found a snap ring...i think

[Patf10]

So are having the engine rebuilt in our ford 3000. In the meantime we are cleaning it up and painting parts to make the old girl look nice. I went to drain the hydraulic fuid and pulled the plug. When i did that i found a 1" chunk of what appears to be a snap ring stuck to the magnet. The ring looks like it is from something 3-4" in diameter. Any ideas what it could be from? The tractor always ran good, no noises, diff lock works fine. I dont know if im going to need to tear the rear end of this thing apart now. dont really want to. I dont know if its something i would be able to see with the top cover off or not. I uploaded a simple sketch of what the piece looks like, im thinking it could possibly be a piece of the spring for the diff lock?

 

[pacerron]

So are having the engine rebuilt in our ford 3000. In the meantime we are cleaning it up and painting parts to make the old girl look nice. I went to drain the hydraulic fuid and pulled the plug. When i did that i found a 1" chunk of what appears to be a snap ring stuck to the magnet. The ring looks like it is from something 3-4" in diameter. Any ideas what it could be from? The tractor always ran good, no noises, diff lock works fine. I dont know if im going to need to tear the rear end of this thing apart now. dont really want to. I dont know if its something i would be able to see with the top cover off or not. I uploaded a simple sketch of what the piece looks like, im thinking it could possibly be a piece of the spring for the diff lock?

Is this the first time you have personally removed the plug?
How many hours on the tractor?
It might have been in there since mfg?

 

[LD1]

It kinda looks like it could be a peice of snap-ring. Like the larger ones found in transmissions holding gears and stuff in place. But the "notch" at the top appears backwards for an external snap ring. But the internal ones look very similar. The kind like used in planetary gear sets that you need a specially ground screwdriver with a hook on the end to remove.

It appears you have found an easy way to remove them:confused2:

 

[whodat526]

i will take a guess and say if it is found in the rear axle it is the snap ring that holds the pto or diff bearing into the back of the trans

 

[banjodunn]

G'day as others have said it looks like an internal snap ring, I once did a service on a customers Fiat tractor and when draining the diff oil found a ball out of a bearing. We decided along with the customer that as no one had ever been into the trans/diff that he knew of that we had better have a look. After a few hours of removing cabin and top of trans and checking every brg we could that had similar sized balls all seemed good. It turned out later after talking to the orig owner he had had another w/shop replace a bearing in it some years ago but they had obviously missed cleaning it out properly:ashamed:. Expensive exercise for the owner but at least gave him some peace of mind.

After all that this may be what has happened to you do you have any way of talking to prev owner/s to dee if thy know of any prior trans/diff work being done?

Jon

 

[RickB]

i will take a guess and say if it is found in the rear axle it is the snap ring that holds the pto or diff bearing into the back of the trans

+1. My vote is for the PTO shaft bearing retainer.

 

[Patf10]

Does the pto bearing use and internal snap ring like that? And im guessing the only way to get to that would be by pulling one of the axles apart?

 

[whitedogone]

+1. My vote is for the PTO shaft bearing retainer.

Me too. Does the pto ever "pop" out of gear?

 

[whitedogone]

Here's mine from the 641. It's easy enough to check. Just pull the pto shaft out and check the bearing retainer housing for damage. It's the best place to fish out all the metal parts from the rear end as well.

 

[MIKE R]

i will take a guess and say if it is found in the rear axle it is the snap ring that holds the pto or diff bearing into the back of the trans

I agree. Have you tried to see if there are any more parts still hanging on in the diff, maybe fill it up and drive it for a few minuets then check if anymore parts find there way to the magnet.