F Cub - Dropped ball bearing in gearbox while cleaning

[BigBill]

Magnet on a tele stick your going fishing. Search around the gears it’s hiding. Maybe have to pull the pto?

[Eugene]

I'll pick up a magnetic probe and mirror tomorrow, and see where that takes me. I'll also strain the drained fluid to see if the ball fell down the funnel.

Magnet on a stick in the drained oil, no need to strain it. Just have to wipe off the magnet when done fishing.

[wrz]

The ball bearing could be in the rear part of the housing. I drained one of my cubs trany be cause of water and put my finger in the drain plug hole to check for sediment and felt an object. A magnet found a tooth from a gear.
Wm

[chuck ma]

I have lost the ball before also but was able to retrieve just by draining the transmission and the ball fell into the oil drain pan. Also after draining and the ball does not fall out, if you have very strong magnet, drag it along the bottom of the case and pull it towards the drain hole the ball should follow the magnet.
Chuck

[Jim Becker]

Magnet on a tele stick your going fishing. Search around the gears it’s hiding. Maybe have to pull the pto?

I've never had any luck using a magnet on a stick (or rod or whatever) inside a transmission. The magnet will latch onto a gear, or the housing, or anything it gets close to before you can get it down to where a loose part might be. If you manage to get it near the bottom, it will grab the bottom of a gear. If the magnet does grab the loose piece, it will probably be knocked back off while you try to get free of the gear.

It is part of the ritual to try the magnet, but I've never seen it actually accomplish anything. It can be effective going in through a drain hole.

[BigBill]

Put electrical tape around the body of the magnet extending the tape about 1/8” past the tip of the magnet so it can’t grab any metal but the ball.

[Jim Becker]

Put electrical tape around the body of the magnet extending the tape about 1/8” past the tip of the magnet so it can grab and metal but the ball.

I'll have to try that next time I go through the ritual. Hopefully that won't be soon but soon enough to still remember the idea.

[BigBill]

I been fishing before when customers pull the main shaft out of a tranny and the input shaft needle bearings fall out in the tranny.

[ajhbike]

I bought an endoscope for my phone and it works well for going down deep to see around...it was around $40. Locating things is the first thing, then retrieval

[halftonstude]

when i rebuilt the tranny on my 52 i found a ball and a broken ear off one of the shift forks. the oil doesn't get pumped around, it's just splashing, because both balls were in place, and it appears the PO replaced one of the balls and shift forks after it broke as i found the pieces in the bottom. of course with the transmission on the bench it's easy to roll it over and get parts to fall out, but for the times i drove it before i rebuit it, there were no issues. i found a coat hanger with a curved L or J shape on the bottom was good for moving the stuff around the bottom when i was first searching through the shifter cover with the fluid gone, and the bottom is fat so it can get moved and sit there. I removed my ball with one of those three point grabber things with the plunger thing on the end... kind of like a spring loaded choke handle thing with three spring steel grabbers on the end for picking up small items that fall down in tiny places. that got the extra ball out, i found the shift fork ear after i flipped it over...
c

[ptss88]

Sorry for the long delay, but I successfully retrieved the poppet ball and got everything cleaned, tweaked and reassembled.

It ended up being more involved than I anticipated, because the poppet ball rolls downhill through a hole to the differential housing. I was able to retrieve it almost right away using a magnetic snake I got from an auto parts store, with a flexible cable instead of a telescoping shaft.

Unfortunately, I dropped the poppet ball again while trying to use tacky grease and a nail to reset the sliding rod for the gear selector. The second time I dropped the ball, it got caught under a gear, then rolled loose when I rocked the tractor in neutral, and rolled downhill to the differential again.

This time, while snaking the retrieval magnet through the fluid fill port on top of the diff, I actually got the cable snake caught in the differential gears, and had to remove the PTO shaft and differential cover plates to unjam the snake and retrieve the ball.

I'm providing a link to a photograph of the rear view of the open diff, to show the area where pooling fluid collects, even when the drain plug is removed. That little pool is the area where the poppet ball settled.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mt5SUP ... p=drivesdk

Also, I did pick up one of those spring-loaded claw type snakes, as well, but the magnet worked better for me, since I was working blind in those spaces. I never was able to get a visual on that ball, even with a mirror.

When I did ultimately get the poppet ball seated, I used tacky grease and a punch tool, because the smoothly tapered end allowed me the catch the ball under the sliding rod as I reseated it in the hole.

A lot of very valuable tips came from responses from this forum, and I'm more optimistic about getting the cub back into better condition knowing that there is a community with knowledge to help new people fix old problems.

I was able to cut new gaskets and reseal everything, but lining up the PTO lever with the sliding collar on the PTO shaft stressed me out, as the working time on the gasket maker was front and center in my mind.

Long story short, I appreciate the simplicity and beauty of the gearbox and differential design a lot more now that I've had a look at them, since I never really had to think about them before.

I had to do some minor tweaking of the bracket engaged by the gear stick during gear selection, because it was slightly bent, and caused some misalignment of the neutral position.

Other than that, everything looked good, once I got the milky looking puke out of the gear box, blew all the gunk out of the nooks and crannies, and rinsed it with diesel additive and ATF (because that's what I had on hand to flush it). I resealed everything, applied tacky grease to the gear stick cap to help keep water out, refilled the gearbox with gear oil, and closed it up.

After I fired the tractor up, drove it around a little, and tested the PTO function, it seems like everything is working much better than before, and like I even gained some power while running the hammer knife mower.

The oil leak that appears to be coming from the rear main seal is the next issue I need to address, since it is too fast for me to want to use the tractor for chores.

[ptss88]

P.S.

I did also cycle the hydraulics several times with each fluid change.