Broken Branson

[Tchara]

My Branson 3520R 4WD went out yesterday. The tractor has 25 hours on it. Anyone have any ideas what I could check before hauling it 100 miles to the dealership? I crawled under it, and removed the shaft housing, and the shaft seems to be tight and intact. The oil level is full in the front axle and transmission.

 

[Vtnewbie]

Holy smokes, you just got the tractor! Warranty better cover the repairs, if any are needed. I probably would not have turned a wrench at all, just done some simple function checks.

Something I might do is (with 4wd engaged, tractor sitting) lift the front tires off the ground (loader works well for that) and try to rotate the tires by hand (other side tire should rotate opposite direction), to check for differential function and unusual noises. If that seems normal, see if you can rotate the front drive shaft by hand without the front tires turning. BE VERY CAREFUL - DO THAT TEST WITH FRONT END UP ON BLOCKS AND ENGINE OFF. Any more than that should be the dealer's problem to deal with under warranty. Good luck and I hope some more experienced folks chime in soon.

 

[blueriver]

I'd be looking at the 4x4 shifting linkage to see if a pin came out.

 

[oldnslo]

Is your 4WD mechanical of electric engage on the 3520? If mechanical does it feel like the shift lever is doing anything? On all of the mechanical engaged 4WD tractors I have owned you could always feel the gears moving or some resistance on the lever. If electrical I would check for a blown fuse or power at the switch.

 

[Soundguy]

if it's in warranty.. I'd do nothing.

if it's outta warranty.. I'd verify the shaft turns when it is engaged. if it does.. then I'd look at front ring gear and then axle shafts.. only takes a set of bad rivits or one snapped shaft in an open diffy to make it freewheel.

 

[94BULLITT]

Is the 4WD lever still attached and does it feel like it is doing anything?

 

[Tchara]

Yes its still attached and feels like its working. I lifted the tires off the ground and spun one wheel. The other tire spun in an opposite direction. I put jack stands under the front axle and removed the shaft housing. The shaft spun freely with the MFWD disengaged. When the MFWD was engaged, the shaft was locked, with just a little free play, but would not turn the front wheels-not by hand anyway. Didn't want to use a pipe wrench on the shaft.

 

[Tchara]

I lifted the tires off the ground and spun one wheel. The other tire spun in an opposite direction. I put jack stands under the front axle and removed the shaft housing. The shaft spun freely with the MFWD disengaged. When the MFWD was engaged, the shaft was locked, with just a little free play, but would not turn the front wheels-not by hand anyway. Didn't want to use a pipe wrench on the shaft.

The shifter is mechanical, and seems to be engaging properly. Guess I'll be making a trip to San Marcus this week.

 

[Soundguy]

so far the front diffy sounds like it is working.

keep us posted..

 

[94BULLITT]

Yes its still attached and feels like its working. I lifted the tires off the ground and spun one wheel. The other tire spun in an opposite direction. I put jack stands under the front axle and removed the shaft housing. The shaft spun freely with the MFWD disengaged. When the MFWD was engaged, the shaft was locked, with just a little free play, but would not turn the front wheels-not by hand anyway. Didn't want to use a pipe wrench on the shaft.

With the rear wheels on the ground the shaft may not turn depending on what is broke.

 

[bobmisi]

Just a quick reply, as I'm rushing out the door. Go back about twelve pages in the Branson forums and you will find a thread on Branson 4WD problems. It happened to me and it was a simple fix. There are steel ball bearings that are at both ends of the driveshaft to the front axle. If you use 4WD on a hard surface the balls are designed to come out so nothing breaks internally. You must remove the shaft and put the balls back in. Be careful when taking it apart not to lose the balls as they are still inside. I don't believe they can come out on their own. Hope that's what it is. Read the entire thread. Good luck.

