5310 Brake Valve Leak

[T2McGinty]

That's what I did as well. No more leak and a good brake pedal once again..

I did have to replace the 2 Hydraulic elbows on the top of the valve, as they broke during removal but they were only 8 bucks for both at my local Deere dealer.
While I had the valve off the tractor I replaced all of the o-rings as well. Total cost for this fix was under 20 bucks.

 

[Zebrafive]

Well, I called my local dealer and the parts guy could not find anything that showed the part or a number that would solve my problem. He suggested that I bring the valve in since the part I needed was not shown or even mentioned in the parts book. I took the valve off and brought it to the dealer so that he could see exactly what I needed. He still could find nothing that showed the leaking hole or the plug that obviously was missing from my valve. He suggested that I go show it to the service guy which I did. The service guy said that he vaguely remembed a service bulletin on that plug so he did a search on the computer and sure enough he found a service bulletin with John Deere's fix. DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!!

The fix is to drill the hole out to 21/64 and tap it with a 1/8 - 27 pipe tap. That is exactly what I did and now I have no leak.

Thanks for posting! Did you get the service bulletin number? If so, please post it.

 

[bitternut]

Thanks for posting! Did you get the service bulletin number? If so, please post it.

No I did not get a service bulletin number. I am not sure what site he went to but I am pretty sure he had logged in to a dealer site of some sort. When I inquired about a possible service bulletin he logged into his computer. What site it was I did not see but there were pages of them and as he was scrolling through I noticed one referring to a brake cylinder and he clicked on it. Got lucky I guess as it was just what I was looking for. Never did find out what the original plug looked like or what the part number was. Don't care anymore I guess since the problem is fixed permanently now. Seems as though the design of the casting has changed since some tractors in the same series don't have the plug.

If your tractor has the plug I would be planning on doing the repair to a pipe plug. I was lucky that I stopped mowing to take a break and noticed the oil leak. It was not a high pressure leak but the hole is 1/4" in diameter and I had at least another hour of mowing left to do when I stopped. Surely I would have dumped out most of my hygard and ruined something.

 

[Frank in VT]

Brake valve housing started leaking (pouring) through hole on side of housing. Hole isn't threaded, so wondering why it started leaking? What prevented the leak before? Was there something inside the valve housing that prevented fluid from leaking through the hole? Most importantly, what's the easiest and cheapest way to plug it, or other solution? Any ideas?

I had the same problem and suddenly lost all the braking on the tractor. Upon removing the brake master cylinder I found the hole described by others. Apparently, it is part of a manufacturing step to make a cross hole on the interior of the master cylinder. What I assumed is that the original "plug" fell out. I repaired it by cutting 1/4-20 threads (tapped) in the hole. They were light, but there was enough to hold a 1/2 inch long bolt installed with a liberal amount of thread lock.