4-WD Case IH Converted To FWA

4-WD Case IH Converted To FWA TRACTORS Conversions Wes Weaver says 4-WD is great when you need it and a hassle when you don’t That’s why he converted his 3594 Case IH to Front-Wheel Assist FWA from full-time 4-WD     “Going down the road the planetary on the front axle would get hotter than when it pulled a chisel plow all day ” says Weaver who gets plenty of road time hauling manure “Being able to disengage the front axle gives a better ride and there’s less wear to the front end and clutch The tractor uses less fuel too ”     Weaver worked with Nears Precision Products a Beloit Wis area machine shop to make the conversion     “I had seen similar transfer cases on other tractors like the smaller 2294 so we based ours on that ” says Weaver “When we pulled apart the transfer case there was plenty of room It actually looked like Case IH may have planned to offer FWA at some point ”     Weaver and Nears redid the output shaft The gear was splined to the shaft so they cut a section out of the shaft at the gear and added a neck with splines to the gear They fixed splines to the remainder of the shaft and used a shift collar to connect the two They drilled a few oil ports for lubrication and the tractor was just about good to go     “We added a shift fork with a push/pull cable going up to the cab and connected it to a lever in the console ” explains Weaver “In the corner of the case there was a chunk of steel That was where we put the shaft the shift fork rides on It looked like that was what it was intended for ”     A detent spring on the fork shaft lets Weaver slip it into 4-WD on the go He just hits the clutch and engages the lever To go back to FWA requires that he stop and back up     “The front wheels spin a little faster than the rear but when we back up it just lets go ” he says     Weaver is mostly satisfied with the conversion This past fall he put 150 hrs of heavy tillage on it using the 4-WD Later when he drained the oil and opened up the case everything looked good     “It does make more noise when I am driving down the road ” says Weaver “When the shift collar is not engaged the splines fixed on the gear spin free on the shaft Nears thinks it may not be meshed quite as close as it could be ”     He gives a lot of credit to Nears for the attention paid to the job “They X-rayed the shaft and ran hardening tests on it to be sure the neck matched ” says Weaver “They even made a second set of parts in case we wanted to adapt another tractor ”     He notes that there were only about 1 500 Case IH 3594’s made However if someone with one wanted to make the conversion he and Nears would be glad to help     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Wes Weaver N2615 County Road V Sheldon Wis 54766 ph 715 532-9889; cell 715 403-0159; wesanddonna@emypeople net or Nears Precision Products 9550 W State Road 81 Beloit Wis 53511 ph 608 879-3311

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