Sealant for leaking transmission joints.

[756puller]

Got a magnum 340 power shift that I had the can pulled and split between the transmission housings a year ago. Did use the high prices loctite sealant mother case recommends. Went out to the tractor this morning and it's leaking in the same area..it's not the right time of year to be tearing this planting tractor down. I heard one time John Deere has some kind of special sealant for these kinds of leaks to get by for a bit. Has anyone heard about this sealant or am I just dreaming?

[bwop2017]

did you use 515 or 518?

 

There's no way to seal a transmission mating flange from the outside unless its with a welder or some brazing rod. 

[756puller]

They went away from 515 and have some loctite 5128 or something like that

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

I had the final drives off my John Deere 4wd last spring and they just sold me Loctite to use on it. I don’t remember the number. I haven’t heard of or seen any magic elixir in a Deere store. 

[bwop2017]

5128 is a higher temp and more flexible version of 518. 

Only use 518 on magnum transmissions.

There was a service bulletin and knowledge article about magnums that would leak after being split because people would use 515 instead of 518.

Use 518, make sure you go around ALL of the bolt holes/dowels, make sure you have the mating surfaces bone dry and absolutely clean, roll the tractor together, I use the 518 on the bolt threads to act as loctite, then try to get the bolts torqued within 30 minutes of rolling together.

I wait till last minute to put oil in so it can harden and set. 

[756puller]

Yes i did follow the service bulletin and installed new bolts and everything. It ran for planting and harvest last year and now it's got a leak again 

[KR74]

The customer didn't happen to get the tractor stuck at some point since you reassembled it and pulled it out by hooking onto the front end and it stretched the transmission housing bolts by chance.  The neighbor got a tractor and planter stuck one spring and it had to go in and get split just to reseal the transmission housings because it was buried deep enough that it stretched things.  I was told if they are stuck bad enough that you really need to get back to the drawbar anchor to pull on them, granted that isn't very easy to do when they are stuck belly deep or worse.  

[Cdfarabaugh]

This is the stuff I use on any housings, usually Deere specified but it doesn't care what color the paint is.  

Key to anaerobic sealants like this is clean clean clean of oil residue.  If inna hurry use activator to ensure it fully cures.  

@756pulleryou must be on a Farcebook mechanic group I follow, this looks familiar 🙂

[756puller]

21 minutes ago, Cdfarabaugh said:

This is the stuff I use on any housings, usually Deere specified but it doesn't care what color the paint is.  

Key to anaerobic sealants like this is clean clean clean of oil residue.  If inna hurry use activator to ensure it fully cures.  

@756pulleryou must be on a Farcebook mechanic group I follow, this looks familiar 🙂

Yes I'm on diesel mechanics only ag mechanics. Just trying to see if there's a half ass fix to get him by since it's go time.

[SDman]

They've been using 5128 at the Magnum plant since 2014-2015 and seemed to have pretty much fixed most of the complaints of transmission leaks; they pretty much eliminated all the gaskets on the transmission and now just use 5128 everywhere on it now.

I guess we've had pretty good luck with the 5128 when doing repairs as well. We've got a handful of Magnums with Grouser dozers mounted to them...they were the ones that gave the most trouble in the area between the speed/range transmission sections. All that twisting/torquing/turning between the sections made life difficult for the gasket previously used that traces its lineage back to the IH 50 series. They tried higher-grade bolts at higher torque values at the joint among other things, and just never could seem to get the problem fixed. We had a couple earlier MX Magnums that gave problems in this area, they would need a gasket every 2 or 3 years or so. Once we used the 5128, they have been clean ever since.

One thing the bulletin does advise is that if anybody has used any silicone previously in that joint area, there is a special cleaning procedure that involves using a hand-held propane torch to "boil" the silicone out of the machined housing surface, or else the 5128 may not be able to seal due to the silicone residue.

Not sure what 5128 costs now....last I knew it was over $120 for a tube that fits a caulk gun.

