Mowing MX6 Engagement Noise w/ 3520

[arlen4720]

When is your 5115M going to be delivered? That should spin the MX6

 

[murphy1244]

on the slip clutch you need to tighten it to take the force off

 

[Thowle]

Loosened all of the bolts on the slip-clutch, made a mark, engaged the PTO a few times, and it never spun up the blades.. so the slip-clutch was engaging. I tightened the bolts back up to where they were, and the noise was still present.

It almost sounds like the blades or something is scraping against something else, until it gets up to speed. I might try to make a video of it so you can hear/see.

I did raise the cutter up on some stands and crawl under it; everything looks good, clean, and the blades/pan will rotate freely by hand about 1/4 of a turn before it catches the resistance. The cotter pin and bolt on the pan securing it to the spindle are present and secure.

The gearbox does look like the top has been taken off before, and someone used gasket-maker when they put it back on -- maybe this is how it comes from the factory; but I figured JD had a pre-made gasket that fit it, instead of just anaerobic gasket maker.

 

[Thowle]

When is your 5115M going to be delivered? That should spin the MX6

Just now got the quote back on it. The lead time is 2+ months. So, no time soon. The quote for the 5115M (loaded, deluxe cab, etc), with an MX5 (loaded, with rough-ag tires), and an H260 loader was $89,000 total. I'm going to try to work that number down a bit -- seems a bit high for it all.

 

[jd110]

I guess I am a little worried about your gearbax since you said it appeared dry. The gearbox should be 1/2 full of oil. Aside from that, it is somewhat normal to have some noise on engagement on these compact tractors since the pto clutch engagement is so abrupt. The quick startup causes the swinging blades to flex, causing a temporary out of balance situation until centrifugal force can straighten them back out. The out of balance situation causes backlash in gears to chatter throughout the drivetrain and that is what causes the noise. The 5000 series and up have built in modulation of pto engagement and makes it a non issue on them. Not sure why deere doesn't have modulation in compacts, except I guess the cost would be too high and most attachments don't have alot of rotating weight to cause this situation.

 

[Thowle]

Slip clutch was for sure not tight enough.. I suppose all that noise is just because of the slip clutch?

 

[murphy1244]

Sounds like its slipping to me. How do you adjust your clutch? Do you loosen or tighten to get more slip?

 

[Thowle]

Yep, it was for sure slipping at the first; I suppose it still is after I tightened those 6 nuts up on the slip clutch plate. It's still making a very odd sound though. If it is from the slipping; I wonder if there is something up with the slip clutch, or if they all make that noise?

 

[arlen4720]

Yep, it was for sure slipping at the first; I suppose it still is after I tightened those 6 nuts up on the slip clutch plate. It's still making a very odd sound though. If it is from the slipping; I wonder if there is something up with the slip clutch, or if they all make that noise?

I'm a little confused as to why you dubbed music into a video that you want help evaluating sounds.
The clutch is definately slipping. I can see the smoke. I think the manual says to adjust the gap of the bell spring washer to 3mm. But, I'm with jd110, the gearbox may not be healthy. Can you rotate the drive shaft by hand fairly easily?

 

[Thowle]

After tightening the clutch to spec, it still makes that noise.

I can rotate the drive shaft and or blades about 1/4 of a turn before I get a lot of resistance.