Bolens Iseki diesel clutch woes

[aamstrom]

I just bought a Bolens Iseki diesel model#1502 on July4. The person I bought it from told me it would need a clutch. Still I made a good deal it came with a belly mower, snowblower and the complete enclosed cab with doors and a winshied wiper. I have mowed my yard about 1 acre twice with it. The clutch is getting better but it will not completely disengage. I can get it to change between gears but it always grinds some if you are not extremely careful with it. I want to fix it before winter and I just bought a reproduction shop manual which is not the greatest manual I have ever seen but it will work. Just was curious before ripping into it who has personally tore one apart and what suprises I can expect to find? Any pictures would be nice.

 

[NHmitch]

Hi,
Congratulations on your new tractor! There are a few of us that own these little tanks on TBN, and i'll see if I can find the pages that you need in my service manual tonight. I am having the same issues, and two other members recently had their clutch's rebuilt, and they discuss it in this thread: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/iseki/247721-nh-ma-g154-g174-tx1300.html I think that it must be a common issue when these tractors reach this age, and I plan on having mine done by the end of the summer. You can adjust your clutch under the tractor just below where the steering column is located. Anyways, great to meet you, and I'll see what I can find. I you have any photos of your tractor, that would great to see them. Take care,

 

[aamstrom]

Thank you for your response. I am like you I want to fix mine before winter. If all goes as planned by the middle of this up coming week I am going to rip into mine. I will post a picture tomorrow after I get one taken. As for the adjustment under the tractor I tried to adjust mine and it is froze fast. I removed the rod and even put it in the bench vise and it just started to twist off. So I stopped while I was still ahead. But on the subject does anyone know where I can get the clutch rod. I figured if all else fails I probably could make up one but getting a direct fit part would be alot easier. I have located the clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, and pilot beairng but no luck on the rod.

 

[aamstrom]

Here is my tractor. I took the doors off the cab and the winshield out for summer.

 

[flyer61]

Hi All,

aamstrom, how are you doing on that clutch repair? Any pics you can share? I don't think I'm the only one who's just a bit curious!

I'm having clutch issues myself. I thought before I get into splitting the tractor in half to get at the clutch I'd see what advise (constructive please!)any of you folks had out there.

Here's the issue, the clutch is getting very difficult to operate. As a result the tractor grinds a bit and doesnt feel like it's coming completely out of gear. The first thing I thought of was to check the adjsutment. There was excessive play in the pedal but when I adjusted it and pressed it in....it appears to have bent the bracket that the adjustment rod attaches to. I straightened that (thinking it may have been that way) and tried it again. Same result. It looks like there is plenty of adjustment left on the rod but I'm sure the clutch shouldn't be bending the bracket when the pedal is pushed.


Has anybody run across this before? Any ideas before I split the tractor? any help would be greatly appreciated!! I've attached a couple pics so you can see the adjustment rod and the bent bracket. Thanks again,

Kevin

 

[aamstrom]

I started tearing my tractor apart this evening. Have taken pictures the whole way along. I will be posting them when I get the final photos of what I find with the clutch. I almost have it apart but it was getting late and figured I would save the offical splitting of the tractor for tomorrow. So far it has went well with the exception of spilling diesel fuel down my leg.

 

[aamstrom]

Here is some pictures of my tractor. I have it split and the clutch removed. My problem mostly was the pressure plate if you look at the photos. Althought before putting it back together I am going to look at my clutch rod, it is bent and I am wondering if that is what led up to the failure.

 

[flyer61]

Some Great pics. Thanks for posting them. I was wondering if you can tell me how the release levers on the clutch cover look? Did they still look smooth and flat on the ends where the release bearing contacts them?

Looking thru the inspection hole on my tractor it appears to me that the release bearing has "ground" into the ends of the release levers almost an 1/8th inch. The bearing edge seams to be beveled off also from the contact. I was able to reach in with a screwdriver and spin the bearing so it's not froze but I'm thinking the clutch levers may be sticking for for some reason.

Did you run into any majors issues getting the tractor split? I think Im gonna have to split mine and any advise would be greatly apreciated. By the way, where did you find your clutch parts? Thanks for all the info and pics!! :thumbsup:

 

[aamstrom]

I did not have any major issues during disassembly. Actually what I found to be my biggest pain during disassembly is the cab on mine working around it. I thought of taking it the whole way off but it looks harder to take off than splitting the tractor. Never had to resort to the torch even once. My release levers are all chewed up and the ends, what little are left are sharp as a razor. Only one of the three of them had enough metal on the end to do anything. That and the throw out bearing were the problems but I am also going to replace the clutch while I am in there. I think due to rust from the tractor not being used for awhile till I bought it casued the problem. I found the best price on the parts at BestFarmParts.com. I ordered everything last night so maybe with a little luck the parts will be here in time so I can put it back together Sat.

 

[aamstrom]

Update on the tractor. The parts did not arrive until late Tues. afternoon. Spent all day Wednesday putting it all back together. I bought a pressure plate, throwout bearing, and a clutch disc. The pressure plate and throwout bearing were right but the clutch disc was not the right one. So I became brave and put it back together minus a new clutch disc and reused mine. It seems to work great. I mowed the yard last evening with it and it was so pleasant changing gears without grinding them. As for reasssembly advice I used a 3/8 drive deep 10mm socket and an extension for a clutch alignment tool. Worked fine. And as soon as I bolted the tractor back together and sat it on all four wheels I pushed the clutch in to see if the clutch was disengaging. It should roll fairly easily back and forth on a smooth level surface. And if you slowly let out the clutch doing this will give you some idea on clutch freeplay at what point you can no longer push the tractor. My reasoning for doing this was to have a good idea before putting everything else back together to see if it was going to work.