what might have happened to my 1054's axles

[rustyoldjunk 127]

i emailed the guy in MI. that i got te 1054 from that has the strangely short axle shafts,asking him if he had any idea what might have happened.what i found out was that his family bought it in the mid 70's when he was just a kid.he said he was plowing snow with it and used it to ram snowbanks until the rearend let go ( at the time he didnt know any better and even though he was a young teenager he still had to pay for the repair).he said a gen lawn and garden repair shop repaired the transaxle but thats all he could tell me.i guess if the tractor has been fine with the extra short axles all these years i will just leave it as is,it just didnt look healthy with the axles minus an inch of coming to flush in the hubs.still leaves the questions though,what exactly did they do to fix the transaxle..........

[JimD 3,347]

hi rusty. i don't know how hard it would be to find replacement axles for it, but poking around on ebay might just turn up what you need. is it hi-low or 4 speed? some body's gotta have them.

[Teddy da Bear 11]

1054's were 4 speed only ...

I could offer a likely scenario. If the E clip let go on the axle (I had this happen to a later model tractor) there can be damage to the inside end of the axle as it works it's way out of the tranny housing. They likely could have re-machined the inside ends thus making them shorter. Then cut another groove for the E clip (clip retains the axle in the bull gear) They did both the same for reason of keeping each side symetrical.

I think you likely have the original axles......only shorter. It would be difficult to find another tractor's axle to fit in the tranny. But someone might know otherwise as I do not know the cross reference of axles in other tractors and the 1054.

[wh500special 2,267]

Jim,

I've seen a number of 953/1054's with blown rear ends here on RS and elsewhere too. I think I recall that the spider gears in the differential (unique to these models) were a little weak and can break/shear under the wrong conditons putting shrapnel inside the case and wrecking other components. I'd be willing to bet your tractor has had the whole differential/axle assembly replaced with a newer type (with pinion gears) from a different tractor model and thus has shorter axle shafts.

Hopefully If I'm wrong someone who has been inside one of these things will provide a better explanation.

Steve

[ol550 830]

I was thinking we just went through this. Can you slide one of the hubs off to see if it has a 2 inch long key? The 953, 1054, the GT14 used the 4 bolt hub and the long key. If yours has the 1 inch key you know the axles are not correct. My best guess is still that the entire transaxle has been changed. And if that doesn't confirm the change you may have to split the case and see if there are bevel gears in the differential. My bets are on a 8 pinnion differential. The other thing is are there holes in the top of the housing like the smaller tractors used for the fender support / tool box? The 953 I have has no tapped holes. Mike

[Kelly 1,033]

Another thing to check is the bolt patern that mounts it to the frame, it is diff on a 953 than a regular 3 speed, I know cause I have a 953 with out a trans and it's a pain to move, so I was going to put a spare trans out of a 656 in it to make life easier when moving it, but the holes didn't line up at all with the frame not sure if the 1054 is the same as a 953 but I think it is, you might see if it's had new holes drilled to mount the trans.

[Rollerman 290]

Some of you guys may have caught my previous thread...."953 diff carnage"

http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/index.php?showtopic=6136

ROJ like Steve said the 953/1054 large frame tractors seemed to have a weak link with there differential.

The same internals were used in some of the other tractors too..like the 1056 but with short axles.

The weight of the 953/1054 & the larger tires probably didn't help any either.

The trans uses a spider gear type differential & uses roll pins through the axles to hold the gears in place....yep roll pins not compresson clips, snap rings, E clips or what ever there called.

I have modified the axles of one of my 953's by haveing the groove cut in them for the snap ring & installed them into a 10 pinion diff & plan on trying to put an 8 speed in one of mine.

An 8 pinion diff would be stronger...but I've had this 10 pinion Raider trans laying around forever.

My original plan was to just use the diff in the stock 953 case but think the hi/low would be a neat feature & will drill & tap the case to fit it to the frame...or drill the frame..

But to get back to your issue....I'm guessing someone either swaped your trans..."be easy to check"...are there two holes at the top?

Or they swaped in another diff with the 1 1/8" axles into your 953's case but didn't change out the axles because of the differance in how there retained within the diff itself.

Check your trans to indeed verify it's the correct case....if it is you'll need to start shoping around for a set of axles to make it correct. :hide:

[rustyoldjunk 127]

thanks guys a lot of very useful info in this thread.ol550,you are right we did just go thru this.actually the point of this thread was really to just give everybody an update on what i found out so far with a little digging on the history of this particular tractor.i really meant for the thread title to be a statement,not a question,im sorry for the confusion,but im not sorry for all the good info this group gave me in this thread.thanks again everyone.TDB,i was already leaning to the senerial that you gave and i think that just may be what happened.at any rate,if it has lasted 35 years like that i think i will leave it alone (but keep a spare 8 speed just in case i every want or need to put it in).