left rear wheel locks up

[bud29376]

put new seals in left and right finals two days ago. backed tractor off pad, drove around for a bit, parked left setting for a day. backed tractor up then pulled onto trailer. traveled 300 miles home and now left rear wheel locks up in reverse at a certain point. can roll forward and backwards, just when it gets to a certain point it locks up. can not unload from trailer account wheel locking up in reverse. What should I be looking for. I know I will need to jack up and possibly remove the final again. Any suggestion on what I should be looking for?

[challenger]

Since you have some movement fore and aft, it seems like something may have gotten into one of the gear teeth.

[Dale Finch]

Did you do anything to the brakes?

[Eugene]

I'm assuming the tractor will not roll with the transmission in neutral.

Trying to isolate the problem. Check before going through the effort of removing the left final.

Jack up the right rear tire. Transmission in neutral, rotate the right rear tire forward several wheel revolutions. Then rotate the tire backwards several revolutions. If the right rear wheel turns the problem is not in the differential and probably not in the transmission.

Remove the transmission cover and check the shifting forks and gears. If the problem were in transmission both tires would lock up.

Loosen the left brake rod.

[gitractorman]

Eugene hit on something that you may be overlooking. If something is caught in the differential, or if the tractor is stuck in a gear, it may look like the left wheel is locking up, but it may actually be the entire driveline. If you can, block the front end, wheels and shims in the bolster, and keep the front of the tractor strapped/chained to the trailer. Get the back tires up off the deck of the trailer, even if it's just a half inch, enough that you can turn them by hand. Then you should be able to isolate the problem. With the tires in the air, normally, in neutral the tires will spin independently. If the tractor is in a gear, the rear tires will spin opposite of each other, because the differential is locked in gear, and the tires are spinning on the differential. This should tell you where the problem is, as Eugene describes.

[Jim Becker]

Challenger is probably right. Go through the tests already spelled out. You will probably find that the left wheel can be rotated both directions, just short of one full revolution between where it stops both ways.

After changing the seals, did you reinstall the drawbar, swinging drawbar, etc. to the left final drive? Take the bolts back out and see if one of the holes is now a through hole to the inside of the gear case. A bolt that is too long may have popped the bottom out of the hole. The loose piece could now be caught in the bull gear. Rotate the wheel to the midpoint between the two limits of rotation. Take the pan off the bottom and there will probably be something (bottom of the bolt hole or something else) stuck between two teeth right at the bottom of the gear.