BX24 diff lock disaster ... How many others have had this problem?

[Carl Stevenson]

Had o-ring leaking hydraulic fluid. Sent to dealer for repair. A week later, more fluid dripping out. Now they say diff lock pin sheared off inside of lower case and punched a hole in lower case. They say repair will be about $3k. Mechanic at dealer says he's done 4 of the this year (it's a small dealer).

I'm thinking this may be a design flaw (for pin failure to cause such catastrophic damage.

If you've had this problem, please contact me. I want to know how common this is.

Carl

 

[chrisott]

Carl,

I've had my BX24 since 2006 and have not had this problem. (I did have the common problem of shearing off the blades of the HST plastic fan, though.)

Good luck.

 

[Grandad4]

Sorry to hear of your problem. We've had our BX for six years and over 500 hours, including plenty of dirt work, snow removal, pulling some heavy implements, all without problems to date. I will say with a tiny tractor like this, the diff lock can get a lot of use, and it's not going to be happy if it gets engaged while one wheel is spinning, so I've tried to be very careful about engaging it on the BX. I try to anticipate situations where there will be a loss of traction, for example, and engage the diff lock beforehand. And if one rear wheel does start spinning, I'll stop the tractor before engaging it. Always try to engage it going straight, not while in a turn. Don't know if that will save our BX from eventually having this problem, but so far so good. Good luck with yours.

 

[BotaBigot]

...I try to anticipate situations where there will be a loss of traction, for example, and engage the diff lock beforehand. And if one rear wheel does start spinning, I'll stop the tractor before engaging it. Always try to engage it going straight, not while in a turn...

Correct. Diff lock is low-tech traction aid...you are pushing a pin in diff carrier into hole in side gear, "locking" them together which turns diff into solid axle. If rear wheels turning at greatly different speeds, risk of breaking pin or carrier. Broken parts in transaxle can be fatal...

 

[Bota4me]

Wow, I hope they fixed this on my bx25!
4 is a lot of failures
from a small dealer. So far so good with mine.

 

[Deano]

Sorry to hear of your problem. We've had our BX for six years and over 500 hours, including plenty of dirt work, snow removal, pulling some heavy implements, all without problems to date. I will say with a tiny tractor like this, the diff lock can get a lot of use, and it's not going to be happy if it gets engaged while one wheel is spinning, so I've tried to be very careful about engaging it on the BX. I try to anticipate situations where there will be a loss of traction, for example, and engage the diff lock beforehand. And if one rear wheel does start spinning, I'll stop the tractor before engaging it. Always try to engage it going straight, not while in a turn. Don't know if that will save our BX from eventually having this problem, but so far so good. Good luck with yours.

This is what I try to do also! Can't say it ALWAYS happens though.

 

[Carl Stevenson]

I'm not saying that diff lock pins should NEVER break. Nothing is unbreakable. My issue is with the design where, if it does break, it falls to the bottom of the case and gets pinched by the gear(s) and punches a hole in the case, resulting in a $3k repair bill!!!

Not having enough clearance to prevent that seems to me to be a design flaw. A broken pin should be able to sit in the bottom of the pan, rather than being pushed through the case, creating such extensive and expensive damage.

I would like to hear from everyone who has had this happen and investigate the possibility of getting some consideration from Kubota for the cost their design flaw has caused.

 

[Carl Stevenson]

My point is that if I'm the 5th customer of one small dealer to have this issue this year (how many hundreds or thousands more across all of the dealers and all of their production?), Kubota has a problem that needs to be fixed and I think that they should make it right with those of us who have suffered from their problem.

 

[Gator6x4]

I don't see how they could fix it. Maybe install a buddy seat and provide someone to ride along and constantly remind the operator not to engage the differential lock when the machine is moving or when one of the rear wheels is rotating.

Engaging the differential lock when the machine is moving or one of the rear wheel is spinning will in all likelihood result in an expensive repairs.

 

[radioman]

I haven't broken anything on my BX24 except the plastic tail lens couple times. I use the Diff lock alot, but I never used it constantly. When I get stuck, I would use the diff lock with aid of 4wd if I felt it needed it or know I only need traction on spinning rear. Its always for a moment, never more then 5 mins at a time. The only time I EVER used diff lock more then 5 mins was during a snowstorm when I had over 6 inches of really wet snow plowing and needed to punch through.

The only problem specific on the BX24 compared to other models I think is the reverse issue, maybe plastic body. Sorry to say, I dont see many diff lock failures on BX's posted here on TBN, other then not underestanding how to engage the diff lock. You never stand on the diff lever, just let it ease/slip in.