Bringing the Tractor Home
AKA: moving the wheels in to fit on the trailer!

-- click on links to see pics -- use back button to return to text. --

Lesson One: When going 200 miles to haul a tractor home, first make sure its wheels are not too wide for the trailer!
They were set almost all the way out on the axles. I should have known better from the pictures I'd taken.

 

Sure enough -- On Friday Jan 30 I pulled a nice wide tandem-axle car-hauling trailer -- which I'd borrowed from Forest -- 200 miles up to Memphis to get the tractor. But once there I soon realized the tractor wheels were set at 84 inches, whereas the trailer was only 81 inches between the fenders (over the axles where the weight needed to sit). So -- either I'd need a wider trailer, or I'd have to move the rear wheels in some to use the one I had. Since I was already there, I tried to get the clamp collar off the left wheel. I got the three bolts out and threaded two into the extractor holes. But that was as far as it was going. The clamp collar wouldn't budge. Obviously, it was going to require more equipment than I had with me that day to move the wheels. So I gave up on actually getting the tractor on the trailer for hauling back. Still, I could check if the ramps and come-along I had were adequate to even get the tractor up the ramps onto the trailer. Since the tractor isn't running, and I didn't have a power winch, I thought that would be a good thing to verify before making another serious "planning error". So I "half" loaded the tractor that Friday, which proved to me that if I could get the wheels in some, I actually could load the tractor on the trailer. So much for the first try. I drove the 200 miles home to Huntsville.

I wasn't able to find a wider trailer for the price -- a free loaner. So I resolved myself to having to set the wheels in some so I could use Forest's trailer.

I got online to get some advice from Meli. Basically, if one needs to slide a wheel in on the axle, first one is going to have to pull it entirely OFF the axle, then clean and deburr the axle and hub in order to get the hub sliding free on the splined wheel shaft. Since I figured these wheels hadn't been moved in a couple of decades, and since I couldn't even get the collar off, it was obvious that Meli was right -- this was going to be a BIG job. Fortunately, Meli had offered good advice on how to make a puller. I emailed Meli's co-instructor (Gene) to get the exact dimensions for a puller. Then I drew it up to have a machine shop make one for me. Marshall Precision in Arab did that for me gratis. The result was  a 1.5" x 8" steel wheel puller plate with three 7/8" holes spaced at 120 degrees on a 6.25" diameter circle. Through these holes I inserted 8" long 3/4 -10 high strength bolts which would thread into the hub using the bolt holes that the clamping collar bolts into it. I also had a set of 12" 3/4 bolts made from some all-thread with nuts welded on the end. (If the hubs had been set much further in on the shaft I would have needed even longer bolts, say 18". Also, per Gene's recommendation I put second set of holes in the puller plate on a 5.5" diameter circle, which works for some older B's he says.)

While the shop was making the puller, I started collecting the tools I thought I would need: 1/2 sockets, wrenches, etc. (oh well might as well just put the whole tool chest in), 2' and 4' pipe for cheater bars for my socket drive, sledge hammers, crow bar, a couple of propane torches, an oxy-acetyline torch, brazing rods, a foldup Workmate work stand. Jack stands, blocking, hydralic jack, wire brush, drill with wire brush, grinding wheel, extension cord, files, 3/4-10 tap, rust-busting juice (PBlaster), anti-seize grease, spray lithium grease, gloves -- and my camera.



On Saturday, Feb 21 I was able to make another attempt. Friday evening I loaded everything into my Surburban, hooked up the trailer, and went to bed early. Got up at 3:30 and left at 4:00 to get to Collierville about 7:30. Went by Andy's house where the tractor was, unhooked the trailer, squirted the hubs down with PBlaster, and went into town to get some breakfast. Back at 8:15 I started on getting the collar off.

I was only going to attempt to move one wheel in enough to get it on the trailer. Meli had well advised that one wheel a day was more than enough of a job. But then Meli had also suggested I was semi-crazy to attempt a rusty wheel pull job "on location" away from the security of my shop. So call me crazy.

I got out the 1 1/16" socket and pry bar with a four foot cheater pipe on it and started trying to break the collar loose from the hub. I had already removed the three bolts last time and put two of the bolts into the extractor holes. Those were what I was trying to get to budge. No luck. So next I fired up the two propane torches to heat the collar. That did it. Off popped the collar. Okay. This is going better today -- it was only 8:30. The sun was warming things up. I peeled my coat off down to a tee-shirt and examined the situation.  The next step was to unbolt the wheel from the hub (notice that one bolt is already out in this pic) so I could lean the wheel in against the drive case to just work on getting the hub itself off. There are six square-head bolts that hold the wheel to the hub. JD designed the hub casting so that the square heads would "lock" into the casting while the hex nuts on the back of the wheel are being loosened. Alas -- time has worked so that the square-heads no longer locked against the hub. But that design also meant that there was almost no room to get a tool onto the square heads to hold the bolt. Finally, I rumaged through the tool box and found an open-end 22mm metric crow-foot socket head that I could just wedge onto the bolt head and between the bolt and casting. It would lock the bolt's square head against the casting allowing me to break the hex nut free on the other side of the wheel. This took about an hour to get the six bolts out because nealy every turn would cause the 22mm crow-foot socket to fall off while I was on the back of the wheel turning the hex nut. An extra pair of hands would have been mighty handy, but that I hadn't brought any with me. And no-one else was up at Andy's place until I gotten the first three bolts out. Then Andy came out to give a hand which made getting the last three out much faster. Once the hex nuts were off, each bolt came out easily. I'd seen at Meli's school  that others had had trouble with these bolts being rusted in as well, but that wasn't the case this time. I took that as a good sign. We moved the wheel off the hub to lean against the case -- wow -- that fellow was HEAVY!  Really glad to have Andy helping now.

