450 B Steering clutch stuck

[madman450]

Hi All.
I have inherited a JD450 B and the right track gets no power to it and as you can imagine is not fun to play with. We have an old 28 acre farm that I am hoping to get back in working order and this little cutie will work wonders. I ran equipment for 22 years. Then got a desk job but still have the itch to play in the sand box. I took off the top cover and it is wet (not oil) I thought by riding the steering clutch it would dry up and start working but No go. It seems as if the clutch is stuck open and can't get power to the right tack (as sitting on the machine). I fiddled with the adjusters with no luck. Could the rod be bent from reefing back on the steering lever? Any way to bend it back? One of the threads said there was a little horizontal rod at the bottom that can get stuck also. Any way to free that up without getting the housing full of PB blaster? The clutch did work for a few weeks.
Thank you

[JWB Contracting]

Did you drain the clutch cavity? There will be a pipe plug on the bottom if the housing.

It's its just water it might work again. However the steel disc in the clutch can get rusty and slip.

Dry it out, check the free play on the clutch and try it.

I am guessing you will have to remove and fix the clutch in the near future even if you do get it working. Good news is you don't have to pull the final drive to remove the clutch.

[madman450]

I figured I would need to redo clutches and brakes sooner or later. Just want to get that one more thing done. Ya know how it goes. Does anyone know of a good thread about the teardown and fix on these dry clutches & Brakes? I saw one in here where the brake pads where done without buying new. I don't think I'm that brave and it would cost more for the rivets etc. than just going with new from the parts man. As I get into it (warm weather permitting) I'll post some pictures as I am a visual kind of guy and not familiar with the lingo yet. Thank you

[jtrichard]

madman search crawler123 he did his and it worked out great

[Lavoy]

All of the clutch stuff and brakes from Deere will be pricey, when you get ready, let me know, I can save you some money.
Lavoy

[Tigerhaze]

madman search crawler123 he did his and it worked out great

Pammark has a pretty good photo log of his restoration of his 2010 crawler- while the 2010 is different from the 450B they both have similar dry steering clutch/brake systems and so you can at least see generally how they go together.

[Jack-the-Ripper]

Inside the clutch housing is a vertical rod with a bushing on each end. An arm on top is activated by the steering lever through linkage. An arm in the middle engages the throwout bearing. The "Bs" get moisture in their housings which rusts up the bushings on this vertical rod, which gets stuck in the disengaged position because it is only a spring that returns it (which may also be broken). If this is the case, you remove the clutch pack, and then may have to use every trick you know to loosen this vertical rod enough to remove it. I cleaned the rods and bushings, applied grease liberally, and reinstalled the rods. Before installation I drilled the bushing mounts and inserted and epoxied small copper tubing that I extended out through the back of the housing casting that I drilled through (sealing with J-B Weld), installing zirks on the external tubing ends. I ground a circumferential groove in the rod's ends so that when I occasionally grease these bushings the groove hopefully will allow the grease to flow all the way around the rod.

If you pull the housing cover and find that the upper "arm" on the vertical rodis all banged up, that is a good indication that the rod has been sticking. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.