John Deere 4300 complete rebuild

[dodge man]

Keep the photos coming, very interesting thread. Some of your photos reminds of when I rebuilt the auto tranny in my 70 Dodge Challenger. I took a photo of all the parts spread out on cardboard. You look at that mess of parts and wonder how you will get it all back together. If you just take it one step at a time and focus on one thing at a time, its easy though.

Do you find you need a lot of specialty tools for this kind of work? When I have worked on cars in the past, they call for the use of a lot of special tools (which you can only get through the dealer in some cases) but usually I could fab something to work instead.

 

[dfkrug]

Do you find you need a lot of specialty tools for this kind of work? When I have worked on cars in the past, they call for the use of a lot of special tools (which you can only get through the dealer in some cases) but usually I could fab something to work instead.

Special tools are one of my pet peaves. I never buy them, and (if there
is no other way) I will make them. I just finished taking apart and
mostly re-assembling one of the front MFWD axle hubs, while I waited for
my pistons to arrive. I had to weld up a special wrench. :-(

I will start a new thread on the axle (linked to this thread), since this
was the most difficult one I have seen or worked on. As soon as I get
my new bearing.

I once had to PAY A WELDER to make a wrench for an engine that did not
have straight access to tighten the head bolts. The first custom wrench
broke, so I needed a second one made, with an even stronger TIG weld.
That was 20y ago and the poor design still bugs me.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

I done a test today like Wayne_H did to check to see if the hose had a hole in it.

The first test i put my hand over 'air intake hose while it was at low 'idle', and the engine didn't stall & the 'filter minder' went down... I heard a hissing sound that sounded like it was coming from behind the 'filter housing', but listening to it for a while it sounded like it was in the housing....(so much noise)

Then i ran the 'idle up higher' and the intake hose collapsed... The hose that's under that stupid tank is hard to see, and i looked on the fuel filter side and could see the hose... I could see out the other side. and it didn't look like the tank or the overflow hose was hitting the big hose... (and also i could pull slack in the overflow hose.)

I started it up again with the engine at 2000-rpms and put my hand back over the intake hose, and looked at the hose under the tank...The hose under the tank 'collapsed too'

So since that hose under the tank collapsed too, would the hose be OK ?

I need to take out the 'filter housing' and see if i can look at the hose better...(Like you mentioned)

I took some pictures but they might be hard to see the hose under the tank.

* The last 2 pictures are the hose under the tank.... Pic.#3 is before I covered the intake hose.

* Picture#4 is when the intake hose was covered, and the 'hose under the tank' was collapsed in the middle..... Notice that you can see more light through the other side.

 

[Wayne_H]

Bill:

I'm no expert, but i've got to imagine if that hose collapses under RPM, the intergity of the hose is ok. I still have a hard time imaging how much abuse that machine DK is working on had. Heck, I feel bad for the tractor, but as a restorer of old tractors, I'm glad it is in good hands now!

Wayne

 

[JohnDeere4300]

Dave,

Since the hose is in a bad place under the tank and caused engine problems.

When you put everything back together, are you going to try something different with the hose ?

Also, could a different kind of hose that would be stronger and wouldn't collapse so easy be used ?


mjncad,

If you haven't already done the tests.... Could you do it and see what yours does ?

 

[dfkrug]

So since that hose under the tank collapsed too, would the hose be OK ?

I need to take out the 'filter housing' and see if i can look at the hose better...(Like you mentioned)

I took another look at my old hoses and I took a few more pictures with
them up against my newly assembled engine. A closer look indicates that
I was wrong....the hose does have fabric reinforcement. I can see it at the
end where the hose clamp is. Very hard to see in the break.

Anyway, this is good news that the hose collapses during your test. My
fuel drain hose has become very hard. There are 3 places on the air
hose that have significant wear from being pinched. Only one has broken
thru, but that one tore, too.

I will try to annotate and post tomorrow.

 

[dfkrug]

Since the hose is in a bad place under the tank and caused engine problems.

When you put everything back together, are you going to try something different with the hose ?

Also, could a different kind of hose that would be stronger and wouldn't collapse so easy be used ?

Those are good questions. Maybe JD had not tested this filter approach
adequately as they rushed it into production...

Regardless, we are not stuck with a bad design if we want to customize it.
The first thing I will do is eliminate (or re-route) that fuel overflow hose.
Second, I am a believer in keeping my equipment fairly clean. Not washed
all that often, and certainly not waxed. But I am not comfortable with
dirt buildup anywhere. Hosing off a tractor after you coat it with dust or
mud helps to prevent buildup in all the nooks and crannies. Dirt DID build
up in many hidden areas on this tractor. Dirt is abrasive and I think it
contributed to the hose failure. I have found large buildups in other areas,
too. After I have cleaned those areas, I usually find that, as a minimum,
the paint under the dirt has deteriorated and rust has started. That
"heat shield" on the front of the engine was packed with dirt, which not only
corroded the aluminum timing gear cover, it also caused dirt to be pushed
into the front crank seal.

