I have a WD45 that is currently having issues with the shift lever getting out of correct position and the tractor ends up in the wrong gear. I am going to try to document the work and information that I find as I attempt to repair, improve this issue. As these tractors get older and worn you may run into similar problems if you own a WD45. I am not the expert on these and hope to get good information from many others that know much more about these than I do. 

The subject tractor. It was a well worn unit that I have had for a couple years . But had really never used it a lot. So I did not really know the condition of the shifting issues. It had so many other issues the shifter system did not get much attention. 

It went through a refurb, clean, and paint. Came out the other end with a lot of things fixed:

So back to the shift tower:

I pulled it back off last night: Removed the snap coupler lever, the battery, dash, battery box, steering support, rear hydraulic line, brake lock bracket, and left foot pad.

Today I called Bill at Sandy Lake and got some tips for repairs. They have a rebuilt tower/s in stock ready to ship. I believe they are around $400.

With his information I am going to disassemble the tower I have and see if we can repair/ save it, and maybe some funds. Learning along the way if possible too.

If you have information and or suggestions jump right in please!

Underside of the shift tower: The top long shift fork is reverse, middle is 3rd and 4th. Lower one is 1st and 2nd.

A service manual is good to have on hand. I will try to use that as a guide also.

 Couple things come to mind. One is that this casting may need to be attached to something to make it easier to work on the unit in various positions! Thinking on that one!

Disassembly will start now. 

Removed the lock wires and the tapered lock screws from the center shaft:

Regards,

 Chris

 

 You may be right, I tried and completed those steps prior to this. Will see what I find when I get it further apart. 

When this thing lets me down several times with the fixes you described, I need to dig a little deeper. Nothing more frustrating than a tractor that does not work/ move.

I actually added a additional pin in the tower to help stabilize the ball on the shift lever.

Here is my attempt to make this easier to work on.

Its an attempt to work on this in various positions.

Got distracted this afternoon so not much happened on the 45 shift tower.

Regards,

 Chris

Thanks for the support! I will try to keep the parts in control some how too. Since I have never had one apart, I do appreciate the hints.

I sure don't need help getting distracted!

Regards,

 Chris

I can see the areas (top of fork slots) where the bottom stem of the shifter fits in. Do they look real bad? Well, I dont know because I am not a good judge of what new ones look like. I think my plan is to disassemble and check for wear especially in these upper slots. I may have to take all the the parts to Sandy Lake and have Bill look at them with me. Might cost me a quart of maple syrup?:) 

What I do see is that the spring detent tab for pushing the shifter into reverse is pretty much gone. And the ball socket area of the tower looks to be very worn/ enlarged.

I do like the idea of the enlarged pins  for the sides of the shifter too.

I did look at the service manual, I do not know where the interlock pins are (yet) any hints??

Weather is nice and I may have to set this aside for a few hours/ days? I have some slabs to buzz for making syrup next spring.

As usual it will be a journey. Good comments! Thanks!

Regards,

 Chris

Tapping out the front welsh plugs with drift and hammer:

Took the center rail out first (third and fourth gear)

Per the book turn the rail a 1/4 turn to compress the ball in the detent area, and allow the rail to slide past the detent ball.

You can see the detents in the rail when you turn it.

Now you can tap out the rail through the other welsh plug.

As the center rail came out there was a small cross pin:

I had a burr on the end of this shaft and it had to be smoothed before the shift fork would slide off the rail.

Welsh plug and cross pin: Still learning about the pins function?

center shift component off the rail:

some wear here, but not too bad.

Put a cloth over the spring loaded detant ball as the rail was removed and it did not escape: 

 Regards,

 Chris

Best of luck sugarmaker. I've gotten mine stuck in reverse twice in the past 20 years. Have a welded up pin, but had a single pin tower. I bought a new gear shift from Steiner but haven't installed it yet, as the old one is a bit too gone. But I've had good luck trying to force myself to shift straight, but reverse is the one that seems to be easy to slip by on with mine.

HD6GTOM wrote: I put the over size pins I mine and a new shift lever. That was 25+ years ago. Still working fine. Be sure and replace the double C spring in the snap coupler bell. I have a huge scar on my back where a plow came unhooked from the bell and landed on my back. I thought I had been shot again. That was in the 1970's and my back is still messed up. It still caused me lots of pain.

I have heard of this happening but always thought the snap coupler latches were supposed to "open" if this happened and release the plow. Yikes!

