Another thing to look at on my 648

[Eugen]

This topic is timely and applies to me as well, the lever on my 644 gets stuck sometimes in Forward or Reverse, and it takes quite some wiggling to get that unstuck.

Sounds like yours may be worn more that mine. If you can get a couple of pictures of it maybe we can compare them all against spikes new one.

I will do Jeff, when I get a chance, and post here. For some reason I think my plate is "home made" Nothing wrong with that in itself, the PO seems to have done a lot of work on this tractor, and good work at that, although he did not seem fond of OEM parts and I don't blame anyone for that. Not everyone can afford all OEM parts.

[JSinMO]

I wanted to get back to this because it’s getting
to be a PITA to hold the travel lever all the time.
I was informed by she who watches the bank book that currently there is no funding in the fiscal budget for the procurement of replacement parts for aged equipment. Then there was some mention of keeping food on the table and the lights on or some such, but I quit listening after she said “don’t spend money on old tractors right now”.

I decided I really couldn’t make it worse, so barnyard engineering is the plan.
Disassembly was pretty easy, and once apart some of the problems are evident.
The foot control hole and linkage hole are quite egg shaped. And what I think was the friction washer is worn out and crumbling.

I laid out where the center of the holes should be and welded the existing holes shut.

I marked the center points and re drilled the holes.

I have some friction washers already from another project so I’m going to size them for this application and see what happens.
That’s where I had to stop for the day. Hopefully I’ll be able to reassemble and try it out soon.

[Eugen]

Looks good @JSinMO , should work just fine. I'm sorry I simply forgot to take pictures of mine on the tractor. I'll try to remember and do that in the next few days.

[Eugen]

Don't know if it helps but here it is

[JSinMO]

Looks good @JSinMO , should work just fine. I'm sorry I simply forgot to take pictures of mine on the tractor. I'll try to remember and do that in the next few days.

Thank you, I’m hoping it at least works better. No worries on the pictures. We all have a lot of irons in the fire!

[JSinMO]

Don't know if it helps but here it is



C6B0C185-6164-4F90-90EE-9417E9A4D1CF.jpeg



CEE45A1E-723A-4335-A930-8C594CCC8528.jpeg

Wow, I can tell you the biggest difference is yours is way, way cleaner underneath than mine is!

[JSinMO]

I spent some time this evening continuing on this project. I reassembled the whole thing, it didn’t go back together as easy as it came apart! Once I had it together I moved the foot and control levers and it seems much better. I watched the valve move while pushing the foot lever with my hand. It looks like I have full forward now, however I still don’t have full reverse. Watching it move it looks like I may have some wear in the banana cut out that I can’t do much about, but I noticed play in the ball linkage. I suppose I should have figured on that. I disassembled most of it again and took the linkage out. Yup it’s wore out.

But there is one on the other valve under there that is capped off for the rear lift that has never been used. Pulled it out and it feels much more solid with no play.

You can really see the difference in wear.

So next time I’ll swap the linkage and reinstall everything.
Hopefully I’ll be driving it again soon!

[Eugen]

Jeff, good progress, hope to see you back in the saddle soon. I never took mine apart as far as you but I'm sure mine has wear and needs attention. Helps to see what you're dealing with here!

[JSinMO]

I really wanted to see how my repairs worked so I went up this morning and put it all back together.

I pulled it out of the shop and made a few final adjustments.

I think we’re good to go! Now I have full forward and reverse with out holding the control lever!

I used a throttle friction disc to replace the friction washer on the control lever. We’ll see how long it lasts but so far so good!

So now it’s back to running it and see how it does!

[ssmewing]

I have been cleaning shop and reorganizing because the banana plate parts were hiding.image.png

The black plate is the new one with ball joints and a different moon profile.image.png
But the biggest difference is the overall plate thickness.

When replacing the plate on the 646L I may have not opened the frame mount enough or did not get the mount angled correctly. Hopefully work on the 646BH will commence soon.

The thicker banana plate is only generally sold with the needed matching mounting bracket.

https://salempwr.com/c48640-kit-c21512-replacement/

https://salempwr.com/c48638-kit-cam-assy/

Whoever posted the picture of their banana plate that did not have the same amount of paint wear or contact with the follower in the slot, does not have the mount in the exact plane that the control lever travels. That is an essential adjustment for optimal operation. That can cause jamming and uneven wear. Uneven wear means it will wear out faster.

The last tip is the one that will tell you when you have a like-new travel control, the foot pedal should stop short of the floorboard.