10 Series HST Caution

dieselsmoke1 · Apr 28, 2009

There's a 2" spring attached to the side of the tranny behind the hydro pedal mechanism. The other end is connected to a lever. This lever applies resistance to the pedals and recenters them. No spring, no resistance. The end broke off mine today.

Picking your way through thick mature woods while bush hogging at near max rpm is not a good place for the forward pedal to suddenly bottom out in mid range. Things got real hairy for about 5 seconds till I wrestled it to a stop while dodging trees. Fortunately no one hurt and no damage done.

Mine broke at 500 hrs. I plan to buy a handfull and replace it every 300 from now on.

rback33 · Apr 29, 2009

I am sure it was anything but funny at the time, but the picture you painted sure had me laughing in my chair. I can only imagine the panic. It's great everything turned out OK. Could a stick have popped up an broke it? That does not strike me as something that would just fail like that...

dieselsmoke1 · Apr 29, 2009

I blamed it on fatigue but that's certainly a possibility. The break occured at the lever end hook bend.

First instinct was to jam the brakes however at that rpm they didn't have much effect. Couldn't look down long enough to find the key switch but I was able to yank the throttle. I took a few minutes to drop the FEL before starting, that's what saved me.

coffeeman · Apr 30, 2009

dieselsmoke1 said:
There's a 2" spring attached to the side of the tranny behind the hydro pedal mechanism. The other end is connected to a lever. This lever applies resistance to the pedals and recenters them. No spring, no resistance. The end broke off mine today.

Picking your way through thick mature woods while bush hogging at near max rpm is not a good place for the forward pedal to suddenly bottom out in mid range. Things got real hairy for about 5 seconds till I wrestled it to a stop while dodging trees. Fortunately no one hurt and no damage done.

Mine broke at 500 hrs. I plan to buy a handfull and replace it every 300 from now on.

"hydro pedal mechanism" and lever?? What does it control? The thing-a-majig with a spring that controls _____, I might understand.

Cheers Coffeeman

dieselsmoke1 · May 1, 2009

LOL Well I stated where it is, what it looks like, what it's hooked to on both ends and it's purpose. You're on your own from there, dude.

dieselsmoke1 · May 1, 2009

Coffeeman, I took your question as a wise crack, after thinking a few moments maybe i was mistaken. if so i apologize for my WA answer.

To answer in a more civil manner, the spring mounting stud on the side of the tranny is concealed by the hydro pedal arms from side view. You have to look from under the tractor to see it. The spring is about 2" x about 9/16" dia. with hooks on both ends, maybe 3.5" overall.

At the hydro pedal pivot point (where the grease fitting is) there's a lever, or more accurately described as an actuator, about 6" long mounted on the same pivot and sticking down. This actuator is apparently cammed and uses the spring's tension to force the directional pedals to center themselves or disengage when there's no foot pressure.

If the spring breaks, there's no return action when you lift your foot and the hydro pedal remains engaged. The pressure of my foot on the forward pedal while easing around was more than enough to hit the floor when the resistance disappeared.

Does that clear it up?