 I found a post on YT from Butch in Ohio. It has some good suggestions on assembly methods. Also some hints about the interlock system which prevents two gears being engaged at the same time.

Another group of pictures: 

The lock screw for securing the fork to the shaft and the plate to the shaft:

Rotate the rail 1/4 turn to keep the detent ball in the home position:

Tap the rail out which pops out the welsh plug:

Remove the fork:

Regards,

 Chris

 One more installment of pictures then I need to go do something constructive like cut slabs!

Here you can see some wear from the knob of the shift lever. May need to weld this up:

The bottom of the shift lever as I had welded it up before. I think its going to need some tuning. I can do some measuring on the forks now too.

The think I am going to look at is the relationship of the knob on the bottom to the slots in the ball. Mine seems to be out of position by maybe 10 to 15 degrees:

The fit is not to bad and should function:

Regards,

 Chris

Those pics are handy.  One of those projects you hope to never have to tackle again.

SteveM C/IL wrote: while apart would have been good time to "move" the notch for 3rd to achieve full engagement of sliding collar

Is this a thing?

As you can see I changed the title to picture heavy, probably should say VERY picture heavy. I was always leary of taking one of these apart. Not any more. We have more pictures to come but you will be happy to know its back on the tractor and feels like factory. The trip is not going to be for the weak of heart. Some will even frown on some of my repairs and fixes. But i did not want to spend a lot. At this point I have some time and some welding consumables.

Here is several views of the reverse lock out system, just a spring loaded tab to make it hard to move the shift lever over into reverse. Except when it is totally gone as in this unit! I looked like some one had welded a tab on here once, but it had fell off or was worn off?

Shift lever in picture to check fit, yes these lugs need work too:

Just reassembling to get familiar with how it all works:

This is how I kept the detent balls from flying around. Rag over the area when removing the rails:

Tipping the tower up in a vertical position made it easier to do things like get these springs out:

Regards,

 Chris

Not a great picture, your under the tower looking up at the shift lever. I was checking for possible solutions to repair worn socket where shifter rides. Bill at Sandy lake said they go in and weld in the socket. It was just too tight for me. I came up with another option. This shift lever was about a good 1/8 inch too low in the socket.

Just shining a light through from under neath. A cat could crawl through there!

Here I put 3rd gear lug back in place and now can see the lever is too long and is hitting the lug. I could have just taken some off the bottom of the shift lever but that seemed too easy!

While looking the lever over for repair ideas I put my good eye on it and realized when I welded it up it was too wide so I whittled it down to .312 wide. Also got it more inline with the slots in the ball, and the original flats in the bottom end near the repairs.

Time to start some repairs.

The ball of the shift lever was welded with 6 vertical areas and 4 horizontal areas. These were just hand smoothed with a die grinder. Pretty crude but I bet it will last a long time. Brought the lever up just right to clear the lug of 3rd gear.

Next a small tab was whittled out of some scrap steel and welded to the lever arm for the reverse lock out. about 1/8 material.

The lugs for reverse were both welded and hand worked.

Mock up of the reverse tab. Just right clearance for the shift lever width too!

Regards,

 Chris

So yes 1st gear lug needed welded also to remove years of wear:

As I looked over the side pins I decided to make some that could be installed and not fall into the transmission while the shift lever is out. 1/4 inch bolt  with head ground to fit slots in ball. (mine are custom offset to compensate for me not drilling the second hole exactly where it should be!) Then a small slot cut in the protruding end to allow it to be opened up. Pretty crude but darn effective!

Here are the custom side pins and the repaired sphere of the lever in place for trial fit and function. This also raised the ball up to allow for the retainer and a custom washer and then the snap ring. A much better fit than before.

I forgot to take pictures of the interlock plungers. Those little rascals stayed put the whole time, until I was ready to put the rods back in, and then one jumped out and of course fell into the inside of the casting. You need a small pen magnet for this project to retrieve items that fall into that area right under the shift pattern.

I used the service manual as a guide to do the assembly. It says use a punch to push the detent balls down to get the rails started past the balls. Very hard on the hands a much better tool would have been a Allen wrench with a plastic tee handle. It takes a lot of force, and a punch is hard on the hand. With this being on the engine stand I was able to push the ball down with a punch, and move the rail into position with pressure from my thigh. It worked. Then I tapped the rail with a hammer to get it started past the ball.

I did have one detent ball get loose and could have hit me in the eye! Be careful!

Don't forget to wire tie the tapered bolts around the shafts!

