420C steering clutch

[Lowly]

I decided to have a go at the steering clutches on my 420C. Over the course of a dump cleaning/land reclamation project last spring they both developed problems. So I've taken the right hand final drive off and have taken the steering clutch apart. The problem on this side was that the clutch would not disengage, so you couldn't turn in that direction. It's obvious that water got in there, the clutch assembly is very rusty. Other than the rust the drive plates and the fiber plates don't look bad but I don't really know what I should be looking for. Can I just clean up the plates and put them back together? Other than the clutch what else should I do while I am in there? I've ordered a new throwout bearing (while I'm there might's well put in a new one, I thought) and a new gasket for the little cover on top.

Thanks for any tips or ideas.

[JD440ICD2006]

I would go with as much "new" as I could while I had it apart. They are time consuming to pull down and put back together and adjust. Why have to pull it down again soon?
The steel plates can be cleaned up if they are not pitted or worn much. The fiber disk MUST be replaced if anything. There is nothing out there that will clean them properly.

[JWB Contracting]

I keep hearing that you cannot clean up the fibre disc properly. Well, my dad had been buying, selling and fixing 350 and 450 crawlers for over 35 years and we rarely ever need to buy new fibres.

We clean the fibres in a glass bead blast cabinet, along with steel discs, clutch housing, and all the other parts. However, if they did get oily they may not be usable. I often blast up some discs for future use and do notice that the oil keeps coming to the service.

We do put heavier springs (33% stiffer from local truck spring shop) in the pressure plate and add an extra steel to account for wear on the fibres. We set the pressure plate by sight and do not use the guage as this would defeat the purpose of adding another disk. We actually use to do exchange cluches for customers and did not have any complaints and took the old clutch assemblies as a core.

Anyone can buy parts and make their machine looke like it came off the factory line but not everyone has the budget to do so.[/u]

[Lu47Dan]

I decided to have a go at the steering clutches on my 420C. Over the course of a dump cleaning/land reclamation project last spring they both developed problems. So I've taken the right hand final drive off and have taken the steering clutch apart. The problem on this side was that the clutch would not disengage, so you couldn't turn in that direction. It's obvious that water got in there, the clutch assembly is very rusty. Other than the rust the drive plates and the fiber plates don't look bad but I don't really know what I should be looking for. Can I just clean up the plates and put them back together? Other than the clutch what else should I do while I am in there? I've ordered a new throwout bearing (while I'm there might's well put in a new one, I thought) and a new gasket for the little cover on top.

Thanks for any tips or ideas.

As long as there is not any oil on them, they are deteriorating (falling apart). they mic' out to the proper thickness and they are not glazed, you can probably re-use the fiber disc's.
The steel disc's can be cleaned by sandblasting and re-used also if they mic' out to proper dimensions.
I have three damaged fiber disc's in the right hand final drive for my 420 I am in the process of rebuilding also. The steels mic' out fine, the fibers also are within tolerances. the first three fiber discs in the pack have a small amount of oil on them. the rest show no signs of contamination. I have heated them in an oven and they still do not show any signs of oil on them. I will probably re-use them and buy three new ones to replace the damaged ones. I have not torn the left side steering clutch apart as of yet, so I do not now if they are damaged or not.
Look at the seal on the pinion quill, if it is seeping replace it before it starts leaking oil into your nice shiny rebuilt steering clutch, check all the parts inside the steering clutch housing for wear and tear, replace all the worn parts. It would be a crying shame to have a spring break after doing all that work to get the crawler steering correctly again.
Good luck
Dan.

[Tigerhaze]

There have been a number of debates and disagreements on this board whether you can sucessfully "cook out" oil within the fiber discs.

I would look at it this way- assume there is a possibility that removing the oil will be unsucessful and that you will have problems after reassembly. Will the time and effort to re-pull and replace them at that point be acceptable to you? If not then I would take a prudent approach to purchase new fiber discs for those that are potentially oil-contaminated.

It all depends on what is worth more to you- time or money. In my case I'm short on both but much more so on the time side so I tend to buy replacement parts even when I think the old parts may be serviceable.

[Lavoy]

I look at it this way. A set of fibers for a two cylinder through dry 350's is $200 or less. No offense to anyone, but if this breaks your budget, sell the crawler. If it has tracks, it is going to cost you much more than this sooner or later, it is just the nature of the beast. Crawlers are expensive to maintain, there is no cheap way to do it, unless you don't care, and are going to run the machine to scrap.
Will cobbling it together work, sure it might, or will, but for a time. If the rear end on your car is noisy, fill it with sawdust. If it doesn't make noise, it must be fixed right? Like the old Mr. Goodwrench commercial, "You can pay me now, or pay me later." In the case of reusing marginal steering clutch components, you will pay now, and you will likely pay later.
Lavoy

[Lowly]

I just finished going through the feed roll assembly on my JD 3970 forage harvester with the "I'm going to tear it all the way down and replace everything that needs it." attitude. Two new rolls, all new bearings, bushings, wear plates, scrapers. Quite a parts bill but it should be back to chopping like new. The fun thing about the crawler is that it can sit and wait (unlike the chopper) for finances to allow buying the parts it needs. I would rather let it sit in a corner of the shop and eventually fix it right than cobble it back together quickly.
With that said we did get "off track" (haha)with my particular clutch problem. This clutch was rusty, not oily. The crawler sat outside for a couple of months or more during a project last spring(I usually keep it under cover). I wire brushed the steel plates and have wondered about lightly sanding the fiber disks to remove the rusty looking stuff.

What should the disks mic? Mine don't look worn but I'm not sure what I should be looking for.

Lavoy, I was glad to see your price for the fiber disks. That looked a lot better than Mother Deere's! I'll be in touch if you all really think it would be a mistake to put mine back in. Any progress on pins and bushings for the old fellow? His are pretty bad, I keep telling myself they will last for a while if I just use it in the woods in snow but they do need to be done.

Thanks

[Lavoy]

No progress on pins and bushings. Supposedly was supposed to have them on order, not sure what the problem is.
Lavoy