"After the Ordeal" Wheel a Matic leak and repair

[squonk 43,994]

My 875 developed a leak a while back. Sometimes big sometimes small. ATF isn't cheap anymore and it was keeping the transaxle from ever developing rust spots. Degunked it once and searched for the source. Then the frame broke also  and repairing that finally found the leak source. The control shaft seal. I would like to thank @pfrederi and @daveoman1966 for their assistance and insight. The actual repair was simple but the journey was not. Reminded me of working on a K Car in the early 80's. Things weren't adding up as you will see. Learned a little on the way. Also got the hydro control to stay put and not move on it's own. As I found  out. 65 and 66 Hydro's are 310077 "Wheel a Matics and are different than the later Hydrogears. 

 

First the leak. You can see the fresh oil on the frame under the control arm ATF cleans well:

 

 

The control lever has to come out and the tensioner pulley has to come out anyway to fix those. And might as well de gunk it again.

 

 

 

The bushings in the sheet metal and control lever were in great shape for a 60 yr. old machine

 

 

 

Plastic cam was in good shape but the screws and tension plates have left the chat

 

 

 

Used 4 long 3/8 bolts in place of the 4 trans to frame bolts and slid the trans back. This  exposes the hole you use a 7/32 punch in to drive out  a roll pin that holds the control arm on.

 

 

Control arm with neutral adjustment eccentric. In theory I won't have to adjust this.

 

 

 

Aluminum housing for the slide plate had these spline drive screws holding it on. I needed a 1/4 12 pt socket to fit them which I didn't have. Good thing I had a 7MM that fit. 1 screw wasn't super tight. More on that later

 

 

 

There is a recess in the back of that housing that an o-ring seal fits in. Seal was worn square and was a little " stiffy!" 

 

 

 

Now this is where the K Car reference kicks in. The Hydrogear manual shows a 2nd o ring seal on the shaft. The was no evidence or remains of this o-ring. The o ring I got from Paul was too big.

 

 

Paul noted the "Wheel a Matic diagram did not show the o ring. Contacted Dave and he confirmed that and sent me this pic of the later used Hydrogear.

 

 

I put it together with just the 1 o ring. I replaced those spline bolts with allen head bolts. 1 bolt hex was a bit worn and I couldn't get it real tight. Slid the trans back together. Cleaned up the control arm and tensioner shaft bushings. Lubed them with dry graphite. Replaced the plastic cam tensioner plates, added a couple of flat washers for more tension and replaced the slotted screws with 8/32 allen head screws. put the belt back on and guard. Started it up and after about 10 minutes I had a good sized leak still.

 

 

Downloaded the " Wheel A Matic" manual. It talked about those spline screws and how later they switched to allen head bolts. It also said if a leak develops at the shaft tightening the bolts to 70 inch pounds would cure it. I found another allen bolt in my used parts so I had to tear it all back apart to not only replace that 1 bolt I couldn't get real tight but tighten the rest of the bolts. I probably went to 90 inch lbs. but what the heck. Put it all back together and ran it for 20 minutes with the wheels off the ground then another 10 minutes up and down the road. Dry as a bone.

 

 

I think it's FIXED!!!   

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 24 by squonk

[bds1984 1,502]

Glad it is fixed, Mike.  At first, I thought how expensive can ATF be?  Holy you know what!  My Edge ST requires six quarts of ULV fluid for a "drain and fill" and that is up to $18/quart now from Advance Auto!  Here's where it gets better, if you have a Ford with a dual clutch automatic, that fluid is almost $50/quart; glad my Focus had it done!  When my local Advance store closed, nobody looked twice at the 100 or so quarts of transmission fluid (even at 90% off), except me.  I'm glad my Wheel Horse hydros use motor oil and that my dad's retirement gig is at O'Reilly's.  How many quarts does your 875 take? 

[squonk 43,994]

11 minutes ago, bds1984 said:

Glad it is fixed, Mike.  At first, I thought how expensive can ATF be?  Holy you know what!  My Edge ST requires six quarts of ULV fluid for a "drain and fill" and that is up to $18/quart now from Advance Auto!  Here's where it gets better, if you have a Ford with a dual clutch automatic, that fluid is almost $50/quart; glad my Focus had it done!  When my local Advance store closed, nobody looked twice at the 100 or so quarts of transmission fluid (even at 90% off), except me.  I'm glad my Wheel Horse hydros use motor oil and that my dad's retirement gig is at O'Reilly's.  How many quarts does your 875 take? 

5 qts from a dry fill. 

[stevasaurus 23,323]

Cool Mike !!  Do you think you can help walk me through some of this??  I'm gettring tired of riding my 876 while holding onto the drive handle.  I don't have any leaks that I can see, just the presure do-hicky.  We are getting into fall weather finally and I would love to give that some attention.  

   Great pictures of your adventure Mate, and I know it is nice to have good people behind you.  

[squonk 43,994]

14 minutes ago, stevasaurus said:

Cool Mike !!  Do you think you can help walk me through some of this??  I'm gettring tired of riding my 876 while holding onto the drive handle.  I don't have any leaks that I can see, just the presure do-hicky.  We are getting into fall weather finally and I would love to give that some attention.  

   Great pictures of your adventure Mate, and I know it is nice to have good people behind you.  

Yup pretty simple to get the control lever out . Gives enough room to get at those screws. We'll go over it in our next talk.

 

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 73,222]

Nice work Mike! 

Excellent documentary as well.  

[kpinnc 14,795]

6 hours ago, squonk said:

Yup pretty simple to get the control lever out . Gives enough room to get at those screws. We'll go over it in our next talk.

 

 

Please share what works for this. My FILs Charger creeps from neutral and I'm gonna have to replace the seals due to a leak here as well. It would be nice to correct both issues at once. 

[squonk 43,994]

4 hours ago, kpinnc said:

 

Please share what works for this. My FILs Charger creeps from neutral and I'm gonna have to replace the seals due to a leak here as well. It would be nice to correct both issues at once. 

What I did is in my original post. Take out the tenshioner pulley shaft, then snake the control lever out from the top. You have to twist and turn it to get it out. Then remove the 2 slotted screws with the springs. Clean off any grease on the cam. I had some new tension plates already and installed 2 new Allen head screws 8-32 x 1 with a little lock washer under the head then a flat washer on each side of the spring and then tighten. 

 

The creep is adjusted by loosening the Allen screw in the control pivot arm and moving the slotted eccentric cam . With the back jacked up turn the eccentric with a screwdriver until the wheels stop.

 

The Charger uses the later Hydrogear so it will have both orings.

[JoeM 8,462]

A testament to how good those old hydro machines were built. Still kicking. 

I did see one machine that those three mounting screws came loose binding up the slide. A friend purchase that machine on a cheap because the owner did not want to fool with it. Simple fix.

 

Those nylon bushings are also a surprise on how long they last. WH used them all the way up into the end. 

Pars tree wants $7 each and they have them at McMaster Carr $4 and change. Maybe there is another option but I have not found it .

 

 

Edited August 25 by JoeM

[clueless 3,285]

Mike, where do you get those pads on your work table?

[pfrederi 18,745]

6 minutes ago, clueless said:

Mike, where do you get those pads on your work table?

Look like the ones I use.  Interesting since I last purchased in 2022 they went from .50 each to .63 each

 

 

[squonk 43,994]

18 minutes ago, clueless said:

Mike, where do you get those pads on your work table?

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NCBBKMAT1550UL

 

 25 bucks