I hang my head in shame !!

[dgood1]

Mark,

Kubota must have learned something about this over the years as my L3710 has a hook that I can use on my clutch pedal to keep it latched down " if storing for an extended time". The wood block or whatever you can use to keep the clutch pedal down on long storage will save you from having fun crashing into trees on purpose.

One other long storage item is to put a light coating of greas on the exposed shafts of your hydraulic cylinders of your FEL.

Don

 

[Kodiak]

<font color=blue>"you guys make me think me unworthy and drum me out of the CTB"</font color=blue>

Those guys over at the "CTB"might try and drum you out . But we here at TBN are more tolerant, and shall take you by the hand and lead you down the path of tractor righteousness. Just send umpteen many dollars to the church of the almighty CUT, and redemption shall be yours./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Mark_in_NH]

Boondox,
I just now realized my mistake. Now I REALLY must hang my head in SHAME. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, my apologies to all for my major blunder !!!!!

 

[Mark_in_NH]

My Dad was saying this morning although locking the clutch peddle down with a block of wood etc. is a common practice and will do the job, it may weaken springs etc. prematurely.
But we both agreed that replaceing a spring or 2 is a lot easire and sheaper than the alternative.

 

[Ledgemere Farm]

My Cub has a latch to keep the clutch disengaged when you park it for a while. Anybody else have something like that?

 

[Bird]

Mark, I've posted this before but my first tractor experience when I was a kid was a 2-cylinder gasoline, 3-speed manual transmission, hand cranked, John Deere, and having the clutch stick was fairly common, and quite interesting. If you cranked it in neutral, no way you could get it in gear then. So we always parked it behind the barn with a fair amount of room in front of it. We'd crank it in neutral, see if it would go in gear (clutch not stuck) and if it wouldn't, let it warm up a bit (that way you could restart it pretty easily), shut it down, put it in first gear, open the throttle just a little bit, then grab that crank in the front and PULL! Then jump out of the way as it took off, climb on from behind, stand on the brakes and clutch at the same time, and open up the throttle. That always popped the clutch loose and everything was OK until you left it sitting again for several days./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif And I suppose it was only a miracle that we never got hurt.

 

[MJB]

What model was that old JD? On the old letter series JDs you would have to stand right in front of the left rear wheel to turn the flywheel for starting. Didn't that tractor have a hand clutch? I had the clutch on my old Case stick once when I left it parked with the hand clutch engaged for a few months. Since it had electric start I started it in first gear and drove around the yard through 2-3 feet of snow with the clutch disengaged and standing on the brakes. The clutch would not break free./w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif Luckily the Case had access holes on the side of the bell housing which allowed me to back off on the clutch adjustment a few turns. I was then able to break the disk free using a long screwdriver. Ever since then I always park it with the hand clutch disengaged, and not had any more trouble since. Back when I had my JD440 bulldozer I would hold the foot clutch down with a piece of 2x4 and held the steering clutches back with a piece of rope tied to each lever and looped around the back of the seat. Thank god I did not have to take that thing apart to free up a stuck clutch./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[beenthere]

Bird
You must have had an old L or LA John Deere (upright vertical 2-cyl), to have a front crank, and a foot clutch. I had one of those too, but didn't have the clutch problem. But that was the darndest thing to crank. It would backfire, and spin that crank around backwards so fast you could hardly get out of the way. On mine, I wouldn't have wanted to trust the brakes to hold that tractor on a hill in neutral, while cranking on it. But - we used to do a lot of things that were riskier than we would do today.
Hand cranking the old JD A using the flywheel that had a starter gear ring on it (cover and starter removed) was really tricky. Needed gloves on to protect your fingers, but then when it started you didn't want the gloves to catch on the teeth. Not a safe procedure at all. Having a smooth flywheel to crank on was much safer.

 

[Bird]

Like beenthere said, it was an old L model; crank right in the front end. And of course, Dad warned me early on about having a good hold on it 'cause it could kick back and break a thumb if you weren't careful. It had good brakes and a good clutch except for that sticking if it wasn't used for a few days (parked outside in the weather). Not long after Dad bought it, we couldn't get it started, so he pulled it to town behind the truck (with a chain) with me on it steering it. We had to go over a little hump when we went from the gravel road onto the paved road at an angle and he was going too fast and that's when I learned about worn out, loose tie rod ends. Scared me to death and nearly turned the thing over with it going back and forth so violently. Anyway he had the engine overhauled and it ran good then, but he didn't get the tie rod ends replaced so the steering was always loose. Never could understand why he didn't that fixed, too, or fix it himself.

And the only tractors with a hand clutch that I can remember using were Cases. I had an uncle (real farmer) in northern Oklahoma who had 2 Case tractors with the hand clutch and I spent a week or so once plowing wheat fields, pulling a 2-bottom turning plow with section harrow dragging behind it. One tractor had lights and the other did not, so my cousin and I didn't have to work after dark (except for milking a dozen cows, feeding the hogs and chickens, and a few little chores like that), but my uncle stayed out there plowing every day until after midnight and got up about 5 a.m. to do it again./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif Needless to say, I got a lot more tractor seat time than I wanted./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[MJB]

I forgot about the Ls and LAs./w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif When I think of old JDs I automatically picture an A, B, D, G, H, etc. One of those would certainly be interesting to start with a stuck clutch./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif