new rattle/vibration on 2210 -> what might it be?

wickman · May 26, 2018

I have an older (2002 i think) JD2210. I don't do too much to it. I mow. It's not pushed very hard. 493 hours. Today the wife was mowing and came up to the house telling me the tractor is making a 'noise'. "Oh great," i say. "What did you run over?" Well she claims she didn't hit or run over anything. I start it up and it sounds fine. Rev it to about 2500 and it still sounds fine. i rev it a bit more getting closer to 3000 and it starts this nasty sounding rattle. I hesitate to call it a vibration because i mostly hear it rather than feel it. i start playing with the throttle lever and i can now almost make the rattle go away or at least change intensity by pushing sideways on the throttle lever. or backing off the throttle ever so slightly and then increasing again. The rattle occurs with machine stopped and in N. Any ideas where might to start? Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'm about ready to see how to take the cowling off under the steering wheel and see if i can see where the throttle goes on the inside....

THX> Eric

wickman · May 27, 2018

So after much googling and watching of 2210 videos on YouTube I think my noise may be related to a failed U-joint in the drive shaft. Anyone have experience with this failure? And I'm reading it may cost upwards of $2000 to have fixed so i may starting to disassemble my tractor today. THX> Eric

beenthere · May 27, 2018

No experience, but have read about the u-joint problem here. Seems several have tackled it, and come out victorious. Wish you well, and hope you post the fix for the benefit of others that follow.

jsb2b · May 28, 2018

See Post #27 for step by step instructions:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...305-drive-shaft-fan-repair-3.html#post4124267

wickman · May 28, 2018

really? I'm going to have to take more of a look at this method. Is the 2305 pretty much the same design as the 2210?

UPDATE: sounds like underside of 2210 and 2305 are totally different. I found this thread that goes into the issue in some good detail. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...grease.html?highlight=jd+2210+u+joint+problem

ovrszd · May 28, 2018

Yeah, that's my thread which I was going to link you to.

Fix this immediately!! If the joint fails and throws the driveshaft out you'll definitely see a $2K or more repair.

If you can do the work you'll fix this for $100 or less.

zzvyb6 · May 28, 2018

Youtube to the rescue.

How To Fix A John Deere 221 Drive Shaft - YouTube

wickman · May 29, 2018

I got down to the shaft (the rear of it at least ) and so far no obvious signs of failure. The joints don't seem sloppy or noisy. I made it this far so i will be continuing......

wickman · Jun 8, 2018

So I've been messing with this for over a week. I went back and forth over taking the rear u-joint off since it seemed ok (to me at least). Upon closer inspection though i found a small strip of metal wrapper around one of the nodes in the joint. That really wasn't supposed to be there. I proceeded to do my best to push the cups out on the rear joint with a large c clamp i have. What a pain doing it on the tractor. I finally got two pushed out and discovered one cup with no roller bearings left and the post all beat up. i then started on the other two cups. Now the joint moves around though so keeping the joint, the clamp, and various sockets in line is a MAJOR pain. Finally managed to free the last two cups.

I then focused on the front joint. This one is more of a challenge since you can't reach it. I inspected it well and shook and moved it quite a bit. No play at all and no funny pieces of metal sticking out. I tried a bit to get the snap ring off but my pair of pliers is too short and doesn't open wide enough to really come close to getting it off. I decided not to swap the front joint out. I hope i don't regret that decision. I was able to grease the zerk in the joint (came down from the top next to steering column).

Tonight i replaced the rear joint and pushed in all four cups with snap rings. Again, a major pain doing it by myself with a c clamp and various sockets. I bought a moog 410 replacement u-joint from autozone for about $23.

Tomorrow i will clean off all the dirt and grass i can find and put it back together and cross my fingers. At least next time it won't take as long........

Take care, Eric