4110 Clutch Life Expectancy

[BillBee]

I have a 2005 with 1130 hours on the clock. Purchased new and other than scheduled maintenance, repairs are minimum with the replacement of a few ruptured hydraulics lines and a couple of valve stems destroyed by logs, both times in the woods loosing the loaded ballast. Welded rings around the stems would致e been useful.

The main use of the tractor is land clearing, tree and stump removal and snow plowing. I would think clutch life expectancy depends on use and mine gets hard use.

I was out of clutch adjustment 300 plus hours ago and wonder what others have gotten out of their clutch and what should be the expected life? Is there any way to determine what is remaining on the disk and the condition of the clutch, other than splitting it?

 

[creekbend]

Just a thought. Are you pressing in the Clutch, fast? And releasing the clutch, slowly?

 

[DK35vince]

Once you us up all the clutch adjustment there is not much you can do but replace the clutch.
Clutch life depends a lot on how it is used and the operator.
I have nearly 1800 hours on my clutch, and it has never needed its first adjustment yet. (still has about the same amount of freeplay as it did when it was new)
I'm hoping/expecting to get several thousand hours out of my clutch

 

[Harry in Ky]

Here is a general "rule of thumb" that applies to any dry clutch tractor - Do you have any freeplay? You need at least enough to allow an inch or so of pedal movement before the release bearing contacts the clutch levers. You should be able to do this with two fingers and very little effort. Once you have established this, operate the tractor with the pedal depressed, and the transmission in gear - how far from the bottom does the pedal rise before the clutch begins to engage? It should move about two to three inches. If it comes up near the top of the stroke, it's probably pretty well worn. If you can operate the tractor in a higher gear, push the brakes and kill the engine, you still have a functioning clutch. If the engine pulls down, the tractor stops moving while the engine continues to run, your clutch is probably done for.

 

[DavesTractor]

I think clutch life is totally based on tractor usage and operator skill. In close quarters using the loader back and forth all day will use up a clutch much quicker than mowing a big field 8 hours a day where the clutch only gets used to start and at lunch and once again at the end of the day.

I do not think there is an inspection port on that tractor, so to physically look at the clutch will require splitting it. Harry in KY seems right on regarding his clutch advice.

I've seen a couple of pilot shaft bearings fail on 4110's, so make sure you replace it as well as the TO bearing when you do a clutch.

 

[skipmarcy]

Back in 2005 I had to do a split on mine to replace broken engine mounting bolts and went ahead and installed a reman. pressure plate, disc, pilot brg. and release brg while there. This was at 681 hrs. and the original stuff looked almost like new still. I stuck the original parts aside for a rainy day. Well, in 2007 a rainy day came along - I lost clutch operation suddenly one day and had to split it again. This was at 2026 hrs. What had happened was one of the 3 bolts in the pressure plate that holds the plate/fingers/springs together had snapped and wouldn't let the clutch release. I reinstalled the original plate, disc and release brg. that I had kept and it has been fine since - I'm at 2360 hrs. now. The reman disc & plate looked fine other than the broken bolt, they would have gone many, many hours otherwise. I work my tractor very hard, used it commercially for a few years even but I know how to operate a clutch. The clutch in my Nissan truck has 260k miles on it. I have no doubt that the clutch in a homeowner 4110 could go 5k hours, maybe many more even. I keep my tractor in 4 wheel drive all the time except on pavement and do alot of digging and loader work as well as boxblading and grass cutting. I'll be sending this broken pressure plate out for repair and keep it with it's matching disc for another rainy day ....

 

[BillBee]

Thanks for the responses and agree the clutch usage is the key to its wear. Logging/land clearing has caused excessive usage. As far as skill, always in low to mid range, I release the clutch at idle and then apply fuel, I don’t use the hand throttle.

The freeplay of an inch is about what I have and the clutch grabs half way up and can kill the engine when engaged and applying the brake. I’m thinking I’ll get about 1500 hours out of it.

I had thought it was mentioned somewhere in a past post, 4110s had an inspection port. I had checked my parts manual, which does not indicate one exist, but I thought I’d ask.

The parts manual, clutch section indicates a Clutch Release Bearing, where are the Pilot and Throwout Bearings or is that it?

What is the degree of difficulty and labor hours to split and replace the clutch?

 

[Harry in Ky]

Pilot bearing will probably be listed with the flywheel

 

[skipmarcy]

Yes, the pilot brg. is in the flywheel. The throwout brg and release brg are just different names for the same bearing, it slides on the housing around the input shaft of the front transmission. Once you split the tractor and see all of these components it will be pretty obvious how they work in relation to each other. The split on the 4110 is fairly involved, you must have good basic mechanical skills. You must also measure & adjust the finger height on the pressure plate once it's installed and is a very tedious procedure to get an accurate reading. Your first time making the split it would probably take you a couple of days to do the complete job. When I do mine I prefer to use jacks stands to hold the rear half and a good-rolling floor jack on the front half. Be sure to make a couple of wood wedges to wedge in between the front axle and main frame on each side to keep the whole engine assy from rocking back n' forth on you - dangerous. Both of my splits I did by myself and didn't have any problems getting the two halves back together this way. Good luck on your service work.

 

[BillBee]

I did find the pilot bearing in the Parts Manual Flywheel Tab and understand the location of the release bearing. I’ll be sure to change both.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and describing the scope in detail, which has provided me with a clear understanding of the job. It does sound fairly involved and I guess I’ll have to make the determination when the time comes to tackle it myself or send it out.

Thanks all for your help.