JD 4200 steering wheel spins freely

[JD4Life]

My JD4200 4x4 HST is currently stuck in a creek bottom (on dry land at least). The steering wheel turns both left and right freely and effortlessly when the tractor is running.

I checked the hydraulic lines going in to each side of the power steering cylinder and it appears to spurt fluid from each when the steering wheel is turned.

The drive wheels seem to turn to the left (although gradually) regardless of which way the wheel is turned.

I found a large nut (about 1" across) and think that it may have come from the steering control unit. Does anyone have any ideas on how to further diagnose, test, fix this problem?

 

[Egon]

Have you checked the hydro fluid?

The wheels should turn without the hydraulics albeit slowly with a very jerky motion.

 

[beenthere]

:welcome:
Sorry to hear about the 4200.

What led up to the steering problem?
You say "stuck" in a creek bottom. Meaning stuck like in the mud, or stuck like the steering doesn't work?

Were you in brush before the steering stopped working? Or what happened.
Where was the nut found?

You say fluid spurts from the hyd lines to the pwr strng cyl. Is that from a leak or did you disconnect the lines and get fluid to spurt out? Full flow, or not? Apparently the pwr strng cyl. does not move when turning the str wheel, so the problem isn't mechanical linkage (doesn't explain the lost nut however).

The "drive" wheels turn left....Meaning the front wheels, I presume.

Hope we can help you out of the mess. Could use more info from your end.

Let us know, with a pic if possible, where this nut comes from if you find out (or we can look for it on the tech CD).

 

[JD4Life]

Yes I did check the hydraulic fluid and it is full. All other hydraulics work fine too.



The wheel becomes hard to turn when the tractor is off but the wheels still don't move. I did some brush bogging and then some loader work to grade one of the banks on the creek. I was going in forward and reverse and suddenly lost steerage. As far as the nut, I found it in the creek bottom and it was shiny like it had been protected under a cowl. No nylon or thread lock appeared to be in it.

The steering wheel spins infinitely in each direction. I don't think it did that before. I don't know whether it stopped due to a mechanical stop or hydraulic back pressure.

Perhaps that nut secures the shaft on the bottom end, not sure.

I suppose the piston in that cylinder could be completely blown out as it does not respond slowly as it would if it was worn and having fluid blow by. Thanks for e help, you guys are great!!!!

 

[JD4Life]

And by "bogging" I meant "hogging". Darn autocorrect.......

 

[beenthere]

And by "bogging" I meant "hogging". Darn autocorrect.......

Just click on the edit button for the post you need to correct. That works best.

And I still don't understand the depth of your problem, so can't help until more info comes forth. Hopefully others can understand.

 

[JD4Life]

Thanks Beenthere....

I apologize for the lack of information. Trying to do it on your phone just doesn't cut it, finally at a computer.

What led up to the steering problem? The tractor actually worked fine until it stopped steering.

You say "stuck" in a creek bottom. Meaning stuck like in the mud, or stuck like the steering doesn't work? Stuck like the steering doesn't work and I can't angle the wheels to head up hill as I would like. They kind of take the path of least resistance which happens to be to the left.

Were you in brush before the steering stopped working? Or what happened.
Where was the nut found? I was not in brush directly before the steering stopped working but did do a little brush hogging earlier. The nut was found in the middle of the creek. I initially thought that it was off of the brush hog because the brush hog is new and this hardware was shiny.

You say fluid spurts from the hyd lines to the pwr strng cyl. Is that from a leak or did you disconnect the lines and get fluid to spurt out? Full flow, or not? I disconnected the lines from each side of the cylinder and turned the steering wheel which caused them to spurt fluid. I did not measure the pressure but it shot several feet almost instantaneously. The system did not appear to be leaking anywhere.

Apparently the pwr strng cyl. does not move when turning the str wheel, so the problem isn't mechanical linkage (doesn't explain the lost nut however).

The front wheels do not move when you turn the steering wheel. My initial reaction was that the piston in the cylinder went bad, disintegrated, came off, etc... and that fluid was just running from one side to the other. Because the steering wheel turns like butter when the tractor is running almost like the power steering is still engaged, but the shaft on the cylinder does not move. Also, I was able to lift the front wheels off the ground with the loader and manually push the wheels to the right (it was not easy) thus proving that the shaft was not "bound up" in the cylinder.

Thanks for the help!!

 

[Henri88]

JD4Life, when you had the front-end in the air, did you try to turn the wheel with the steering? If so, did it turn some, was there any sign of movement what so ever at the cylinder?

 

[Egon]

Look at all the mechanical linkages on the steering system from the steering wheel to the hydraulic power unit

 

[JD4Life]

Henri88,

I did try to turn the wheel when the wheels were in the air and it did not respond.

Every once in a while, if you turned the steering wheel, the wheel would jerk or more stutter I guess about 1/8".