Looking for a little help. I am like Buda last year and want to put a narrow front on my 40 PD.. I have the wide front off and the shafts apart. Found a 30 narrow front and the cast pedistal bolts right up. The holes in the pedistall will need to be re-drilled to fit the tower. Looks like I will have to cut the shaft in the tower off and field fab a coupling to marry up to the shaft in the narrow front.Does anyone have helpful hints with this! Thanks
I would try to get the pedestal that goes with the narrow front and save yourself a lot of unnecessary work, I'm sure someone out there has one reasonable.I don't know if you have been on the yesterday's tractor site, but I am sure you would find a lead on one there if not here.post on the oliver/cockshutt forum,good luck.
The 30 and 40 used the same pedestal. I think the 30 steering gear and the 40 tower will bolt right on but the shaft of the narrow front is one piece top to bottom. Wide fronts have a two piece shaft with a splined coupling. mab is right, easiest to find the parts and swap them out. I tried to attach pages from the parts books but not working. Send my your email and I'll get them to you. I'll look at my e4 and post back later today.
-- Edited by Mike(NEOhio) on Sunday 23rd of March 2014 08:31:04 AM
Looking for a little help. I am like Buda last year and want to put a narrow front on my 40 PD.. I have the wide front off and the shafts apart. Found a 30 narrow front and the cast pedistal bolts right up. The holes in the pedistall will need to be re-drilled to fit the tower. Looks like I will have to cut the shaft in the tower off and field fab a coupling to marry up to the shaft in the narrow front.Does anyone have helpful hints with this! Thanks
Alrighty then dano,hold on because this is going to be a long story.I'm glad I checked out the posts as I've just finished my wide to narrow swap and it's fresh in my mind.What I started with was the correct 40/50 narrow front housing.It's cast part # starts with TG-****.I was told by someone who should know that the 30's housing is a little shorter(1-1/2 to 2") and it's part # starts with just T-****.Does this make since with what your part # is? I do believe as stated here that the 40 tower would bolt up to the 30 but don't know for sure since the 30's have no tower.Perhaps the steering box which I believe bolts directly to the 30's housing uses the same bolt pattern as the 40's tower?That would be nice.
What I do know is that the 40/50 wide front shaft is one piece and it runs from the box atop the tower down through the wide front pivot housing.Both ends have splines and threads that are the same.The bottom end accepts the pitman arm which is secured by a nut.The top accepts the steering gear which is also secured by a nut.
After removing the wide front,I supported the housing upside down with the shaft hanging between two benchs before removing the pitman arm.My goal was to get an accurate measurement of the shaft from where the tower would mount on the housing to the threaded end.I came up with 29-5/16 ".
Then I measured the 30 narrow spindle shaft to see how much it protruded above it's narrow pedestal where the tower would now bolt to.The goal was to make sure I cut the proper amount off the long shaft to ensure the 29-5/16 measurement after joining the two shafts.Just to complicate things,I cut 2" off the end of the 30 shaft and left 2 extra " on the long shaft making it now 31-5/16.Now the joint would be 2" down inside the pedestal housing.The reason for this was the 30 shaft had no threads but did have several inches of spline before I could couple on to an accurate turned down area that would hold a coupler truer then just spline.
Now I had to make a coupler to join the two shafts.I first turned down the newly cut end of the long shaft 3" from the end to match the factory turned end of the 30's shaft.I think it was 1-3/8" dia..Then I made the coupler 6" long and bored it through to give a press fit to the shafts.You need to keep the O.D. of the coupler under 1-3/4" as this is the size of the lower housing bushing.The entire joined shaft needs to pass up through this lower bushing when installing it.I then heated the coupler and pressed it on to the long shaft first until it bottomed out,knowing it was on the full 3".I then welded it to the shaft,first tacking it in 4 places 90 degrees apart to keep it true with the shaft(hopefully). Then I marked the 30 shaft 3" from the splined end to know when the shafts were butted up tight and again heated the coupler to add with joining the two shafts.After a few pile drives on a piece of wood on the floor,the shafts joined tightly together and I completely welded them together.I also cross drilled the coupler through the area where the shaft ends join and pressed in a hardened 3/8 dowel that was short enough to allow me to plug weld both sides of the coupler.You don't want this joint to come apart.
When I was all done,all my efforts to keep the shaft true paid off as it installed and works perfect.I wanted to be sure,if I was off a little in my measurements to know the shaft was plenty long.Shims can be added under the top gear to take up too much up and down play.My original shaft had two .010 shims.I left these out with my first new shaft install,tightened down the top shaft nut and had just .005 end play.I couldn't be that lucky again in a hundred try's.There is plenty of room for shims though if needed as the bottom thrust washer wears.
To echo advice already given by others though,try to find the correct narrow front to fit the 40/50.As this long post implies,this is a lot of work.I was able to do this myself as I work in a machine shop.The machining and joining work took about 4hrs.I also have a extra wide front parts tractor to use the long shaft from.I wouldn't chance ruining my one and only shaft in case I screwed up.I changed mine to loose weight for pulling.I won my first lighter class pull with it by 20+'.It made all the work worth while.If anyone needs a excellent complete standard wide front from hubs to power steering,including pump/gen bracket let me know.
If you'd like to give me a call for any other info on this swap,I'll help all I can.8026853896.Good Luck
