Allis D17 won't move in 1st gear

I recently purchased an early series 4 D17 from an individual and he told me one of the problems was it would not move in first gear. He thought his grandson had took the top cover off at one time and the forks were not lined up correctly. Since then I have pulled the cover numerous times in an attempt to fix it but it still appears to lock up. All other gears work fine. Even with the cover off and all gears placed in neutral I will slide 1st gear into place and try and move the wheels but they will not. Any ideas on this?

BTW Welcome to the greatest Allis Forum on the web, great bunch of folks here.

So I looked at the tranny I have open, and no amount of thinking could figure out how any combination of gears, frozen collars, or seized bearings could account for your situation.  So I looked at the shift tower, and maybe you have a detent spring broke or the reverse interlock isn't working correctly.  What I would do is take your shift cover and put it in a vice LIGHTLY, then run it through the gears, making sure only one fork moves any direction at a time.

Already put it in the vise and tried all the positions. All looks good. In your trans will the reverse gear in the forward most position clear the first gear above it? I don't think it looks right and am wandering if this thing had been split and not assembled correctly. Never seen one like this before and have been around them for a long time.

Is the collar on the reverse gear forward or on the back?  It will never clear the 1st/2nd collar gear, if in the forward position.  In the forward position, it is "in gear"  and the 1st/2nd gear needs to be centered.

Edited by Orange Blood - 02 Jan 2012 at 6:15pm

That's your problem, reverse "in gear" is forward on the shaft, and "out of gear" is rearward on the shaft, to put it a little bit better, when the 1st/2nd collar gear is centered, the reverse gear should be rear of it, to be out of gear, and lined up with it to be in gear.

Sorry about the last post. When I put the cover on with all gears in neutral the reverse gear is all the way to the rear not the front.

I will get a couple in the morning and post them. Thank you for all your help on this. This one has been a challenge. I am wandering if this thing has been split before I got it and something is together wrong. I have another D17 that needs to be gone through yet but don't have room for it in the shop until this one is done. Thanks again and I will post the pictures in the morning.

Here is a picture of the gears in neutral and also the top cover with shift forks in neutral.

Edited by pre64 - 06 Jan 2012 at 7:37pm

Best I can figure,when 1/2 sliding collar is slid back to 1st  positiion it is engauging reverse  idler which means reverse idler is not slid back far enough to clear.Can you position things with the top off to get reverse idler out of the way? I can't remember how this works and the pics don't let me see enough,but the idler has to engauge both counter shaft and straight gear on 1/2 collar to get reverse.doesn't the 1st gear position have the 1/2 collar spinning the reverse idler since it wouldn't be engauged with the cluster gear?If so,the idler still has to be reward enough to not engauge the counter shaft?. I'm as confused as you now! Something don't add up. I can't see the sleeve on the idler shaft to the rear of the idler but that don't mean it's not there.

Dr. Allis,

Edited by pre64 - 06 Jan 2012 at 7:46pm

Is the bottom shaft flopping for and aft,as in rear bearing clear gone? No matter what... this one gets split to fix it.

Edited by SteveM C/IL - 03 Jan 2012 at 12:40pm

 Is the bottom reverse gear installed so the rounded edges of the teeth are rearward so they mate with the rounded teeth on the idler???

Looking at the wear on your gear train, I imagine one of the spacers on the counter shaft is either to thin, or for some reason worn down, which has allowed the reverse gear on the counter shaft to move rearward, only the thrust on the remaining gears due to the angled teeth keeps them in line.  It' either that, or as you suggest there are different spacers between series 1 and the rest, don't know the difference but if it has been torn apart, the correct ones could have been swapped.  It does appear in the parts manual that the spacer ahead of the revers counter shaft gear is narrower than the one behind it, by maybe a 1/4" or so, so if they were put back in the incorrect order, there is you problem.

Yes I too believe the spacers on shaft are mixed up in their order. I plan on splitting it today if all goes as planned. I will be posting the results and pictures if possible so all can benefit from this. I certainly appreciate all who have helped.