put an implement on that usually stops it completely.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I bought a L3450 that had a similar problem as your stating.
The tolerances in the transmission are very tight, when it got forced together it's very possible that it has done some internal damage to either the case, bearings, or shift forks.
When something gives inside the transmission it can cause the gears to rub together and cause the PTO shaft to not work right, or could just cause them to stay engaged all the time, no matter the position of the shifter.

I would start with pulling the top of the transmission off (shifters and forks) and look for damage.

 

[Far north]

Thanks for the replies. First off, the PTO shaft spins now whether its in neutral or not and does not seem to want to go into 3rd at all without grinding. Wolfman, I have a feeling your right that some sort of internal damage has been done. I'll tear into the top in the next day or so. I hope whatever is broke is obvious.

 

[ipz2222]

Youre broke/damaged parts are more than likely in the clutch assy. The other possiblity is you've split the front bearing on the trans. Most transmissions have a front cover on them that is removable. The front bearing will be behind that. Keep pressure on the input shaft as you remove the cover, if it slides fwd, parts of the syncronizer assy can fall out of place. If it's the bearing, it will be split right behind the large snap ring. That part of the bearing may fall out when you pull the front cover off.