BX23 1300 hours, 4x4 is lacking.

[lawlopez]

BX23 front drive shaft needs repair. Any ideas ?

I have no front wheel drive.

Everything looked fine except for the end of the drive shaft which connects to the transmission.

The transmission has a spline shaft.
The drive shaft has a an extension which is either pinned and / or welded which mates to the spline shaft.

The pin and / or weld has parted company.

I can turn the transmission drive shaft when in 2 wheel drive and can not turn the transmission drive shaft when in 4 wheel drive. The front differential is also working fine. The two wheels counter rotate when the drive shaft is stopped.

Any suggestions ?

I'm thinking I'll call Kubota tomorrow.
Larry

had fun moving gravel around.

 

[lawlopez]

I found a parts diagram under bx23 transmissions

http://www.messicks.com

K2561-14320 100 COUPLING FWD
07715-01605 110 BALL
K2561-14330 120 COLLAR COUPLING
04612-00280 130 CIR CLIP EXTERNAL
04817-00160 140 O RING

I'll have to take the drive shaft out and figure things out.
I don't know how the thing works.

Larry

 

[art]

Take it apart and see if the splines are gone and the pin sheared.

 

[lawlopez]

Art:

Sounds like a good plan.
It doesn't look hard to take apart.

Larry

 

[lawlopez]

Ok, I removed the pins which hold the drive shafts on the two universal joints.

This let me slide one of the front drive shaft and remove it.
One universal is also pinned to the differential shaft.
The other slides on the propeller shaft. I needed to pry slightly.

I then took off 3 bolts splitting the two halves of the mount for the bearing between the two front drive shaft.

I then removed the bold securing the front half of the mount and removed the mount.

The center bearing became free and I slid off the rear half of the front drive shaft through the remaining center bearing support
leaving the coupling behind.

I removed the coupling between the read drive shalf half and the HST. I needed to pry slightly.

No ball bearings were present in the coupling.

The coupling had been welded several times.

2 lands for the ball bearings on the drive shaft were torn out.
One ball bearing hole on the couping was filled in by weldment.

I talked to the original Kubota dealer who checked out the tractor.
He said nothing bad would happen if it was welded.

I'm going to Chappel Tractor in Milford and talk to them.
They aren't the original dealer.

Since I'm not keen on losing front wheel drive while plowing in a snow storm, I'm guessing $200 or $300 in parts.

Larry

 

[lawlopez]

I was wrong, it's only about $110 in parts.
That includes everything including the drive shaft.
Even the bearing

The shaft is turning inside of the sleeve of the bearing.
The sleeve isn't moving. That makes me thing the bearing seized.
Still the sleeve is making a good bearing surface.

This was the best outcome that could have happened.
The HSD seems ok.

Larry

 

[lawlopez]

The front axle shaft that connects to the HSD has a quick disconnect which is locked down by a cir clip. This quick disconnect is what broke.

I'm not sure why they went to this trouble.

Perhaps it is there to save the drive shaft on the HSD.

Larry

 

[art]

It is always better to have a failure to a part that is external over a internal failure!!!!

 

[lawlopez]

Art:

Absolutely.

I'm a very happy camper.

Larry

 

[lawlopez]

Parts came in, after 2 weeks, I'm missing an O ring, I used the old one which was in sad shape.

4x4 finally works.

And it works really really well, no more sitting on the rear differntial lock while York raking uphill !!!