JD 2305 Differential crown gear bolts fell off

[Pennsled]

I was operating my Jd 2305h purchased in June 2008 backing out of a pile of leafs I was pushing to a pile when I heard a loud noise. Sounded Like a high tension cable breaking. I was in 4wd low reverse. Immediately drove it to shop 50ft away. Drained tranny oil and found lots of metal shavings. I took the Suction filter out and found 10 bolts invarious conditions. No more rear wheel drive

 

[Pennsled]

Help me if you have heard of this

 

[beenthere]

Have not heard of it, but sounds pretty serious trouble.
Do you have the service tech manual?

 

[Pennsled]

NO I do not have the service tech manual. Do you know where i can get it? How much?
How do 10 bolts come off an inner part. Do you think they where properly installed? Or could it be a poorly engineered part? Or maybe they were not torqued correctly?

 

[Richard001]

NO I do not have the service tech manual. Do you know where i can get it? How much?
How do 10 bolts come off an inner part. Do you think they where properly installed? Or could it be a poorly engineered part? Or maybe they were not torqued correctly?

I think the "not torqued correctly" is the correct answer.

Sorry, I do not have any info to help you.

 

[k0ua]

I am sorry I don't have much info to help either other than to say I have been on this forum for many years and your account is the first I have heard of this. I don't think it is a common problem so I am thinking the bolts did not receive any locktite and/or proper torque. I am thinking this is a one of type of defect.

 

[Pennsled]

Thanks super star.
So if I repair it the the fix should be locktite and torqued?

 

[Richard001]

There are other types of locking fasteners. Nothing wrong with thread locker, but you could also consider nylock type nuts. It may depend on the room for the fastener, or maybe they are bolts that go into threaded holes, then thread locker is you only choice.

 

[ovrszd]

Here's a link you should get familiar with. It's an online parts catalog for any JD model. The link I'm attaching addresses your rear differential. It lists 10 bolts that hold the ring gear to the carrier.

John Deere - Parts Catalog

What concerns me is how this happened after 7 years of use with no previous problems??

So, assuming you haven't had the rear differential apart, I'm left to again assume that they have slowly worked loose over time. With that assumption it probably made noises before and they were ignored??

Next assumption on my part would be that the bolts are sheared off rather than loosened and fell out???

Beyond all of my assumptions, you must understand this is going to be a very technical tear down. The entire transaxle assembly has to be removed from the tractor. Then that unit has to be disassembled. Very technical. You'll definitely want a shop manual. If you have mechanical experience and knowledge you could probably do this without anything more than the pictorial diagrams you'll find on the above link. But it'll require specific tools and a good shop area to work in. It'll also require a lot of concentration and organizational skills to keep track of the parts as you disassemble.

If you start on it, post pictures and let us know how you are getting along. There are several owners on here that have the mechanical ability to do this teardown. Their experience will be very valuable to you. Good luck with this project.

 

[ovrszd]

You might be lucky. It appears in this link that the transaxle housing loads from the rear. At least in regards to the rear axle differential. Might be able to remove the large rear cover without removing the transaxle from the tractor. If so, you can probably unload the differential, fix it, and reinstall.

Since the bolts you describe appear to be damaged you need to look the rear differential gears over very closely. You are a very lucky man if you didn't chip a tooth or two.

Definitely will want to flush everything the best you can. Then probably need to change the filter a couple times after you get it running again.