[AT] Farmall 350/300 More Questions

[HaliganBar at aol.com]

Mike;

Sounds like you explained it very well. I can attest to the sprag clutch and 
freewheeling "feature" of the TA. We bale a bunch of fields that are very 
hilly and I'm VERY careful to have the TA in high when going downhill. It really 
is a handy feature to have on the tractor although sometimes I forget it's 
there. I'm amazed how much abuse the 350 will endure. A couple of years ago the 
baling tractor (a Nuffield 4/65) finally died and the guy I help couldn't afford 
to repair or replace it. We used the Farmall 350 for everything that year and 
it really did a good job, even running the IH 430 baler & pulling a catch 
trailer with 120 bales in it.

Karl

In a message dated 3/6/04 1:22:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, msloane at att.net 
writes:

<< The TA is a planetary gear arrangement that, when engaged, reduces the 
speed of the output shaft by about 1/3 and increases the torque by about the same 
amount. It can be engaged or disengaged without using the main clutch, so if 
you are baling, for instance, and suddenly need to slow your ground speed and 
increase the power, you don't have to stop and shift down to a lower gear. You 
just pull back on the TA lever and run that way until the problem clears, 
then push it forward to go back where you were. The hardware involved is somewhat 
complex and requires splitting the tractor to service it, so the cost of 
repair tends to be high. 
 
 Early TA's had sprag clutches that resulted in freewheeling when the tractor 
coasted or went down hill. If you had the TA engaged and started down a steep 
hill with a wagon in back, the whole mess could start to gather speed; then 
if you tried to disengage the TA at that point, you stook a good chance of 
destroying the TA. :-(
 
 I am sure others can provide a better thechnical description of the 
machinery than I...
 
 Mike >>