M8540 Hyd Shuttle locks up when cold

Airdriver · Jan 22, 2013

It works perfectly until the temp gets cold- it is about 20F here now- and it locks up until the tractor runs long enough to get to operating temp. 15 to 30 minutes. Any cure for this?

I use Kubota brand fluids. I might be a little beyond recommended change intervals now.

Tractor has about 1200hrs.

Tx Jim · Jan 22, 2013

I think I would put SUDT2 in it and see what happens. Maybe it being synthetic will help in the cold temp.

Airdriver · Jan 22, 2013

That may work. What surprises me a bit is that there are no other reports of this issue. I used the UDT.

Rustyiron · Jan 22, 2013

I keep mine in a heated bldg. so I don't know if my 9540 does this, but with my last Deere that I kept in the cold, I used to put the gear selector in neutral & the shuttle in either for. or rev. to help warm up the tranny. I could hear the tranny "running" and don't see why this will not work on our Kub. hyd. shuttle. I also don't have any "real" proof that this helped either, just thinking that the moving oil & gears whuld have to warm things up faster.

xring100 · Jan 22, 2013

I also own an m8540 hydraulic shuttle 230 hours sudt2 it was -3°f last night and -4 at 8 this morning the high was 6°f today started my tractor let it warm up for 10 to 15 minutes like the manual says shuttle always works okay sometimes the first couple uses the clutch is a little slow but I've never had it lock up. The gear shift on the other hand is really sticky until the Trans warms up when its cold. I will probably run Amsoil in it next time which should definitely help cold flow

Dave

Airdriver · Jan 23, 2013

I will try that, keeping shuttle in fwd over the 15F night. Clutch, gearshift, brake, pto all work throughout.

Don't have time to educate myself on the subject now, but would really like to know what the mechanism is that is blocking free movement of the shuttle shift when tractor is cold...!

Tx Jim · Jan 24, 2013

If I researched my M7040HDC correctly all the clutch pedal does is open a valve to divert hyd flow from the hyd shuttle clutches. The shuttle control valve diverts the oil from F or N or R and it sounds to me that the cold temps is causing the plates to drag in both F & R causing the lockup. How many hrs on on your M8540??