Ok, so I had a leaking Blade Valve on my 440. It drips hyd oil on the Bellhousing and seeps through between the Engine/tranny and gets on the Clutch causing slippage.. I was for a while just every now and then Letting it slip abit so it would "burn off" the oil, but it got to the point that my leak is bad enough that it was slipping in 1st gear.. so Monday i bought a new blade valve, installed, Pulled the Engine, Removed the Pressure plate and clutch disc cleaned it all up with Brake parts cleaner, Took some sand paper too the Pressure plate and flywheel to break the glaze and Re-installed (Also put a bead of Black RTV gasket on the tranny/engine contact point). after it was all put back together I had no clutch, When the engine turned over the pedal would "hop". If i stopped cranking at a high point of the clutch pedal i had clutch, but when the pedal would go to a low point no clutch.. Obviously somethings wrong.. So i pulled the engine again checked it all out and found nothing wrong.. Reinstalled still no clutch, adjusted the Clutch pedal and still get no clutch.. So I pulled it once agian put in a Remanufactured Clutch disc & Pressure Plate.. Guess what.. Still no clutch... John Deere told me to start the Engine and let it idle for a few minutes with the clutch pedal depressed.. I dunno what this would do or why it would work but its worth a try Does anyone have any suggestions? It worked on monday just slipped, now it won't work with it cleaned and a new clutch installed.. and I really don't wanta pull it for a 4th time this week and just keep guessing
Goodmorning bobus 2003 , feel your pain, bad enough have to do it again when your gettin paid the first time, brutal when its yours and your just trying to get going so you can start makin money! Don't have any exp. with a skidder but have fixed many clutch problems over 25 years of wrenchin. Sound like (1) the pressure plate is not seated flat on the flywheel.Or(2) the flywheel itself is warped, bent or not seated square on the crank shaft flang. Could somthing have gotten damaged when you were swingen the engine in and out? Since you've got the same problem with the replacment parts, I guess its unlikly the pressure plate is causing this,BUT I've seen lever type pressure plates be bad out of the box 2or 3 times in a row. That pulsation your feeling is one of the p plate levers spinning past the throw out bearing and kicking it out. All of them should be verry close to the same hight with the plate torqued to the f wheel. This something you can check w/ the engine out. If all the levers look even , then turn the engine over and watch (measure?) the runout (wobble) on the f wheel.Maybe just hot wire the starter w/jumper cables and watch the thing spin and see whats what. Have also seen new clutch disks of incorrect thickness(to thick) cause a no release problem, but that dosn't realy fit your story. Hope these ramblings are some help. Let us know how you do and if you'v got any more problems I sure will try and help. GOOD LUCK !
Is it possible that your clutch fork or throw-out bearing is the problem? I'm trying to remember as I haven't had one apart for a while. How is the fork fixed to the cross shaft? There is a site to do with Yesterdays Tractors, Crawlers, Loaders and Dozers. There are a few mechanics that post there who have lots of JD experience. At least you are getting good at tearing down your skidder!
I replaced one in a gas 440 and a diesel 440a and both times I had to set the finger height on the pressure plate. The gas 440 we put all the way back together and couldn't get enough adjustment out of the linkage to get the clutch to engage. Pulled it apart and got the finger height adjustment from dealer, set it, no problem after that.
Well With it put all back together and a re-adjusted clutch Pedal, I now have an operational clutch (looked in the bellhousing with a bore-scope) but a Non-shifting Tranny.. Didn't know what it could be, so i called my father (previous owner of the machine) and he said he had a similar problem and it was stuck in two gears, so he came out and we tore into the tranny from the top and found that it was stuck between reverse and high range in the 2-4 gear..yay! so after fiddling with that all of today i may get to start skiddin wood on monday..gotta go get batteries and a air filter tommorow
had a ford tractor do the same thing i spent a week pulling my hair out about the problem finally i threw the towel in and called my father who use to be a mechanic for ford tractor he came over and fixed the problem in less than 15 minutes, now if i have problems he's the first one i call.
Ah, the eye of experience ! REALLY glad yor roolin again! Hope she'll hold together long enough to finish! good luck.
With a ford (like the old 8N), one would get into the habit of double-clutching (let the clutch out when in neutral) to be sure the shifter got it out of one gear before putting it into another. Saves taking the tranny cover off. :) :)