I broke down and ordered the book for this machine this morning, but until it gets here I have a question about the clutch. I'm troubleshooting a no power / traction situation. My problem was, the tractor moves around the yard just fine, but when it comes time to push, it's like there is some slipping. I never smell clutch burning though. While messing with it the other day, my shoelace got stuck under the clutch pedal just like in the movie Footloose during the tractor chicken scene. Yes, for a moment I was Kevin Bacon. Anyway, I lifted the clutch pedal all the way, and suddenly I had full power. I had assumed the clutch was a regular dry plate clutch, same as anything else, and the pedal has a little free play. I had just moved the pedal to the top of what I would call the free play range, and it worked fine. What the heck? I took a closer look and under that floorboard is supposed to be a return spring that returns the pedal all the way. That spring is gone. I was not in the hard part of the pedal stroke, just the last 1/2" of movement or so. So what happened here? Is the clutch pedal connected hydraulically to something in the trans in addition to the clutch? What would Kevin Bacon do?
Actually, scratch that I can see there is a linkage going over to the valving at the trans. So there is more than regular linkage to a clutch going on there.
See this sort of thing pretty often on older tractors with cables running from the clutch pedal to the transmission. Cables start to seize up and the pedal stays engaged just enough for the clutch to start slipping under load.
That's more or less exactly what's going on here. That first inch or so of travel isn't "free play" at all. That's for the valving in the trans. Exactly what, I don't know (yet). I just put an old screen door spring on that pedal to make it return all the way, and it's back to work. Once I get into the book, maybe I'll better understand what's going on there
Probably just modulates pressure to a wet clutch inside the transmission would be my guess.