I added some good wheel bearing grease to the socket where the new welded shift ball is to set. Then dropped in the shifter lever and placed the tower in second gear, as recommended for installation.

Some gasket sealer, and dropped the tower in place on the tractor. I put a bolt in the right side where the steering support attaches. I had to move third gear slider in tranny forward a little bit, and on the second stab ,it seemed to fall into the home position! 

Put two bolts in the tower to secure it, and then installed the shift lever. Tried all the gears and rocked the tractor to make sure they all engaged. Wow! a totally different feel, and I hope it tests ok. Have to finish all the other install items tomorrow. 

Side note:

Oh yes those little interlock plungers are real cute. About 1/4 dia pin, maybe 1/2 inch long with a sphere on each end. Two of them. One in between each rail. Then the small interlock pin goes in the center rail. it is maybe 3/16 dia x about 1/2 inch long. It would be real easy to loose when taking out that center rail. as it is loose by design! I used grease to hold it in place while installing that center rail.

I hope this may help someone on a WD45 or WD series tractor. As Don would have said Ahhh! it only nuts and bolts!

And for MACK. Well a new shift lever and oversize side pins would have helped but this tractor needed the tower to come apart for several other things! Thanks guys for the support! Hope things are good In Orange Land!

Regards,

 Chris

 I wished I would have done the research on that more prior to getting this tower back on. I assume the notch in the lug can be re-positioned to allow for more engagement in the sliding collar in the tranny?

 Please add those details here too, if you have them.

Regards,

 Chris

Mike,

 This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! I had maybe 8 hours playing with it. Probably took me longer to document it on here than to do the work!

Not sure I am into rebuilding them yet or ever, but there could be a need just like clutches. Sandy Lake is refurbing these. They probably put in a new shift lever and new side pins which could be $120 in parts. 

Regards,

Chris

Dr, 

Thank you! The books and other information mention it but just dont have good pictures of the inner workings of the interlock. Its a great system. I am going to test on this old 45 in the next day or so to see if I have made some improvements!

 Regards,

 Chris

Dave

Thanks for the support and comments!

I will try to test that 3rd gear shift collar thing. Unfortunately unless I did something wrong, or something else has a issue I don't plan on taking this back apart soon:).

I like that idea especially if there is wear on the engagement parts. I am not sure how to calculate the amount to move the botch in the lug? Seems like it would be tough??

But what I did learn is that if you have the tower off for some reason, it's a good time to evaluate the condition, and maybe make it std practice to do a tear down and inspection. Kind of like doing carb work, most old tractors can use some TLC in important areas. These shift towers are the things that get used all the time when the tractor is in normal operations. 

Regards,

 Chris

 I have a welding problem, I will admit to that! I come buy it honestly. My dad taught me to stick weld with a old Lincoln welder 60 years ago. And my uncle welded everything to fix it. I got the welding gene too. I do try to restrain my self but sometimes it is the right way. So yes I welded the lugs and shift lever and then used a die grinder with the 2 inch screw on sanding discs to finish back close to what it may have been when new.

Regards,

 Chris

 Update on the shift tower repairs and function. 

(Put all the items back together/ on the tractor this morning)

Cheryl and I took the 45 and trailer down the yard to pick up the trimmed branches from the apple trees.

I used first and second gear. First gear engagement needs to have the engine turn the transmission just a little to engage. Seems like that's about how its going to be. Second gear is very smooth to engage.

The whole feel of the shifting is smooth and crisp. Very little movement in the shift lever.

On the way back to the house, I got out in the road and got into third and then sliped into fourth gear with out effort. Very smooth! Into the drive and stopped and shifted easy back into third. No issues! Shifter felt solid and stayed in position with no slopping around. 

When I got the trailer un hooked I tested reverse and the spring loaded "keep out tab" worked very good. Was able to over come the spring and engage reverse easily and smoothly.

I also tried to push the shift lever more forward when in third gear and did not have any additional movement. Now the shift lever might have been up against the custom washer below the snap ring? 

All in all, I am happy with the WD45 shift tower repairs. Thanks for watching! If I can help let me know.

 Regards,

 Chris

Dave

 I am glad this thread has gained some interest. I remember my Dad working on a 45 shifter that had jumped out of gear, or was locked. That was in the mid 60's so the tractors were about 10 year old then. This has to be one of the most used and abused items on these old tractors. 

