Well, I have lost half the gear positions on my tractor.
I have a Kubota 8540 which is at 47 hrs and has been lightly used so far. In fact is due for it's 50 hr checkup so I'm sure I'll get them to fix it under warranty.
But I am just curious about what the likely problem likely is.
The problem developed spontaneously. It has the clutched 4 speed shift lever and a high / low speed range lever and 'shuttle shift' transmission.
Normally you select a gear 1 thru 4 in either high or low. But now I cannot select gear 1 or 2 (left most position of the shift lever). It just won't 'fall into' either the 1 (up left) or 2 (down left) position. I can find the 3 and 4 position 'in the middle', but have to be careful. If I move the lever too far to the right, the lever goes into a 'loose mode' where it moves really far up and down with absolutely no resistance and engages no gear at all. Normally, all the way to the right and up and down are 3 and 4 respectively.
So I took the cover off the shift assembly to look at the linkages, etc. A push / pull rod conveys the up / down (fore / aft) action of the shift lever. A wire in a cable housing conveys the left / right action of the shift lever. So I am thinking that maybe this cable or it's linkage may be defective.
The up / down rod moves a arm that rotates a shaft that goes into the transmission. Immediately adjacent to this rod is a smaller arm that rotates a smaller shaft into the transmission. It is actuated by the other end of the wire / cable assembly that goes with the left / right activity of the shift lever.
The cable assembly and all its links seem really solid and it seems to be moving the full range of the arm on the distal end.
Because it seems like the shift lever has sort of shifted 'to the right', beyond the ability to select gear 1 and 2 and into a loose zone beyond gear 3 and 4, I adjust the position of the distal end of the cable housing to effectively give it the equivalent of pushing the shift lever further to the left.
This does nothing.
So the only gears I have are 3 and 4 for now in either high or low range.
Any ideas or experience with this?
Thanks for reading!
DJ
I have a Kubota 8540 which is at 47 hrs and has been lightly used so far. In fact is due for it's 50 hr checkup so I'm sure I'll get them to fix it under warranty.
But I am just curious about what the likely problem likely is.
The problem developed spontaneously. It has the clutched 4 speed shift lever and a high / low speed range lever and 'shuttle shift' transmission.
Normally you select a gear 1 thru 4 in either high or low. But now I cannot select gear 1 or 2 (left most position of the shift lever). It just won't 'fall into' either the 1 (up left) or 2 (down left) position. I can find the 3 and 4 position 'in the middle', but have to be careful. If I move the lever too far to the right, the lever goes into a 'loose mode' where it moves really far up and down with absolutely no resistance and engages no gear at all. Normally, all the way to the right and up and down are 3 and 4 respectively.
So I took the cover off the shift assembly to look at the linkages, etc. A push / pull rod conveys the up / down (fore / aft) action of the shift lever. A wire in a cable housing conveys the left / right action of the shift lever. So I am thinking that maybe this cable or it's linkage may be defective.
The up / down rod moves a arm that rotates a shaft that goes into the transmission. Immediately adjacent to this rod is a smaller arm that rotates a smaller shaft into the transmission. It is actuated by the other end of the wire / cable assembly that goes with the left / right activity of the shift lever.
The cable assembly and all its links seem really solid and it seems to be moving the full range of the arm on the distal end.
Because it seems like the shift lever has sort of shifted 'to the right', beyond the ability to select gear 1 and 2 and into a loose zone beyond gear 3 and 4, I adjust the position of the distal end of the cable housing to effectively give it the equivalent of pushing the shift lever further to the left.
This does nothing.
So the only gears I have are 3 and 4 for now in either high or low range.
Any ideas or experience with this?
Thanks for reading!
DJ