 

[Reg]

My Branson 3520R 4WD went out yesterday. The tractor has 25 hours on it. Anyone have any ideas what I could check before hauling it 100 miles to the dealership? I crawled under it, and removed the shaft housing, and the shaft seems to be tight and intact. The oil level is full in the front axle and transmission.

By "went out" you meant WHAT is no longer working ?

Looking at the drive shaft for WHAT ?
OK, now I've read some of the other replies - I don't quite know where they got their ideas from, but THEY seem to be following your mention of the driveshaft.

I'm still bit confused, but at a guess a linkage may be off, or SERIOUSLY out of adjustment (new tractor syndrome, lock nuts not tightened on adjustable length linkage shafts, etc.) i.e. you have an unexpected neutral.
Unfastened lock nuts, 20 or 25 hours of vibration - as I said a GUESS.

As you know there are (at least) three places for that; fwd/reverse, range and gears - plus clutch.
I would get someone to work the three levers for these while you watch the linkages - from the side, NOT underneath with the tractor running.
A disconnect should be obvious, check the lock nuts for tightness as a clue to adjustment problems.
If you find a loose one don't just tighten it up, follow the manual's adjustment procedure.

Sorry, that is all I have for you, I hope it helps and I do understand your reluctance to haul it 100 miles.

 

[Reg]

Ahh, on CAREFUL re-reading and liberal interpretation.
I think it means your 3520R's 4WD doesn't engage (punctuation, the possessive apostrophe) not trying to be a grammar geek - others got it (-:

I can generally engage 4WD while rolling at idle speed and I "FEEL" it go in.
Trying to disengage it on a hard surface is tough until I turn into a slight curve, i.e. get the front wheel lead (pronounced "leed") out.
This may help your diagnosis (or not).
Again, it COULD be a linkage disconnect or WAY out of adjustment.
I have forgotten exactly where it is for MFWD on these, but have shop manuals if you need me to look it up.

FORTUNATELY (I think) mine has never had the ball pop out symptom that Bob Misi described and I often turn on hard dry pavement when clearing snow.
Not sure if this is good or bad, kinda like blow out preventer preventer preventers, something in the chain SHOULD "fail" (by design).
I just get tire hop (-:

 

[DavesTractor]

The most common Branson "4wd not working" issue is the driveshaft ball bearing couplers as suggested already. It works as a spring loaded coupler, and can be a bit of a "fuse" if a guy is using a really big loader with a really big load and has the back end of the tractor nearly lifted and then pops the clutch. At that point, all the forward momentum that is supposed to be supplied primarily by the rear axle is shifted to the front axle and either the shaft coupler gives up (hopefully) or the ring and pinion break. The ring and pinion and the axle shafts in the rear of the tractor are easily double the size of the fronts. They are hard to break.

We have seen this on numerous brands of mechanical front wheel assist tractors. The front axle on MFWD tractors are just to assist and not to take all the load. If a person has the front loaded really heavy or perhaps stuck under a big old honkin' stump and lifting and pushing (none of you would do such a thing) and then drops the clutch, the front axle has fantastic traction and the rear none and something has to give. Sometimes it's the stump, sometimes a tire will spin, and sometimes something breaks.

BTW, not trying to say this is the case for this operator, be may have been going to town with no load in the bucket to get an ice cream cone as far as I know!

Are you running the factory loader, or something spec'd higher?

 

[94BULLITT]

The most common Branson "4wd not working" issue is the driveshaft ball bearing couplers as suggested already. It works as a spring loaded coupler, and can be a bit of a "fuse" if a guy is using a really big loader with a really big load and has the back end of the tractor nearly lifted and then pops the clutch. At that point, all the forward momentum that is supposed to be supplied primarily by the rear axle is shifted to the front axle and either the shaft coupler gives up (hopefully) or the ring and pinion break. The ring and pinion and the axle shafts in the rear of the tractor are easily double the size of the fronts. They are hard to break.

