Hey folks,
Those of you that attended Massey Days last year probably saw my newly purchased MF 97 Diesel FWA (with live PTO!) being used to pull a truck and trailer out of the mud. Some of you may also know that after I got it home and was doing a ride 'n drive with some friends, the FWA axle locked-up on me. Turns out, it had no gear oil - completely dry.
I finally got around to working on in during the last month. The input pinion shaft was locked-up. It had trashed one of the carrier bearings, and also welded the pilot bearing to the end of the shaft. I had to get that end of the shaft machined down and a bushing installed to fit a new pilot bearing. My local dealer actually had the two pinion carrier bearings in stock, so I was lucky there!
Got it all put back together last Friday, and put 3 gallons of 85W-90 gear oil in it Saturday morning. Fired it up and drove it around a bit. All seems well now. It was such a nice day, I got the MF 97 LP FWA out and took a photo of the two of them together for the first time.
Now on to the next project on the list!