Starting problems

[LowellBen]

Amazingly, I did receive a reply from Bosch USA. That part number is not available for sale in the US. They asked me if I wanted to start up a distributorship. Na!

Starter has been bouncing around at different facilities in the UK for the last couple of days. Not gonna get here by the 5th.

Still gotta figure out how the mice got into the clutch area.

 

[LowellBen]

Finding how the mice were getting in, was easier than I had expected. Spent quite a bit of time with a light and mirror looking around underneath. All I had to do was to lift up the rubber pad on the floor pad. Very poor design for what I will call the HST housing. There are three big holes in that casting, plus another hole where the HST control shaft goes through. There should have been cover plates on three of the holes and some sort of dust seal for the control shaft. Have spent several more hours using a plastic tube and compressed air blowing crap out of that area. Three pissed off mice came crawling out. Going to use three small pieces of sheet metal and RTV to close up the three easy holes. Going to have to fab some sort of screen mesh for the HST control shaft hole.

I'm hoping that once the starter gets here, that the flywheel ring gear teeth are not so damaged that the tractor won't start. Hopefully the clutch will clear itself and start working properly. I also hope that whatever they use for a clutch throw out bearing is completely sealed and won't end up failing some time in the future. Way too much hoping that nothing else is damaged in there.

Really ticked off over something that shouldn't have happened but did due to poor design. Think I'll shift projects for now and go out to the airport and finish putting my airplane back together after it's inspection - and maybe go flying for a bit.

 

[JerryK]

Not to play my harp too much...... but it pays to park any vehicle you cherish in a non-rodent building. [ sorry a boot the harp playing.. ] STAY SAFE

 

[LowellBen]

Well, this is precious. Starter has been in Stansted, GB for the last 4 days. Appears someone is scanning the package everyday, but it is not moving. Talked to a Fedex International service rep just now and after checking into it, says that the package is being held at the airport for some reason. He has opened a case number to find out what is going on.

As far as parking vehicles.... The tractor was bought as a working machine, it has a job to do, will get serviced on schedule, but is not intended to be a toy. Same as my 14 year old diesel truck. It is too big to fit in the garages. It hauls trailers full of stuff along with gravel, dirt, steel, drywall, etc in the bed. 220000 miles and the LBZ motor with Allison trans is still running strong and I hope it will continue to do that for another couple hundred thousand miles with regular service. Now as far as what gets garaged: wife's car, my supercharged Dodge Challenger, two motorcycles and a Polariz Razr.

We are on 70 acres in the mountains of Colorado and the house sits on the only reasonably flat spot on the entire 70 acres. Wish I had room to put up another building - just not gonna happen with this terrain.

 

[LowellBen]

Starter showed up yesterday. Total amount of seeds, dirt, sand and fur blown out from clutch area would easily fill a coffee can. I'm sure there is more in there. Engine started with no odd noises, so teeth on flywheel must be ok. By running engine at 2000 rpm and slapping the clutch pedal, the free play is just about back to where it is supposed to be. Hopefully running the tractor some more will throw out or grind down any debris on the clutch disc or in the pressure plate assembly. All of the holes on the HST bell housing are covered by plates or fine mesh screen. Had caught three mice in a sticky trap I had put on the floor pan.

 

[Reb954]

I'm glad it worked out. Thanks for the update, it may help someone else in the future. And it will suggest to others with that model to plug the holes.

 

[LowellBen]

In case anyone cares, here is a followup to my saga.

After replacing the starter, I worked the tractor for about another 5 hours and then started to have drive problems. It would barely move in forward or reverse. It was beyond my capability to repair, knowing it had to be split. Took it to a dealership 80 miles away. When I dropped it off, tech initially thought it was an issue with the HST. He just barely got it off of the trailer and back to the shop's parking area. A couple days later he called to say that something was wrong with the clutch as he had no PTO rotation either. On these tractors the HST is not part of that power tranmission path to the PTO. So he split the tractor and sent me several pictures including the one I've attached here. He said that everything would probably work if he just cleaned up the parts, but recommended replacement. I agreed and told him to replace the pilot bearing, throwout bearing, clutch disc and pressure plate. I didn't want to have him split the tractor again in case the cleaning job didn't clear the problem. It took nearly a full week to get the parts from Mahindra. Total bill was $2040.00. I've since put another 20 hrs on the tractor and all is well. He took off the screens and plates I had put over the holes, so I had to do that again. Wish I could turbocharge the tractor, kind of a dog at 8200'.

Lowell