Ford 1710 4wd Front axle

[Kirby7887]

I have have a decently big problem on my hands. I checked my front axle oil and there wasn’t a drop of oil in it. That has probably been running like that for a while. For the people who know these tractors where could these axles leak? Seems to be just wet by the drain plug? What oil is a good substitute for the oem oil? Thanks everyone for responding to this post and my others. Here is a picture of what it looked like down in the hole.

Thanks again,
Kirby Harder.

 

[stevem5215]

You will need to tear down that axle and check all bearings and gears. It's probably seriously toasted in there. Is there wheel wobble now ? Lift the front end and check it.

 

[TractorTech]

They can leak at the spindle seal or the input seal. You should notice an oily/dirty mess in the area of a leak.
You can use 80w90 gear oil in the axle.
As stevem5215 said, is there wheel wobble? Do you hear any bearing noises like a bearing that is/has failed? Check with the engine off and the axle off of the ground. You may be lucky and not suffered any immediate damage or maybe no damage at all.

 

[MTGreen]

My 1720 leaked at the driveshaft input as Tractortech mentioned. The oddball driveshaft seal/o-ring/cover tube design is sensitive to damage to the driveshaft outer tube. If the outer tube is bent and/or the 2-piece clamshell tube clamp is damaged, the seals will not hold and oil will seep into the tube.

Hope you don't have bigger internal problems...

 

[Kirby7887]

They can leak at the spindle seal or the input seal. You should notice an oily/dirty mess in the area of a leak.
You can use 80w90 gear oil in the axle.
As stevem5215 said, is there wheel wobble? Do you hear any bearing noises like a bearing that is/has failed? Check with the engine off and the axle off of the ground. You may be lucky and not suffered any immediate damage or maybe no damage at all.

Hopefully there is atleast something in there maybe small amount of oil. My grandfather had purchased a seal for the spindle a long time ago and never put it on, but what I think I am going to do is fill it and see where it is leaking. And fix it. I’ll check for wheel wobble when I get off work tonight.

 

[Kirby7887]

You will need to tear down that axle and check all bearings and gears. It's probably seriously toasted in there. Is there wheel wobble now ? Lift the front end and check it.

No wheel wobble thankfully, I am hoping the final drives still have oil. Just the axle itself doesn't have oil. Nonetheless, there are still gears in that middle cavity.