1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Reassembly

I'd been waiting a week to get a new pressure plate delivered but it has now arrived. New pressure plate, you ask? Well, yes, the old one is broken and the broken bits are the reason the clutch wouldn't completely release when I first got the tractor home, thus grinding gears when shifting into gear. In the first photo below, the two metal tabs are 2/3 of what is supposed to pull the pressure plate away from the clutch disc when the clutch pedal is pressed down. Without those two tabs, the pressure plate stays somewhat engaged with the clutch disc. So, I had to order a new pressure plate. I didn't realize the broken status until I was installing the clutch and pressure plate onto the rebuilt engine, at which time I noticed something wasn't quite right. This little detour did save me money though, because if I'd purchased the pressure plate from the company I bought the engine gasket kit and parts from, it would have been about $40 more than the $60 I paid for the one I got off eBay.

While waiting for the new pressure plate to arrive, I got the throw-out bearing put back in the clutch housing. There are two springs that keep the bearing pulled to the rear of the tractor until the clutch pedal is pressed. The two springs were a real joy to get off, as there is almost no room to get anything but a skinny screwdriver to the anchor points about 4 inches behind the bearing. It was a 20 minute job to just get the springs off, and I figured it would be at least that long to get them back on. After working for several minutes and getting nowhere, my brain kicked into gear and I thought I'd try something. I would get a rod and drill a small dimple in the end so that I could engage the end of the spring hook into the dimple, then finagle the spring onto the anchor. When looking for a rod, I ran across a piece of aluminum tubing that might just do the trick. This first photo is what I'm working with. The red arrow is the anchor point and the yellow arrow is the spring end.

This next photo shows the aluminum tube with the spring end in the end of the tube. I was able to push the tube rearward and easily hook the spring hook onto the anchor. It went easily for the second spring also. I wish I'd known this trick when I took the springs out.

This next photo is attempting to show the size of the tube.

Springs are all installed.

Old and new pressure plates are shown below.

A little sidebar here: Notice the hole through the center of the new plate is smaller than the old one. This may be causing interference issues now that the tractor is together. I didn't think to compare the two before installing the new one. If I press quite a ways down on the clutch pedal, there is a noise coming from the clutch. Hopefully I can adjust the clutch pedal in a way that it won't be an issue.

The engine is back in place on the tractor in this next photo.

At this point I figured it was time to try starting the engine. I was bleeding the fuel lines but was having difficulty. After several minutes, I realized the throttle lever was in the Off position. Duh. Once that was moved forward, fuel started dripping from the injector lines when I cranked the engine over. With more cranking, the tractor still wasn't firing, so I got a propane torch and heated the intake air, which did the trick. Below is a first start video.

And the front end is back in place. There is a front driveshaft in there also, which wasn't installed when I bought the tractor. In a previous blog I showed how I made new splines on the end of the broken shaft (click here).

Next the radiator, air cleaner, and battery are installed.

And finally the loader goes back on.

Once the tractor was back in one piece, I decided to repair the seat pan that had been welded up many times in the past. Maybe I should just buy a new seat......

After the seat pan, I worked on the 3-point hitch links. They were both bent from abuse. This next photo is of the 3-point before the repairs.

The adjustable link being bent back into submission below.

The 3-point links and arms look much better now.

The 3-point lift handle had been broken sometime in the past and a chunk of steel is now in its place. The handle doesn't look too good and rubs on the quadrant slot, so I decided to do something about it. I unbolted the chunk of steel and re-bent it so it wouldn't rub, then shortened it and ground the end round. This first photo below shows a poor photo of the handle before the work.

This next photo shows the finished handle.

When I got the tractor together and running, I tried the hydraulics. They barely worked. Inspecting the hydraulic lines revealed a loose clamp on the suction line from the transmission, which fixed the problem. Now the only real issue with the hydraulics is that the bucket control lever doesn't click into the "float" position. Just one more thing to fix sometime in the future.

I have maybe 1/2 hour of run time on the tractor now and it seems to be working well, even the Mechanical Front Wheel Drive (MFWD), John Deere's (and others) term for the four-wheel-drive system.