Trev
Platinum Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2002
- Messages
- 918
- Location
- Williamson, NY (near Rochester)
- Tractor
- Currently tractor-less
I posted on this a while back, but have new data.. and I'm wondering if anyone can shed light..
My JD4300 with front blade instead of FEL began showing some signs of minor problems.. the SCV lever was sticking to the side rather than returning to center. I decided to have the dealer take a look, and also to check the machine over carefully to make sure I was properly maintaining it.. just told them to "give it a full checkup."
The had to put a new control valve in to fix the SCV problem.
Ever since then, it's behavior has changed in three ways...
1) The Selective Control Valve lock lever, which is supposed (according to the manual) to be in the upper position for FEL to allow the REGEN function, *has* to be in the upper FEL position or the right/left function of the SCV is locked. So the manual says I should be in the middle position, which always worked prior to their "fix", but I found, and the dealer confirmed that it now has to be in the upper position even without a FEL attached. What this means is that I can no longer follow the instructions in the owner's manual.. I have to do it differently to make it work at all. Seems wrong to me.
2) There is now a very annoying "float" position to the RIGHT. If I move the lever all the way right to angle the blade, nothing happens. I have to carefully nudge it just a tiny bit toward the right to angle the blade that direction. Very annoying when plowing snow.. and it always worked fine before.
3) Pushing the SCV forward works to engage float mode, but the lever stays in the far forward position when released. I seem to recall that it used to recenter itself after being put in float mode. I might be wrong, and this isn't a huge problem, but I include it merely to fully describe what's changed since their "fix." It *is* kind of annoying in that, while in float mode, I used to be able to just nudge the lever a bit if I wanted to raise or lower it. Now I have to first pull it out of float position and then nudge it. An extra step.. not a big deal, but why?
Now, one JD mechanic came out to look, and told me this was all normal and that this right float position was something new that benefited people using a FEL. I thought maybe it was a valve for a 4310 rather than a 4300. But, it's annoying as all getout, and others tell me there should be no such changes in the behavior of the machine.
Calls to the service department resulted in them doing some research and telling me that the new valve should be identical to the old one. I explained that the behavior had changed dramatically, and asked what else might be causing this. They don't know. They say it can only be hooked up one way, and that there's no chance of them having installed it incorrectly.
They keep falling back on saying "We've never used anything except a FEL on the front, so we aren't really up to speed on how the other front implements, like your blade, are supposed to work." Swell. Okay, at least they're being honest.
They're sending a guy out on Monday, when I'll unfortunately be at work. But hopefully he will be able to figure it out. In the meantime, I wonder if anyone has any ideas as to what has changed to cause this change in behavior? It might be helpful if I could point them toward something specific to look for.. and I don't have a clue myself. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Thanks,
Bob
My JD4300 with front blade instead of FEL began showing some signs of minor problems.. the SCV lever was sticking to the side rather than returning to center. I decided to have the dealer take a look, and also to check the machine over carefully to make sure I was properly maintaining it.. just told them to "give it a full checkup."
The had to put a new control valve in to fix the SCV problem.
Ever since then, it's behavior has changed in three ways...
1) The Selective Control Valve lock lever, which is supposed (according to the manual) to be in the upper position for FEL to allow the REGEN function, *has* to be in the upper FEL position or the right/left function of the SCV is locked. So the manual says I should be in the middle position, which always worked prior to their "fix", but I found, and the dealer confirmed that it now has to be in the upper position even without a FEL attached. What this means is that I can no longer follow the instructions in the owner's manual.. I have to do it differently to make it work at all. Seems wrong to me.
2) There is now a very annoying "float" position to the RIGHT. If I move the lever all the way right to angle the blade, nothing happens. I have to carefully nudge it just a tiny bit toward the right to angle the blade that direction. Very annoying when plowing snow.. and it always worked fine before.
3) Pushing the SCV forward works to engage float mode, but the lever stays in the far forward position when released. I seem to recall that it used to recenter itself after being put in float mode. I might be wrong, and this isn't a huge problem, but I include it merely to fully describe what's changed since their "fix." It *is* kind of annoying in that, while in float mode, I used to be able to just nudge the lever a bit if I wanted to raise or lower it. Now I have to first pull it out of float position and then nudge it. An extra step.. not a big deal, but why?
Now, one JD mechanic came out to look, and told me this was all normal and that this right float position was something new that benefited people using a FEL. I thought maybe it was a valve for a 4310 rather than a 4300. But, it's annoying as all getout, and others tell me there should be no such changes in the behavior of the machine.
Calls to the service department resulted in them doing some research and telling me that the new valve should be identical to the old one. I explained that the behavior had changed dramatically, and asked what else might be causing this. They don't know. They say it can only be hooked up one way, and that there's no chance of them having installed it incorrectly.
They keep falling back on saying "We've never used anything except a FEL on the front, so we aren't really up to speed on how the other front implements, like your blade, are supposed to work." Swell. Okay, at least they're being honest.
They're sending a guy out on Monday, when I'll unfortunately be at work. But hopefully he will be able to figure it out. In the meantime, I wonder if anyone has any ideas as to what has changed to cause this change in behavior? It might be helpful if I could point them toward something specific to look for.. and I don't have a clue myself. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Thanks,
Bob
