high low lever on TO 35

mikecoen · Oct 21, 2019

the lever moves through the correct range but is not engaging so is stuck in neutral. I value your feedback before I start dismantling things to get inside the box. Thank you!
Mike (note: forum has my email as mike at peoplehelpers which is obsolete. valid email is peoplehelper dot mike at gmail dot com.

Agvg · Oct 21, 2019

How does it feel? If it's normal you have a safety mechanism on the differential that are designed to snap if over loaded, if it has snapped you loose all power to the wheels.

big bubba · Oct 21, 2019

hello before you split the tractor you might try this. open the trans filler cap, fairly large as i recall. with a small pry bar (& never force) attempt to move some of the gearing on their shafts.
had a TO 35 for 28 yrs. never had your problem, but it would occasionally get stuck in one of the engaged gears. fortunately i was able to free up by above method.
have you tried to go forward & reverse to relieve gear tension, or are you in a non engaged neutral position? good luck

mikecoen · Oct 21, 2019

it feels like the lever is disconnected from the gears. It moves to the full forward and rearward position that it normally does but nothing engages. I have had some sounds like something was catching in the rear end, thought it might be brake parts but they are fine. It won't engage when the 4 speed is in any gear or neutral. It will start and run as it normally would in neutral. I may try to feel my way over to that side through the large filler cap, anything easy would be wonderful news but I've had the tractor a few years and never had this problem. My sounds like something is catching symptom started when I made stablizer bars for the two lift arms; it seemed to put them in a bind. I took them off after that and let the lift arms work without the extra bracing but the catching sound still happens some of the time. Thanks for the time and thought you've shared

Agvg · Oct 22, 2019

If your gear lever feels normal it's no point poking through the filler hole.

The part in the picture are designed to snap if overloaded, it sits in the rear housing and on old tractors it might snap off even with very little shock load. Do believe you can see it if you take off the round cover with PTO lever and tap the oil.

Agvg · Oct 22, 2019

Nr 1 om the picture

mikecoen · Oct 26, 2019

thanks for going to the trouble of sending the picture and diagram. I will try to identify that part through the cover. If I have to replace this part, what does that entail? Meanwhile, I tried to tow the tractor to a better spot to work on it and with the hi/lo stuck in high the tractor does not roll; I had to drag it, then it rolled ok and then again it seized up. the hi/lo slide that the shift lever fits into used to move to the normal extent of its range fwd and back but now is stuck in the high position and when I try to leverage it back to neutral it gives me pretty solid resistance like a heavy spring. It's going to be very cold here in Colorado next week, then I go elk hunting for a week, so it may not be possible to proceed for awhile unless I can get the tractor to roll into the barn.