bx 23 loses power up hills sounds like it's rattling apart.

rich bx · Jul 29, 2017

Thanks DE+sd455dan I will get some pictutures of the FWD drive shaft and u joints, the front set of u joints I know has that plastic cover over them, wonder if I should pull that off so yall can see the forward u joint on the spline shaft? sd455dan, I hope that is my problem that sounds the easiest cheapest fix of all.
No offense Captronr - but I Really hope you are wrong and I didn't fry my hydro pump : (. But you could be right, if the hydro pump is shot, does it just keep getting weaker until the tractor can't move at all? will it cause further damage to keep driving it if the pump is shot? I don't understand how the tractor can lift a heaping load of wet sand right up no complaint at all but won't drive up a hill or plow tr down trying. If I do "force" it and rev the RPM to the max it makes a lot of noise but does better. Like I said putting a full load over the top of the tractor also seems to "release" whatever it is that's preventing the wheels from getting power.

Niedejb - thanks but the engine never quits like it does when you fall of the seat, but I will try that too, I bet on long shots.
All the complaining and resistance comes from trying unsuccessfully spinning the wheels, I'm stumped.

I will get some pics and try the things suggested next week or so when I can get back to it.

rich bx · Jul 29, 2017

DragonEggs - The only thing that happen to the drive line is the universal slipped down because the pin sheared, and the fell off the end of spline shaft, there's just one pin holding the entire U joint assembly to the drive line.
I didn't move or relocate the original two end of that arrangement, Front diff <----> Front drive shaft from transaxle.
What did you mean by monkeyed with? ARE you saying something might have got jacked when that u joint popped off of there? Maybe Look for bent shaft, bent broken mount points?

rich bx · Sep 8, 2017

Sorry to keep everyone in suspense on this one, I'm sure everyone's been waiting to hear where I wound up with this?
I noticed a lot of what is creating the rattling is the ROPS pins, and the Light bar attached to the ROPS. SO The rattle seems to be simptom of the the problem.

Checked the 4wd yoke alignment, that can be only one of two positions, tried both, with same outcome.

The "rattling apart" issue is evident regardless of 2wd or 4wd anyways. Since I've continued to use the machine on my sand dune project this last Holiday weekend, I'm thinking it must be the "by-pass valve".
I am thinking the pressure must be really lo and the releif is kicking in too soon.
When I try to make the machine resist gravity, that's the biggest load, not back hoeing nor front end loader work.
One thing I noticed that improved the tractor's willingness to climb the hills is when I drop the filled Loader bucket to the ground and even engage float, this seems to give it the extra little umph but still not always enough to proceed upward all the time, but it does improve the power loss.

So the problem is "why does the Machine shake so much when pressed to drive up hills (again either 2wd, 4wd, hi or lo) hi 2wd will create the most amount of rattle (this make me think it's bypassing because 2wd hi puts most demand on hydro, right?) .

I think I will check the posts regarding how to test and increase the hydro bypass valve.

I've read several posts regarding lo hydro pressure on BX model , even from the factory. Stay tuned I guess.