We have seen this on numerous brands of mechanical front wheel assist tractors. The front axle on MFWD tractors are just to assist and not to take all the load. If a person has the front loaded really heavy or perhaps stuck under a big old honkin' stump and lifting and pushing (none of you would do such a thing) and then drops the clutch, the front axle has fantastic traction and the rear none and something has to give. Sometimes it's the stump, sometimes a tire will spin, and sometimes something breaks.

BTW, not trying to say this is the case for this operator, be may have been going to town with no load in the bucket to get an ice cream cone as far as I know!

Are you running the factory loader, or something spec'd higher?

and that is why chains on the front tires is not a good idea.

 

[Tchara]

I'm running a higher spec loader Westendorf 170), but not for capacity. I needed a higher reach for the dump truck. As far as my activities at the time I believe it went out (not sure) I was using the box blade. If it hung on a rock or something the front would spin a little before I could get the box raised. Other then that, it's just used for church on Sunday....LOL.

How hard is it to remove the drive shaft, and are there any special tools required?

 

[DavesTractor]

I'm running a higher spec loader Westendorf 170), but not for capacity. I needed a higher reach for the dump truck. As far as my activities at the time I believe it went out (not sure) I was using the box blade. If it hung on a rock or something the front would spin a little before I could get the box raised. Other then that, it's just used for church on Sunday....LOL.

How hard is it to remove the drive shaft, and are there any special tools required?

I bet you just have a coupler issue based on just driving slowly to church on Sunday and such!

It is not hard to do, and no special tools needed. The front axle has a coupler on it that has notches for steel balls to fit into, and they are held in the notches by a compression spring that is on the driveshaft that pushes another coupler forward on the splined shaft to mate with the steel balls and other coupler. The trick is that one of the steel balls can get between the couplers if the spring jumps back for a moment while in use. Then the coupler is not engaged. Generally there is no damage and you just put it back together and you might go years before it happens again, if ever.

It is a good system in that it works like a fuse, protecting expensive parts. Many would tell you to go to the dealer, and that is proper advice, but if you are handy you can fix it and then you will know exactly how it works and that is good if it ever breaks on you on the way home from church when you dealer is closed.

You might call the dealer first and get his OK to mess with it, just in case it is something worse he will be on notice.

I looked at the loader specs, it is higher spec weight and lift, but not ridiculously so. Of course if it is higher lift that means the arms are longer which means it sticks out further. Combine that leverage issue with a 10-20% gain in lift capacity and your axle is loaded pretty heavy at full capacity. I'd be gentle if you are lifting max weight.

 

[DavesTractor]

Tchara, I just saw your thread on the huge boulder you pulled out with your front bucket. Must've been on the way home from church?

Pushing into the earth vigorously while lifting to the max with an oversized loader can bust a front ring gear and pinion. There are design limitations. Hopefully it is just your coupler, but I am guessing now that you have a 50/50 chance of some busted parts in the front end based on this scenario. I hope I am wrong.

 

[bobmisi]

After looking at your posts and pictures I have to agree with Dave. I agree Branson tractors are built very well and are heavy, but doing that kind of work with a 35 hp tractor seems a little much. You probably should have considered a larger tractor for that kind of work. Just one mans opinion.....

 

[Tchara]

Took the tractor to the dealer yesterday. It was raining and couldn't work. It was the coupler. Took them about an hour to fix. That boulder I dug up was just below the surface, and did not require a lot of force to uproot it. I do realize it's not a bulldozer, and have been careful not to push it over it's limitations.

The dealer I took it to was not the dealer from whom I purchased the tractor and installed the Westendorf loader. I spoke to them about the issue of the joystick sticking in the raise position when the system warms up. They suggested I call Westendorf and ask them if the loader is designed for a open center hydraulic system, or closed center hydraulic system. The Branson is a open system, If the WL is designed for a closed system it may be getting the hydraulic fluid to hot, and causing the o rings to swell. He also told me to check with the dealer to see if a "power beyond" port was installed. Gonna call the purchasing dealer today and discuss it with them.