350 clutches wet or dry?

[bonker81]

If this worked the first picture shows the housing tight to the track rail and the second picture shows the shaft in the trust bearing sleeve when the housing is tight to the track rail. How do I get the shaft out if the housing is tight to the track rail?

[Lavoy]

You have to rotate the housing 90 degrees to get the axle above the trackframe.
Lavoy

[bonker81]

wow...five years of engineering school and i didn't think to turn the housing instead of the shaft...brilliant. thanks lavoy, i will give it a go on Saturday.

[bonker81]

We got the final drive out today and were able to get at the steering clutches and see what was going on. All the clutch plates were covered in oily residue and the gunk that had built up between the clutch plates and brake drum caused everything to bind up real bad. One of the fiber plates was actually split down the middle. We also found the thrust bearing was frozen solid. We also cleaned about 1 1/2" of oily gunk out of the bottom of the steering clutch housing. This was the right side which was the the most difficult to get moving, but I suspect we will find similar conditions on the left. I believe this is the root of the problem of the tracks not turning when they encountered any resistance be it the weight of the machine or pulling the levers.

[bonker81]

ok gentlemen, thanks to lavoy's parts and direction the first steering clutch is rebuilt and ready to go back in. the problem is now that thrust bearing fork is stuck on the linkage shaft. we need to get this out to change the seal behind the quill. we made spacer to fit above the spring to try to press the fork free but it is actually picking up the machine instead of freeing the fork. has anyone run into this before? the next step i guess is heat.