 

[756puller]

This one has 515 on it the first time. So I cleaned everything up and put the 5128 on and got by for the year but unfortunately my luck has run out.

[Nebraska1206]

Slightly off topic, but has anyone come across the "green" 515-type sealant that was used on the combine transmissions, esp. on the 250 series Flagships?  There's a Loctite number for it, but I don't think CNH offers it, or at least not last I knew.

That green stuff is a b*tch to clean off the gasket surfaces! 😳

[Jacka]

4 hours ago, KR74 said:

The customer didn't happen to get the tractor stuck at some point since you reassembled it and pulled it out by hooking onto the front end and it stretched the transmission housing bolts by chance.  The neighbor got a tractor and planter stuck one spring and it had to go in and get split just to reseal the transmission housings because it was buried deep enough that it stretched things.  I was told if they are stuck bad enough that you really need to get back to the drawbar anchor to pull on them, granted that isn't very easy to do when they are stuck belly deep or worse.  

It's bad on any tractor to pull hooked only to the front. Not much keeping them together.I always if it's stuck to run a chain under and hook to the drawbar.

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

On machinery of any size, it’s best to already have the tow cable installed and leave it on. That way when it gets stuck you hook just hook it on instead of wading in and digging for the drawbar. 

[ray54]

8 hours ago, Dirt_Floor_Poor said:

On machinery of any size, it’s best to already have the tow cable installed and leave it on. That way when it gets stuck you hook just hook it on instead of wading in and digging for the drawbar. 

But what "I know what I am doing" tractor jokey is going to do that. 😵‍💫 Who, me make a mistake.😡 Never, oops          😂

[sandhiller]

10 hours ago, Dirt_Floor_Poor said:

On machinery of any size, it’s best to already have the tow cable installed and leave it on. That way when it gets stuck you hook just hook it on instead of wading in and digging for the drawbar. 

Not many swathers running around here that don't have that tow cable hooked up front and run out the back

Makes sense they would be just the opposite of a tractor 

So much nicer to just hook up to that big ol cable eye staring at you about knee height😉

[cobfly]

I tend to swath on dry ground.😁

[Diesel Doctor]

At about $200/hour labor rate, and the costs of this new goop, following the procedure to the letter SDMAN gave can get very costly.

But, a leak afterwards is dang annoying and costly and can be a "come back" for a mechanic. .

Is this truly better than a gasket?

 

[HydroTek]

1 hour ago, Diesel Doctor said:

Is this truly better than a gasket?

Yes
housing flex will cause a gasket to leak , or work out of the joint
the sealer / adhesives will hold up better in my experience

I have been getting good results with the Kubota "runny" gray sealer in the high stress gasket areas -- (not a silicone product)

even out performs the Locktite stuff where I have had problems getting a good seal

Tho some operators can break anything

[SDman]

Well, the sealant seems to be working better....I haven't heard anything regarding this still being a problem on newer tractors. They've been building them this way for better than 10 years. Either the problem is resolved, or they just quit trying to fix it(like the transition cones in the Flagship combines).

For some reason, this has been somewhat of a problem since the MX Magnums came along in 1999-2000. Doesn't seem to be too much of a problem with a regular farm tractor...seems to be more of a problem with dozer tractors and, to my understanding, the boys down South that pull dirt scrapers with a Magnum. I'm not sure if the bathtub frame that the MX Magnum uses contributes more to this problem or not, but the old classic Magnums and the blue New Holland Magnums don't seem to have near the problems. Part of me thinks that with the engine bolted directly to the front of the transmission(and the engine/transmission housings bolted completely together all the way around the flywheel/input shaft), there's less twist involved as compared to the bathtub frame. It also doesn't help that the engine sits further ahead and is elevated upwards with the bathtub frame as compared to a direct coupling between the engine and transmission....I'm guessing the weight of the engine acts as leverage to make things flex more. Just my thoughts....