Front seals gone out on ck20 hst :(

[pilonidal]

Walked out to the garage to hook up the tiller on my 2004 Ck20HST and immediately noticed a large pool of oil under the right front tire. Looks like the seal went out on the pivot joint, where the wheel turns, and the left side is wet around the seal but not dripping oil like the right. The site gauge is empty, of course. Father-in-law thinks we can maybe get the parts and fix it ourselves, but I am thinking this will be a little to much for us.
Disconnecting the hydraulic turn cylinders then breaking the 4 paint covered bolts loose to remove the wheel/hub/pivot assembly and then no idea how to separate the pivot joint.
Sounds like dealership work to me. Anyone had thier seals go out on them yet?

 

[mx5guy]

Sorry to hear that, I have shop manual for ck25-27-30-35, with manual, does not look extremly difficult, has parts well numbered, good breakdown, torque for bolts. Often well painted bolt are easyer to remove than those rusted and seized, note I have never done this, but would consider it, if others have done it on this site and say its a do-able home project. Also not even sure if my setup looks like yours.

 

[JoelD]

Maybe you could pull front axle assembly and bring to dealer

I hope there is one near you as PA just lost one of the best in Wallace

Joel

 

[MichiganIron]

We could send you the parts break-down diagram. It's not difficult to change the seals. The parts diagram pretty much shows how the bevel gear housing and axle are assembled. Probably take you 2-3 hours to do both sides.

 

[pilonidal]

Thanks Michigan I sent you a P.M.. A diagram would be great. I have a dealer just a few miles away. Not the one I purchased the tractor from, but still is a good business and has been good for my maintenance and problems that have popped up everynow and then.

 

[kraftykeltic]

Walked out to the garage to hook up the tiller on my 2004 Ck20HST and immediately noticed a large pool of oil under the right front tire. Looks like the seal went out on the pivot joint, where the wheel turns, and the left side is wet around the seal but not dripping oil like the right. The site gauge is empty, of course. Father-in-law thinks we can maybe get the parts and fix it ourselves, but I am thinking this will be a little to much for us.
Disconnecting the hydraulic turn cylinders then breaking the 4 paint covered bolts loose to remove the wheel/hub/pivot assembly and then no idea how to separate the pivot joint.
Sounds like dealership work to me. Anyone had thier seals go out on them yet?

It is not a bad job to do. You do need to get a large set of snap ring pliers. I got one of the larger sets from Harbor freight and it work well. The bolts that connect the reduction gearing to the axle are a bear but then the rest is easy.
Make sure you keep track of the shims and put them back in the same place.
I also greased the seals before I put the new ones in. The Pivot pin needs to be checked and it has to be smooth, or you may tear up the new seals

You need the o rings and the seals. You may find a lot of dirt like I did. several cans of brake cleaner and I put it back together. That was about 50 hours ago.

with the parts it took me about 3-4 hours a side to do and I work really slow.

Tom

 

[pilonidal]

Thanks for the information guys.

 

[garydc]

I had to replace a front seal last spring on my tractor, my boys got me the shop manual for christmas it was a big help, michigan iron is right it took me around two hours or so to change and was fairly easy, if you are fairly mechanically apt go for it if not the dealer option may be for you. good luck either way. Gary

 

[pilonidal]

The local dealer only had 1 seal ring so I am waiting for the others to come in. One question? Do you have to break down the the front exactly like the diagram to change the seals. I mean do you have to remove the hub and and seperate the housing from the axle also? Or just remove the bottom plug and pull things out the bottom?

 

[pilonidal]

Well, the task is done. It took the Father-in-law and I 2 hrs to do one side. Now that we did one side the other should go faster. I'll wait for that seal to go all the way out though. My back and knees don't like all that bending and stooping. Thanks to everyone for the info and Bob from Michigan Iron for the diagram. Very big help. Thanks