Finally, I like vertical external air intakes. The kind that pokes thru your
hood. I think this tractor may be a good candidate for this kind of mod. You
DO need to perforate your hood, but that's what folks do when they go to
a vertical exhaust.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

Those are good questions. Maybe JD had not tested this filter approach
adequately as they rushed it into production...

Regardless, we are not stuck with a bad design if we want to customize it.
The first thing I will do is eliminate (or re-route) that fuel overflow hose.
Second, I am a believer in keeping my equipment fairly clean. Not washed
all that often, and certainly not waxed. But I am not comfortable with
dirt buildup anywhere. Hosing off a tractor after you coat it with dust or
mud helps to prevent buildup in all the nooks and crannies. Dirt DID build
up in many hidden areas on this tractor. Dirt is abrasive and I think it
contributed to the hose failure. I have found large buildups in other areas,
too. After I have cleaned those areas, I usually find that, as a minimum,
the paint under the dirt has deteriorated and rust has started. That
"heat shield" on the front of the engine was packed with dirt, which not only
corroded the aluminum timing gear cover, it also caused dirt to be pushed
into the front crank seal.

Finally, I like vertical external air intakes. The kind that pokes thru your
hood. I think this tractor may be a good candidate for this kind of mod. You
DO need to perforate your hood, but that's what folks do when they go to
a vertical exhaust.

When i first started following this thread i thought the tank was hitting the hose... Then i read about the 'fuel overflow hose'.... On mine i could have pulled it out yesterday... It wasn't pressed against that hose under the tank, and maybe that's because there wasn't no dirt buildup ?

If I'm working in dry dusty dirt, i spray the motor off with a water-hose only, and i have never used a pressure washer on the motor.

So are you going to put a 'vertical external air-intake' on this 4300 ??.... It would be interesting to see one on a 4300.

I put the vertical exhaust on mine a couple years after i bought it.. I didn't like the way it came out the bottom... Before i put it on i was working in real muddy conditions, and i got off the tractor to look under it for the tree branch and noticed that the exhaust was plugged off with mud... so i ordered the vertical exhaust.

On mine the exhaust pipe comes out the side of the hood, and i had to cut a small piece out.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

Yea, that seems to be a good test. I just ran out and did it. At idle it did not stall, but the visual sensor for a clogged filter activated right away and the engine was clearly unhappy with lots of sucking noises at the housing. At high idle it collapses the rubber intake hose that goes to the top of the radiator. I'll assume mine is ok for now.

Can I assume the filter on your machine was clogged to heck also, and how big was this cut/tear anyway?

Thanks again for sharing this with us!

Wayne

Bill:

I'm no expert, but i've got to imagine if that hose collapses under RPM, the intergity of the hose is ok. I still have a hard time imaging how much abuse that machine DK is working on had. Heck, I feel bad for the tractor, but as a restorer of old tractors, I'm glad it is in good hands now!

Wayne

Wayne,

When you done the test and the hose on top collapsed...Did you look at the hose under the tank & see if it collapsed too ?

Yea the 4300 that dfkrug is rebuilding was really abused, and yes its in good hands now & should be a better tractor when its finished.

You would think these rental yards would do more maintenance on their equipment.

 

[dfkrug]

When i first started following this thread i thought the tank was hitting the hose... Then i read about the 'fuel overflow hose'.... On mine i could have pulled it out yesterday... It wasn't pressed against that hose under the tank, and maybe that's because there wasn't no dirt buildup ?

If I'm working in dry dusty dirt, i spray the motor off with a water-hose only, and i have never used a pressure washer on the motor.

So are you going to put a 'vertical external air-intake' on this 4300 ??.... It would be interesting to see one on a 4300.

Your engine looks pretty clean. I think that will help a lot to minimize the
risk of that air hose wearing out. I don't think you have to use a pressure
washer if the dirtiness does not get out of hand. Once you have build-up
like my tractor did, using the PW is not enough!

I am not going to go vertical with the intake, but I would consider it
seriously if I were going to keep this unit a long time. If you do convert,
you can go with a pretty stiff hose (pipe) straight up from the pre-heater,
thru a hole in the hood. A custom filter housing and pre-cleaner would
cap it off.

Anyway, here are more pix of the damaged hose, and where it gets pinched.
The first photo is what I posted earlier, with a large hole and split. Installed,
the hole is pretty much closed up, as you can see in the 2nd photo with
my hand pushing down on it. With some dirt on it, the split and hole are
hardly visible.

The 3rd and 4th pix illustrate the 3 damaged areas, due to pressure from
the fuel tank, fuel overflow hose, and the breather on top of the valve
cover. 2 of the 3 damaged areas have not penetrated, but quite a bit
of rubber has eroded away.