Snagged a 1977 444 Close to home

[mac102004]

Funny the other day in a thread I made the remark that I could probably count on one hand how many 400 series tractors I’ve seen come up for sale in NS, and how they were quite uncommon. Wouldn’t luck have it that this beauty pops up for sale literally 15 minutes from my house in the nearest town to us LOL.

She’s a 1977 444, a bit rough around the edges, seems like it’s had decent maintenance done over the years, the paint job leaves a bit to be desired but I’ve seen worse. It seems to run well, has a new battery in it. Came with tire chains, a front blade (the narrower 200 series), and a mower deck, not sure the size but it’s smaller than the 4ft deck I have now.

The bad part is, it doesn’t move. You move the lever back and forth it doesn’t do anything, just the slightest shudder occasionally. The PO said he had taken the pump and TCV to a local hydraulic shop here and they said both were fine. He did say he was using a thin oil in it for hydraulic oil. Hope to get a look at it next rainy day and see if I can find something simple wrong with it.




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[mac102004]

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[mac102004]

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[MattA]

Does it move in high or low range?

[mac102004]

I only tried it in low when I was at the PO's place, I'll try it in high tomorrow when I take it off the truck.

[Eugen]

See, when the planets align it all works out. Good project.

So if the TCV and motor are ok, what's left? Transmission. You might have to have a look in there. Keep us posted!

[Spike188]

My guess is that the bolts holding the ring gear to differential are snapped off. They are not a big job to change and it is a good time to clean out the housing. It will probably have a lot of water and oil sludge in it.

Spike

[mac102004]

Got it off the truck yesterday, tried it in both high and low and it’s the same. It’s a bit hard to describe but it just barely starts to move there is no abnormal sounds or changes to load on the engine. It acts like travel lever is way out of adjustment and it’s not actually actuating the spool on the TCV. Maybe tonight I will have a better look at it, I want to change the fluids anyway and I already started stripping paint off it haha


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[mac102004]

Another quick update, just after milking this morning I stopped in the shop. The hydraulic lift on it is extremely slow also, to the point of not functioning either. I suspect the problem is going to be either with the TCV or pump, both of which were already taken off and supposedly inspected by a competent hydraulic repair shop. I guess the first thing will be to change out the oil for 15w40 and go from there.

Paint stripping is going as expected, just can’t buy decent stripper anymore.


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[Eugen]

Right, I always change all fluids on anything I get, you never know what the PO did. Let's hope that's all there is, but still, should not be a big deal to fix if it's something else.

How's the engine running?