Traction Is my 4WD working?

   / Is my 4WD working? #1  

Jasperfield

New member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Messages
16
Tractor
Kubota M9540HDL
I have an '88 Ford 3910 4WD tractor with 964 hrs TT. I work alone all the time and can't tell if the front wheels are pulling or not.

Today I was backing uphill, on grass, and noticed the rear right tire spinning a little. I had a Caroni flail lowered & floating and was in low reverse. I would have thought the fronts would have been pulling, but don't know if they were or not. They never spun.

I've got 390 lbs of weights on the front.

What is a simple way to determine if the front axle is pulling without having to jack-up the whole tractor?

Thanks
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #2  
Turn as sharp as you can on asphalt. If it hops/jurks in front it's probably in 4WD. Probably not the safest way to tell though.
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #3  
If you have a FEL you can put the bucket all the way down and lift the front wheels off the ground the back up a little and watch the front wheels to see if they turn with the rears. Or you can jack up the front end and see if they are free turning with the engine off. If it is in 4wd they will not turn freely. The for sure and easiest way is to hook it something and spin the wheels a little use the draw bar on the back while on grass just be acareful it doesn't raise up in the front end.
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #4  
Or you could go find a creek/ big mudhole to play in and see if you can get it stuck, then watch and see if the fronts turn!!! :)

Really though, the first two suggestions should tell you but another one would be to find some loose dirt or gravel near a big tree, and chain the drawbar to the tree. Ease the clutch out with a little throttle and you should see the front tires try to turn some. If not, make sure it's in 4x4 mode. If they still don't turn, time to jack up all four tires and block it up safely so you can figure what's going on with it.
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #5  
If one of your rear tires are spinning, one of your front tires should also be spinning or at least that is how all of ours work Kubota, MF, John Deere and Case.
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #6  
Another way to get stuck pretty easily without a lot of stress on your tractor is you have a shallow ditch you can cross at a sharp angle. Go gently into the ditch and calculate the angle to place say your right front and left rear tires in the ditch at the same time. Your left front and right rear tires will be on solid ground and your right front and left rear with have air under them. Then see if your right front tire is spinning in the air along with your left rear. If so then your MFWD is probably working OK. To get unstuck just stop spinning, and engage your differential lock, apply a little power and you should be unstuck, if need be use your loader bucket to push yourself backward. I am thinking though that if you saw one of the rears spinning and did not see one of the fronts spinning too, then your MFWD is not engaged or broken in some way.

James K0UA
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #7  
Just put the front bucket against a non moveable object ... a tree ... use low gear and watch the front tires.
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #8  
If you have a FEL you can put the bucket all the way down and lift the front wheels off the ground the back up a little and watch the front wheels to see if they turn with the rears.

If you use this method, and the fronts do turn...stop before you lower those front tires. There have been posts suggesting that this may stress the front axle (primarily on Deere 790's, BTW). Although there is no solid data to support those posts, no use trying to become a statistic.
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #9  
Really though, the first two suggestions should tell you but another one would be to find some loose dirt or gravel near a big tree, and chain the drawbar to the tree. Ease the clutch out with a little throttle and you should see the front tires try to turn some. If not, make sure it's in 4x4 mode. If they still don't turn, time to jack up all four tires and block it up safely so you can figure what's going on with it.

That's a VERY risky action. It's a great way for an open station tractor to flip over and squish the operator.

It's better to just bite the bullet and jack the machine up. You're going to have to anyway to fix the 4wd. (at least if it were mine, I'd find it was broke:()
 
   / Is my 4WD working? #10  
Just put the front bucket against a non moveable object ... a tree ... use low gear and watch the front tires.

i totally agree with blue river, I've done the exact same thing when I was in doubt. A large tree stump works nicely and you don't mind a couple spin marks in the grass.
 
 
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