Tip/trick for helping change HST range selector (NX series, maybe others?)

[DieselBound]

Getting pretty annoyed at the difficulties changing HST ranges. I'd tried several other suggestions/tips, but really no help. Anyway, I think that I may have stumbled across something that might be helpful. I'd be curious whether others find that this helps them too.

If the range selector doesn't want to go in to another range (Mid range seems the most difficult) turn your steering wheel. You may have to turn it nearly full one way and full the other, but it seems that this almost always helps. I suspect that the movement of the front wheels might be enough to slightly move the tractor, thus helping align the gears better.

A quick observation on "Mid" range selection difficulties. I am feeling two stages in shifting into "Mid" range. Coming from "Low" you hit what seems to be "Mid" range (dash will indicate this) but it will always pop out of "Mid" when you hit the travel pedal (and the dash will show you as being in neutral). When you hit what I'd call a "false gear engagement" if you push on the range selector toward "High" while turning the steering wheel you'll feel the selector drop into the correct "notch" (a second, more positive engagement, the actual one).

Knowing that this issue diminishes with use is the only thing that keeps me from telling the dealer to come pick the thing up (perhaps permanently).

 

[s219]

Have you tried bumping the HST pedals/treadle one way or another? I know on both Kubotas I have owned, it's easy to get them out of gear into neutral, but about 50% of the time it's a pain to engage the new gear. Bumping and re-centering the HST treadle while in neutral always works and lets me slide right into the new gear. I think it's just taking pressure off one side of the gear train.

I haven't run into any issues positively engaging gears, but it's all by feel on my two machines -- no dash light to give me a false impression.

 

[DK35vince]

Sounds like the HST is keeping just enough tension on the gears to make them difficult to shift

 

[DieselBound]

s219, yes, that's one of the noted common tips and I've found it to not really be effective with this tractor (nature of the beast; works on my B7800. After hitting pedals and changing RPMs the only other thing that I could think of to move around was the steering wheel!

Vince, yes, pretty sure that it's a tension issue. I think that turning the steering wheel moves the tractor ever-so-slightly which ends up relieving some of the tension on the gears.

 

[cutthroat]

Yeah my NX6010 behaves like this as well. Because of how hard it is to get in and out of gears I had to resort to disabling the seat safety switch. Didn't want to have to **** with the range shifter to just get in and out of the tractor for a moment. Now I only have to shift when starting, usually move around in Medium. What I found to help the most was making sure the linked pedal is engaged and then hitting either the forward or reverse pedal to get some RPM's for a moment. I can say that after 140 hours it is getting a little easier, but not much. I had a Kubota L3200 HST tractor for awhile and it shifted much easier.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I don't have a Kubota but this is what works for me. I usually don't try to shift gears while I'm completely stopped. If you are moving slowly and shift the tractor out of gear and simultaneously let off the HST pedal the tractor very nicely slips in to the next gear.

 

[DieselBound]

cutthroat, thanks for the suggestion. I generally don't have linked-pedal on (I find it to be too sensitive, causes the engine to race too quickly and too high- personal issue), in which case I'd have to flip the switch and then rock the pedals. What I'm finding is that it's quicker to just spin the steering wheel; I'm really finding that this "trick" is more effective than any other approach.

I'm doing a lot of loader work and then hauling, which requires running in low and mid ranges. In most any other activities I would do I probably wouldn't be bouncing between ranges like this: I run my B7800 almost always in mid range; it too can be a bit of a pig shifting, but because the travel pedals respond quickly (not drive-by-wire) it's a lot quicker to get resolution.

pmsmechanic, unintentionally I've tried shifting before being fully at rest. I tend to get grinding.