Traction differential lock

Rick LaPierre · Mar 29, 2011

I have a kioti lk3054, 340 hours on it, a year ago i noticed the differential pedal laying flat on the deck...re-attached it, think a spring clip or cotter pin had come out and it detatched. anyway, thought all was well until i just got stuck in some snow...stepped on the lever and only 1 of the 2 rear wheels spun, so i figure, i blew something. no mechanic i'm afraid...did i need to pre-tension it before reattaching or is there an adjustment process to take the slack out of that pedal? any advice welcome.

Patches · Mar 29, 2011

Did you allow the wheel to spin while depressing the diff-lock;sometimes you must allow a little wheel spin so as to allow the diff-lock pin to align itself. Just make sure the wheel is not spinning too fast, just rolling over

Rick LaPierre · Mar 29, 2011

well, i did have it spinning while attempting to engage...and i'd say more than just turning over....and stepped it to the floor board and held it more than once trying to get it to engage...which times i've used it before you could feel it engage.... if wheel was already spinning too fast, it wouldn't even try to engage? seemed like stepping had no effect at all

Patches · Mar 29, 2011

Was there any movement in the lever when you attempted to engage the diff-lock? Seems these Kiotis have issues with the shafts that enter the cases;follow the diff-lock mechanism from the pedal to where it enters the differential case. There doesn't appear to be bushings for the shaft. There are however, washers and oil seals on both sides of the differential case. Make sure the shaft is not binding and free to move within this area. If you cannot get the shaft to move, you might try a penetrant on the shaft on both sides of the case. There is no adjustment for this feature. If the shaft has movement, and still no locking, you may have a bent or broken engagement fork in the differential case

JerryG · Mar 29, 2011

If it was spinning when you tried to engage the pedal there could be a couple of different problems. Some tractors have a pin that can shear where the pedal connects to the shaft that goes into the transmission. Or you have broke the shift fork inside the transmission.

Rick LaPierre · Mar 30, 2011

Patches said:
Was there any movement in the lever when you attempted to engage the diff-lock? Seems these Kiotis have issues with the shafts that enter the cases;follow the diff-lock mechanism from the pedal to where it enters the differential case. There doesn't appear to be bushings for the shaft. There are however, washers and oil seals on both sides of the differential case. Make sure the shaft is not binding and free to move within this area. If you cannot get the shaft to move, you might try a penetrant on the shaft on both sides of the case. There is no adjustment for this feature. If the shaft has movement, and still no locking, you may have a bent or broken engagement fork in the differential case

thanks so much for the info! yes the lever has play, seems to move normally, and i can see it spin the shaft that goes into the housing...just didn't seem to do anything....so i intend the try to get it to engage, without the higher rpm of the rear wheel that i had when trying to get unstuck....as it makes sense that it wouldn't engage at higher speed as a shear would be likely thanks