430 Reverser

[deeretails]

I know this is a crawler forum and I'm working on a tractor, but I think you folks may be more familiar with my problem than the tractor folks.

I've a 430 U with late style Reverser and a 5 speed transmission. A previous owner stored this thing in his outdoor shed and had clouds for a canopy. The trans was very noisy (bearing noise) and had about 2-3 quarts of water in it. So I have the trans. apart putting in all new bearings and a couple of shafts. The reverser fluid was clear and clean and it worked well, but I did change the fluid.

So the question is, can I start this machine without the transmission in it just to listen to the reverser bearings? Will anything happen to the reverser if the engine is running and the reverser output shaft isn't in place? Don't want to take a chance on missing up the reverser, but don't want to put the tractor together and find out I've reverser issues.

Thanks for your replies

Mark

[Lavoy]

You've got it this far apart, just tear down the reverser. A quiet bearing under zero load tells you nothing.
Lavoy

[deeretails]

Lavoy, my point is that if this were a crawler the reverser would be out before I get to the transmission. But on a tractor the transmission comes out first and it's a got more effort to get the reverser out. Don't want if I don't need to. This was noisy all the time, didn't need to be loaded.