Suggtions freeing stuck steering clutches on D2

First line of attack is to look for heavy or un-movable objects to work the tractor against. Heavy is better, but un-movable works too. Pulling or pushing something heavy, you can ride the brakes to heat up the drums and increase the load on the clutches at the same time. Do this in low gears and with the steering clutches held back for maximum strain on the stuck plates.

You will want to adjust the free travel out of the levers if still possible, you're going to have to readjust them anyway. I suppose when it breaks loose, you might have to adjust to get back to the shop, but that would be a great thing in my opinion! Make sure to lubricate the steering clutch release bearings before and during all this. They will be under load whenever you have the clutch levers back, in this case almost constantly!

Then or along with the working of it, you might want to either use citric acid rust removal bath or probably safer when you're actually moving the machine, kerosene or diesel. In either case, you fill the compartment up til the clutches are dipping in it, but the shaft is not, else it will likely get into the bevel gear compartment and final drive.

Thanks for the feedback. I've replaced the clutches on two of my machines in the past, so I am very familiar with the amount of work involved if I need to remove the finals. The other machines just had worn out clutches, so the finals came free relatively easy. At least, I didn't have to break the drums as I've heard others having to do. I guess I'll try kerosene and see if anything gives. Seems I don't have anything to lose. And if I have to end up removing the finals maybe it will help with the clutches slipping out of the drums. The plugs are already out of the finals, so I'll probe around, make sure they are truly empty and proceed from there. I guess I'll replace the seals in the #44 and get the blade mounted back on so I can do some digging (once I can get it pointed in the right direction).
Thanks again.

I have a D2 with a stuck steering clutch I've been working on too. without much luck, but I have recently found a product that actually does what it claims so I am going to try it next by filling the housing about a third of the way up and turning the drum a little every two weeks. The product is Evap-o-Rust, just type it in to Google. I always aproach these products with skepticism because most don't work. (I tried the Citric Acid). I bought a gallon a while back and the other day I found a D2 carburator in a bucket of parts that had been setting outside for years and it was little more than a chunk of rust. I put it in the Evap-o-Rust and left it for two days and came back to find a D2 carb that was completly clean of rust inside and out without being eaten away by an acid and it even still had the paint on it. It is a water based solution that is biodegradable and is rinsed off with water after use and can be used over and over. You are supposed to completly submerge what ever you are cleaning or you can put part of it in and then turn it as necessary. Agin there is no acid to eat at the metal. My next project after my steering clutch is to try cleaning a D2 fuel tank without damaging the paint.

Chuck

Chuck, Thanks for the info. After hearing how long you've been toiling with the stuck clutch, I might go ahead and remove my finals. Wouldn't hurt to just freshen the clutches up anyway. The right one, as usual, is really worn by how far I had to turn in the adjustment bolt. I suspect these will be really stuck. I don't know how long the machine sit with a stuck engine, but I think for years. I was at least the third owner to buy the machine as it sat.

Filling the finals to soak definitely helps to take the clutches out of the brake drums as it softens the rust. I see that you have a couple of D2's so now I realize you know what you are going to be getting into.
The biggest problem is that the fiber gets wet, then rust grows between it and the steel plate. Almost no matter what you try, this will be the rust that will force you to take it apart.
In order to ride the brakes like CC suggests, you need to do this test before you fill the finals. On mine it would not have helped, only psychologically. At least I could have said, "I tried it!"

My right hand steering clutch has been stuck since I got my D2, I've soaked it in diesel, citric acid,and kero, pulled the log truck with the brakes on, dug a hole and pushed out trees with the right hand handle tied back! Now I've let it set the winter soaking in PB blaster. I don't have alot of hope thats going to work either so I'm sure I'll have to bite the bullet and pull the right side apart this spring.

Good luck
hope springs eternal
Dennie

I have soaked many D2 machines it never seems to work in getting them free. It might work if you caught it a month after it stuck but if the machine has been sitting or you bought it from someone and who knows how long it sat. It is a bummer but it needs to be tore down and redone😞

Thanks all. I'll soak them in kerosene and try a quick break loose test, but mainly just soak them in hopes it helps with removal. I don't know the exact history, but based on how bad the diesel was stuck, the machine must have sat a very long time.