Front axle swap

Tor Arne · Jun 26, 2014

A friend of mine has a tractor front axle breaks on all the time. He came to me wondering if I could help him adapt a different front axle to put on the tractor so he could use the tractorwithout him needed to worry that the front wheels would fall off. I once had the same tractor and hubs are greatly undersized on these and breaks constantly,once it was not two hours ago since I checked to see that it was not play to my front wheel disappeared down the Field. We got a front axle from a IH but pivot bolt was set too low so we used parts from the old axle and welded on top of the new in order to get correct height.

texasjohn · Jun 26, 2014

:welcome:
I enjoyed your first post...with skill like this, am sure numerous people, including myself, will look forward to future posts. thanks for sharing this clever approach to a serious problem...never before heard of a broken front axle like this. :thumbsup:

pmsmechanic · Jun 26, 2014

The way I see it you don't have a front axle that pivot's anymore. I don't think that's a good idea. At some point in time you will have other troubles because of this.

Tor Arne · Jun 26, 2014

The axle can still pivot. We took the center portion of the old axle and welded the top of the new in order to adjust the height

Renze · Jun 26, 2014

Looks like that Volvo 2254 used to be a 4wd ?? Ive heard people tell stories about a certain type of Volvo with a 4wd axle that was also used by Oliver, and was known to break in half with frontloader operation... Is this the one ?

Anyways, if you have a front loader on it, i would have swapped it with a 7.5 ton truck axle with 22.5" wheels on it so it never ever breaks again

Tor Arne · Jun 26, 2014

Renze said:
Looks like that Volvo 2254 used to be a 4wd ?? Ive heard people tell stories about a certain type of Volvo with a 4wd axle that was also used by Oliver, and was known to break in half with frontloader operation... Is this the one ?

Yes you are right 2254 Volvo with 4WD. same front axle was also on some IH models. The problem comes when Volvo and IH tried to use a front axle designed for a tractor around 40 hp on a tractor approaching 70 hp.

These tractors are arise from the end Volvo produced "its own" tractors before they were acquired by Valmet now part of Agco. Gear box came from IH, Perkins engine and front axle from Kimco. It was only cabin and bonnet volvo made on these.
It consisted of four models:
2200, 56 hp 2wd
2204, 56 hp 4wd
2250, 68 hp 2wd
2254, 68 hp 4wd