Cannot disengage 4WD

[Smalljobs]

My 284 seems to be stuck in 4WD. Periodically I would engage or disengage it but it's been in 4WD for months now while I did a lot of work in the woods, mud, etc. In the past, I knew I had to disengage while moving or maybe turning a bit right and left, etc to free up the drive train.

I always had to pull the lever away from the transmission case before I could rotate it in/out of 4WD. Now the lever seems stuck in the case (rust?) and I can't move it outward. Maybe some Liquid Wrench etc.?

Has anyone come across this?

PS: This machine is almost never on any blacktop.

 

[Jinma284]

Jack up the front end until both front tires are off the ground. That works for me.

Pat

 

[Smalljobs]

Pat - tks. I already tried that with no luck.

I placed a pry bar behind the lever and tried gently to coax it outward away from the transmission. It won't budge. I think maybe it's rusted.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Try some taps with a hammer or some heat and some WD40 or other penetrating oil.

Chris

 

[Smalljobs]

Chris - That seems to be my plan and I want to be careful about thermally damaging any seal on that shaft. I think if I carefully heat the shaft, apply WD-40, and tap.....carefully, it should loosen up.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would pull that top cover off first. Only 8 bolts. I have had mine off a few times, once when adding a dip stick/fill to the creeper box.

Chris

 

[g0rd0]

drive it around for 5 minites to warm up the transmition and front end. While still warm drain both front end and transmition fluid into a clean plastic container, drag a clean magnet through it and check for any particals. Now fill transmition and front end with diesel and drive around for another 5 minites , changeing gears, hi/lo, fwd and reverse. This will clean out any gunk that may be sticking in there. (this should have been done while RUNNING in the tractor).
Now drain the diesel out of the front end and transmition and refill with clean 90 wieght gear oil.
I hope that this has fixed your problem, if it has then your tractor probly was not run in properly and you may want to do this to your power steering and hydrolic (but replace the diesel with hydrolic fluid). And then also maybe your injector pump should be done before gunk makes it stick wide open (not fun when that happens) when I did that to my injector pump I refilled it with 5w40 motor oil.

 

[RonMar]

I would pull that top cover off first. Only 8 bolts. I have had mine off a few times, once when adding a dip stick/fill to the creeper box.

Chris

This would probably be my next step also... It comes right off

 

[rmdaniels47]

Often this problem is merely the "detent ball" on the 4 wheel drive shift lever has rusted in place due to lack of movement. Liberally spray the detent ball on the shift lever (between shift lever and side of transmission case) with a rust penetrant, and maybe need to "tap" lightly on the shift lever (straight in toward transmission) to loosen the detent ball and get it to spring into the lever again, allowing the lever to move.

 

[Smalljobs]

This machine was properly dealer prepped before delivery and I followed all the rules after that including fluid changing, cylinder head retorque, frequent oil change (fuel pump oil, too) chassis lube, etc. Now I have almost 400 trouble free hours.

Winter coming with plenty of snow plowing planned so I'm glad it's not the opposite problem. I'll try the WD-40 and tapping for now and tackle any remaining problem in the springtime.

Thanks to all.

By the way, follow my other thread on the backhoe thumb. Will have more to report on my new thumb soon