California
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Messages
- 14,898
- Location
- An hour north of San Francisco
- Tractor
- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
Danny has a shelf of manuals, he's a dealer!
The manual says engage the difflock 'at a standstill'.
But in my experience the tires have to be turning at different speeds before its two halves will engage. (#18,19 in this Hoyetractors.com diagram).
(The diagram shows a YM1510. My YM186D is the same).
And I'll repeat the warning in the manual to just nudge the difflock lever down, don't stand on it! Here's why:
A significant flaw when I bought my much-abused YM186D last summer was the difflock engagement was flaky. Those #18,19 engagement dogs were fine, what had happened was that rollpin #13 engaged a worn hollow next to where the #12 arrow points to, on the shifter fork. Stepping on the difflock pedal didn't move the shifter far enough. (The taper in that V is supposed to make the fork slide sideways when the rollpin presses against it).
Welding back some metal there uphill from the tip of the #12 arrow to fill the worn spot, then grind/polish to bring the profile back to original, restored the difflock function. I expect the wear was caused by the previous owner standing on the difflock lever. Seems to me that excessive force could also bend or shatter the rollpin.
The manual says engage the difflock 'at a standstill'.
But in my experience the tires have to be turning at different speeds before its two halves will engage. (#18,19 in this Hoyetractors.com diagram).
(The diagram shows a YM1510. My YM186D is the same).

And I'll repeat the warning in the manual to just nudge the difflock lever down, don't stand on it! Here's why:
A significant flaw when I bought my much-abused YM186D last summer was the difflock engagement was flaky. Those #18,19 engagement dogs were fine, what had happened was that rollpin #13 engaged a worn hollow next to where the #12 arrow points to, on the shifter fork. Stepping on the difflock pedal didn't move the shifter far enough. (The taper in that V is supposed to make the fork slide sideways when the rollpin presses against it).
Welding back some metal there uphill from the tip of the #12 arrow to fill the worn spot, then grind/polish to bring the profile back to original, restored the difflock function. I expect the wear was caused by the previous owner standing on the difflock lever. Seems to me that excessive force could also bend or shatter the rollpin.