First need for LS Warranty work

kpbeddin · Mar 5, 2011

Hi all,
Last weekend I discovered (purely by accident) that the two bolts connecting FEL support to the engine block (left side) were missing. Further inspection revealed that both had broken off deep inside the block as opposed to shearing near the outside. This does not make a lot of sense to me unless they were overtorqued during installation and had been broken all along. I certainly am not one to abuse any of my equipment so I don't believe it is anything I caused. Anyway, the threads were fine and my dealer is taking care of the issue as I expected. He was told by LS to remind customers to check those bolts so I am posting for everyone's benefit as something to keep an eye on from time to time.

Putter · Mar 5, 2011

Good to know.
Post a picture too.

trac · Mar 6, 2011

This is a common problem we had during the Farmtrac- Long days. On those tractors, the subframes were flexing, due to not having the frames connected together at the bottom with a good heavy iron plate. The bolts would shear off in the side castings. It was a real job to get them out a times.

Gary Fowler · Mar 6, 2011

Was there a way to weld a plate or something on them to stiffen them up. Looks like a dealer would have figured that out if it was a recurring problem with the design

LittleBlueTractor · Mar 7, 2011

trac said:
This is a common problem we had during the Farmtrac- Long days. On those tractors, the subframes were flexing, due to not having the frames connected together at the bottom with a good heavy iron plate. The bolts would shear off in the side castings. It was a real job to get them out a times.

I assumed Keith's guess was right and the problem was over-torqued bolts (an assembly error here is the US maybe) instead of a design error. Time will tell I suppose. The fix doesn't sound too bad, but not sure why LS would not have addressed it by now if it's been around this long.

rocknrod · Mar 7, 2011

LittleBlueTractor said:
I assumed Keith's guess was right and the problem was over-torqued bolts (an assembly error here is the US maybe) instead of a design error. Time will tell I suppose. The fix doesn't sound too bad, but not sure why LS would not have addressed it by now if it's been around this long.

Your Right LittleBlue.
This is a LS i3030 and it is assumed he is talking about it.
Obviously - If you have seen these tractors come out of the shipping container, the dealer was the culprit in this instance.
2:55 into this movie you can see them being loaded:
http://www.pro-tractor.com/Videos/2006 LS TRACTOR Movie.wmv