steering clutches look correct?

[Manchas1227]

Finally I've been able to mess with my late grandfathers crawler loader that we tore apart YEARS ago. I've got new steel/fiber and rebuilt pressure plates, But something just doesn't seem right to me. I'm thinking the tabs are to close together? tell me if im wrong or not and can someone give me some detailed How To on assembling this machine? like I said before its been quite a few years since it ran and id like to get it working since it was one of the last things he started to work on before my old man loses his shit and wants it gone. any input on these clutches and how to put this stuff together will help!
http://jdcrawlers.lcent.com:8000/johnde ... hp?pid=374

[Jim B]

Some info first.

What model is the machine? Serial number?

Do you have the service manual for it?

Where did you get the clutches? Part numbers and how many?

Do you have the gauge to set the pressure plate fingers?

[Manchas1227]

450 straight (will need to get number at a later date)

I do but I wasn’t sure if people had step by step with some pictures

8 fiber and 7 steel and part numbers were cross referenced. Steel was bought by my pap and fiber/pressure plate was from yesterday’s tractors

No I don’t have a gauge they said everything was pre set.

[Jim B]

Differences in wear in the hub and disc thicknesses would make it hard to preset the fingers. Your manual tells you about doing it. If JD does it with their discs and pressure plate why wouldn't it apply to all. Did you measure the thickness of the discs? Apparently some vendors are selling discs for 450s that don't match the straight 450 specs. Lavoy sells the gauges.

[Manchas1227]

Do you know the actual thickness of the fibers? And I figured that the wear would let the fingers be further out not that close. It almost seems like the clutch basket wouldn’t fully disengage if it’s pressed

[Jim B]

I believe the fictions are 0.187" thick and the steels are 0.093" thick for a straight 450, from info I find on the JDparts site.