It was about 9:30. Still going good. Now for the hub itself.

I got out the custom made puller and 3/4 tap. First I chased the threaded holes in the hub with the tap. Then threaded in the 8" bolts through the puller into the hub bolt holes. We began tightening up and continuing to soak in the PBlaster. Before long the hub started moving out. Soon we had to change to the all-thread bolts because the 8" high strength bolts were only threaded for about the first three inches. But they had done the hard part by getting things moving. Andy said he'd bought commercial tools that didn't work as well as this puller. (He works in an auto repair shop.) But the hub was just about out to the end of the axle. So, we also put a 5" piece of 2" pipe nipple on the end of the axle to give the extra length needed to pull the hub completely off the axle. This was a mistake. The idea is right, but the pipe nipple was too fragile. Meli recommends a piece of old axle which would carry the load fine, but I misunderstood and thought Meli meant axle from a JD-B. I was afraid using that would itself bind up in the hub -- plus I didn't have any. I should'a listened to Meli. What Meli meant was to get a piece of solid axle such as from a car or truck which is smaller but plenty stout. That would have avoided the following problem. As we continued to pull, the pipe nipple actually crushed inside the hub and spread out, jamming itself up into the splines so that nothing was moving easy any more. We didn't realize at first what was happening so we tried  heating the hub and that helped get it off a little more before we realized the nipple was actually binding the hub. By that time we had the hub about half off the axle. We removed the puller and the crushed  pipe nipple, then drove some wedges into the hub grooves which Andy's grandfather suggested and tapped the back of the hub with a hammer. It slid right off.  Life is good.



Inspecting the axle showed significant rust pitting where the hub had been located. I wire-brushed and ground the splines smooth with the electric brush and grinder, and filed out the inner splines in the hub. ( I used the Workmate to hold the hub while working on it with a file and wire brush.) Then greased the axle and hub with anti-seize graphite grease. Drove some wedges back into the hub slots and it slid right on with some gentle taps from the hammer. Life is very good.

Then we mated the wheel back up to the hub and reinserted the square head bolts. I think these should be replaced when possible. Warning: the wheel and hub have to be oriented correctly or the holes won't all match up. So we had to take the first bolt out, realign to get all the holes matched, then put in the six square head bolts. A little careful jack work here made matching the holes to the wheel easier. We tightened up the square heads using the same 22mm open-end socket wrench head as before. However, we elected to not bother with putting the collar back on at this time. I will have to move the other wheel once I get it home, at which time I'll want to move this wheel back out some from where we set it into today, so the tractor will be centered. So I left the collar off for now. (It was okay on the trailer that way, but one shouldn't be driving the tractor around without the collar on tight. ) It was about noon. Not bad, I'd say, for a crazy man and his plan! (Andy's grandfather asked with a grin, "Want to go ahead a do the other wheel?"  Absolutely not. Andy and I were both just about beat. Meli was right, one wheel a day is plenty.)

We loaded the tractor on the trailer pretty easily. We pulled the front wheel up a ramp in the center. Then we moved the ramps out to pull up the rear wheels. Andy did most of the cranking on the come-along for me while I pushed from behind. I was about wupped. We postioned the tractor on the trailer to balance the weight so most of it was on the trailer axles, but still enough foward to keep weight on the tongue, to keep the rig from swaying. Chained her down with my new Tractor Supply chains and pull-over bars. Took a couple more pictures of  me (Hill) and Andy with the tractor. Then hit the road about 1:00 pm.

Found that I could easily tow the rig at about 60 mph. Checked the chains and rebalanced the load a bit. Sitting pretty on the trailer -- look at those nice new front chains!! and the  rear chain. (Notice that the right wheel is still out near the end of the axle.)



The rig was a pretty easy pull back to Huntsville. I really appreciated the electric brakes on the trailer with that extra 4000 pounds of tractor behind me on the way back. After stopping at MickeyD's for some lunch and pulling over for a 45 minute nap, I got back to Huntsville about 7:00pm.  Carol came out to see the "new" tractor and appropriately oohed and ahhed at it for me. A good woman there.