5310 Brake Valve Leak

[CC Farms]

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?

 

[JD5210]

If you can provide a picture of the hole or point it out in the attached picture that came from the JD parts site. I will look to see if there is anything in the tech. manual.

 

[CC Farms]

Thanks for replying. Here's a picture from the left side as viewed from the tech manual diagram you sent or driver's seat. The hole is near the bottom where I put the screw.

 

[JD5210]

I looked at my brake valve on my 1999 5210 did not see a hole, but based on your picture I will go take a second look. You may want to look at the URL I found, it appears you are not alone and if you spoke with a dealer why you did not get much help. If your screw stopped the leak, you made the correct fix.

Yesterday's Tractors :: View topic - Plug on Master cylinder

 

[JD5210]

I looked at the brake valve on my 5210. There is a little hole there, with what looks to be a rubber plug pushed into it.

 

[CC Farms]

Thanks for your help. I put a bolt in the hole with some gasket sealer and it's drying now, hopefully it will hold. Wasn't sure how much pressure there was in the brake valve but if yours has a rubber plug it can't be much. I went to the dealer yesterday and they had no clue and suggested I plug it with something. Great idea!

Thanks again.

 

[bitternut]

Well, this is an old post but yesterday my 2000 5210 came up with the same problem. I had been brushogging some very high and thick grass for a couple hours and decided to take a break. I let the tractor cool off a bit at idle and then dropped the loader and mower to the ground. When I dismounted from the tractor I noticed fresh oil dripping down the side along the brake pedals. This tractor has never dripped a drop of oil in the close to 20 years I have owned it. Anyways long story short story I found this post about the mystery plug. My brake valve has the hole without the mystery plug. Not sure where it went but once I got all the covers out of the way I started the engine and sure enough the re was a steady stream of oil pouring out of the mystery hole.

Could any of you that have experienced this problem shed any light on this problem? Could I just remove the supply line, plug it and drive the tractor without brakes temporarily? On level ground of course.

Here is the picture of the hole that is leaking. The picture is taken from the clutch (left) side of the tractor. The leaking hole is kind of centered between the two horizontal pipers.
T

 

[T2McGinty]

Yeah my 5310 just had this same problem happen. I am in the process of fixing and will report back what I find.

T

 

[Zebrafive]

Watching! I would like to upgrade the 2030 to a 5x10, 5x20 or 5x25 series tractor.

 

[bitternut]

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.

 

[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.