Could someone help me begin to diagnose this... I've got a 580b with power shuttle trans that has been going strong until last week when pushing a large log out of a pathway. I thought I was beginning to hear metal creaking but then I realized it was a low rpm heavy grinding sound. I stopped pushing and started to back up and the grinding continued for a bit in forward and reverse. Now there is no movement (or grinding) in forward or reverse in any gear. The hydraulics still work fine and the dash gauge still shows trans pressure in the green range for forward or reverse. Someone told me that most likely the ring and pinion in the differential is the problem if so, how difficult is the repair? Thanks for any help on this.
Not sure what your skills are. First - drain transaxle oil & see what trinkets you can find, remove the rear cover & inspect, if it has done a crownwheel & pinion - all will be revealed. Second - remove the backhoe - sounds like a big thing to do, but alot easier than you think. Third - split the tractor, between the transaxle & shuttle tube. Fourth - transaxle needs to be stripped - pinion shaft is the last thing to remove. Highly recommend a service manual if you intend to do this yourself. Plenty of help & advise here if you need it
Your friend is probably right. I would also say that you have lost a couple of teeth on your crown or pinion gear. I think it is more common that the crown sees the damage. You can still operate with one broken tooth without noticing to much, but two or more will bring you to a stop. If you need to get out of the tight spot you broke down in, you can put push your self with either bucket to get your crown and pinion meshed again. By turning your back axle you will turn your crown gear out of its bad stop assuming it is the gear with the broken teeth. When you put the shuttle in forward your will start driving again but with a noise from your differential when the gears mesh with the broken teeth. I had this happen on my 580B last year. A case dealer estimated that it was a 3 day job for them to make the repair , or 24 - 30 hrs. To have a look at what is actually the problem, you need to lift the floor inside the cab and then take the top cover off the dif.. You can also look from the back of the dif. without too much trouble, you just can't see as well and you will need to take the top off anyways to fix the gear problem. There actually is a lot of info already written on previous threads that will help you more if you want to get into the repair yourself.
Thanks alrman and Singletree. I will pull the floor plate and top cover and have a look inside. I did move it already with the hoe and and at no point did it seem as if it were engaging. I might try lifting the tires off the ground with the stabilizers and spin each wheel to see if it engages. Is it possible to have wiped all the teeth off the pinion? I do have the service manual (on cd that I printed out). I have reasonable mechanical skills and will attempt this unless it's too difficult. At a minimum, I could pull it out and swap in a rebuilt or take this one to be rebuilt.
Sounds like you might have sheared all the rivits that attach the ring gear to the carrier, since it doesnot try to move and making alot of grinding noises after it quit. Pull the rear or top cover and that will tell the story. If that is the prob lem you can rerivit the gear on but you will have to get the carrier out to do it.