5420 popping out of gear while going downhill

Ed_Jameson · Apr 21, 2006

We are trying to get to the bottom of a problem with a JD 5420. It lost control while a kid was working it down a hill. He claims that it just popped out of gear and that he had not hit the clutch. Has anyone heard of this happening on the same or similar models? If so, what causes it?

BloomingtonMike · Apr 21, 2006

Can someone else reproduce the issue (within control limits)?

jd110 · Apr 21, 2006

I don't know of any problems with the 5420, but transmissions can jump out of gear when going down hill if you have worn gears or synchronizers. Or if a bearing is going bad. Which lever jumped out, left side or right? Is the tractor making any unusual noises? Does it shift normally? How many hours are on it? Did it have a heavy load behind it? What gear was he running in when it jumped out? If it was an isolated incident, maybe he didn't have the lever fully engaged to start with. There are many questions that need answering before determining the cause of this problem.

Ed_Jameson · Apr 25, 2006

I am curious about your reply, by asking "if someone else could reproduce the issue" did you mean that this topic has been discussed before? If so, do you know when/where? I looked around before I posted but did not find the discussion. Thank you!

cowboydoc · Apr 25, 2006

It hasn't been discussed on here to my knowledge. There is absolutely no history of the 20 series popping out of gear going down a hill. Like the previous poster said ALOT more info needs to be given before any kind of a determination can be made. More than likely he didn't have it in gear or he put it in too high of a gear and it just felt like it was out of gear. It's hard to say with a kid. Also the # of hours is a must to determine anything. And can you reproduce it. With worn gears or synchros you can put it in the gear he was in and go down the same hill with a load and it will be reproducible. If it isn't reproducible I would chalk it up to operator error and go on.

Egon · Apr 25, 2006

Ed:

Maybe let us know exactly what the Kid was doing when working downhill and how steep it was. How did he stop it?

Could help more clever people than I to figure it out and give you an answere! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Ed_Jameson · Apr 28, 2006

Thank you to everyone for your responses. It had a little more than 750 hours on it when this happened. I call him a kid but really he is in his early twenties. He was pulling a manure spreader on a 3 point hitch with about 350lbs in it. He had always been a good operator. I would try to reproduce it but am a little scared as he got tore up pretty bad- may have to dig out the old football helmet but figured I would at least do some checking to see if this has happened to others first.