Ferguson 20 diesel - stuck in gear

gyppo

Hi all,

My father has a MF20 that has been in a shed for about 6 months.

Started it up yesterday, and got it moving after a bit of fiddling with the gear lever and selector rods.
However, the gear selector rods are very stiff to the extent they are practically siezed. Other than splitting the tractor and removing the gearbox (we don't want to go there if at all possible) is there any other way of freeing the gear selector rods??
I was also wondering if taking off the steering box would give enough room to take out the gearbox top cover and see if the rods could be freed then?

Also, looking down into the gearbox with the gearlever removed, there is a coil of wire (its like 2 strands of 1mm solid wire twisted - similar to the wire ties on a potato bag, if you can picture that), that loops around the head of a stud on each side of the selector rods. At first I thought this was the source of all the problems, but on closer examination, it doesnt look like a foreign body. Is this supposed to be here??

Anyone been here before?? Many Thanks

gyppo

Many Thanks for the link!!!:)

marlyman

muchos welcomas. have most of the origonal workshop manuals if anyone wants them.
pm me when you have donwloaded so i can remove the manual.