Now that I have done one I think the cost of a rebuilt shift tower from Sandy Lake at $400 ish is not too bad!:)

Regards,

 Chris

Going to piggyback on Chris's thread here a little;

Got some time yesterday and cleaned up the shifter going on my 45 in the power steering thread. I think it's in pretty good shape other than the slot in the shift lever. Going to weld it up a bit and file it back to fit the new pin. Pin is on order. You can see in the top picture I've got a broken battery box bolt to get removed, yeah. I've heated it with the torch already, will see how hard it fights coming out!

So I got the 'oversize' pin from Agco. It fits pretty darn good, not even going to weld up the slot. I did have to drill out the hole in the tower for it. The round dimension is 1/32" oversize too. Wow did that tighten things up. Somewhere I've got a drawing with the ball on the bottom end with dimensions on it, think mine is fine but will compare before final assembly.

Worked on this thing a little this morning, just a spot of weld on the lever itself and a few minutes with a 6 inch flat file and that new pin fits great. Always seem to get the pictures out of order.

I'm liking my tig-welder a WHOLE lot better now. Found a setting for 'remote' which gives you variable control of the heat as opposed to 'local' which runs at what ever the machine is set at.

Finally got this thing wrapped up yesterday! Finding the 5/16" welsh plug for the pin was not easy. Parts man saved me again, thanks Reed! It was rather an epic battle getting the thing apart, went back together easier but did not work. Took a lot of trial and error getting the tractor and shifter in 2nd gear. I remember reading that on here at some point. Because the thing was stuck in first when it came apart it caused some confusion!

The tower that came off had the two pin set-up on the lever, pins and lever in great shape. Holes for the pins in the tower egged out something terrible. For some reason this one had no plug on either side, think that contributed to the wear. I think it is beyond repair. Going to keep it for parts only.

I swear I'm going to leave this tractor alone and just use it for awhile! It's been down for one project or another for almost a year now.

Really is a good feeling when it's back together and works like it should.

 Great that you got the shift tower repaired.  I really like how mine now shifts! I can see you have done a lot of work on this 45. About time to take it down and paint that old girl! Its ready now.

I have never tried to tig weld. They say its a little tough to learn? 

Regards,

Chris

Carl,

 Were you able to get your tower repaired?

 Post some pictures, maybe someone can help.

I have not seen one worn so bad that the shifter fell through! Hope that new shifter helps fix the problem.

 Wow!

 Regards,

 Chris

Thanks guys. It really does feel good to have that one behind me.

My verbiage was off a tad. It is a 'Welch' plug not welsh, though that is probably close enough people know what you want. Here's a link, https://www.google.com/search?q=welch+plug&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjpaKb79vqAhUFAp0JHWf_BBkQ_AUoAnoE

Edit; I thought that link was hot. Apparently not, just copy and paste.

The plug is on the top of the tower, seals the hole for the pin. To use the oversize pin you have to take it out for the drilling process. My old tower had none on either side.

Lon, the oversize pin has a 9/32" shank as opposed to the 1/4" on the original. I think the easiest way to gauge them would be with drill bits. Gauge pins would be great but who's got a set at home?

Chris, I'm getting closer to being ready for a real paint job. Still have a few things I want to address before doing it. A leaky seal in the front end is one such thing. Also have NOS parts for the snap-coupler I would like to get installed. A while back I tried to get that apart and the pin wouldn't come out, gave up pretty easy on it at the time. I'll use the hot knife next time if need be!

I had to drag out the power washer to clean up the combine yesterday, like to get my 'moneys-worth' out of that so I washed three tractors and the 782. Here's a shot of the 45 and the 185.

Chris, you already know how to weld so learning to tig wouldn't be a big deal.

Some tips from trial and error;

1. Make things as clean as humanly possible!

2. Keep the tungsten close to the puddle but not in.

3. Keep the tungsten sharp. It will weld dull but not well.

I learned to tig while working at Maytag. I think we had about 50 toolmakers that had access to the weld booth. Usually when you went in there the tungsten was in sad shape so I kept my own in my toolbox. Saved a lot of time.

The tractors may have a shelter this winter. The camper will still need to set out since it will not be able to go into the building doors. Somewhat intentional by design. I did not want a monster high building in my yard. 

Anyway no , I dont have a CA ......yet. Maybe some day.

Glad this thread has maybe helped a folks get into these old shift towers too.

 Regard,

 Chris

I hear that! Their weren't too many of us that actually welded. I really enjoyed it. Welding hard tool steel is a tad different from CRS!

Chris, hope you get the shop up before the snow flies!