my old 7e just developed a steering clutch issue--- at low throttle the left steering clutch wont disengage. but at full throttle the right steering clutch wont engage! that's the neat part. if you throttle it back the right clutch will engage again, and when you rev it up it kicks itself back out again. so i cleaned the suction screen just to make sure and it didn't change anything. any thoughts?
I read over this a couple times and I'm not familar with D7's I assume they are simular to D8's. Could be several things but if it's a bare back tractor I'd take the plate off the back and pry against the bevel gear with a bar to see if the cross shaft bearings are loose, that would be an easy check. The steering clutch valve and pump pressure would be my next thought. After that it's probably going to require tear down.
i'm going to check the pump pressure tomorrow. it got worse as it got warmer. crossing my fingers that it's only the pump.
I had steering clutch issues with an 8K where sometimes it would not release the left clutch, got worse and worse finally usless. On tear down we found the teflon seals on the piston that releases the clutch were bad. If the cross shaft is loose it can cause steering issues, if that were the case the machine needs to be stopped anyway.
my 8H is actually like that-- has been for a few years. the left clutch wont release until it gets warm. then it's good until the machine cools right down again.
i did some diagnostics on it today; cold pressure is around 475 pounds. drops down to 300 at low idle. warm max pressure is around 400 psi. drops down under 100 at low idle. the steering clutches fail to function properly under 300 psi. actuating the clutches drops the pressure about 20 psi. seems like a wore out pump, so i took it off and pulled it apart. the pump actually looks decent. the steering clutches function properly when cold and start to act up as the machine warms up and the pressure starts dropping. so obviously it's a pressure issue. is there anything else that might cause the pressure to drop when warm other than the pump?
Pump sounds ok but you may have steering clutch leaks. Clutches should disengage at low idle speed and pressure of 265-300 psi.
both clutches would disengage in that 290-300 psi range. any less pressure and they wouldn't function. i was running the machine in low gear, wide open throttle. i pulled both steering clutches and the machine came to a stop. pump pressure was roughly 400 psi. while watching the pressure gauge and still sitting there not moving with the clutches disengaged, i slowly throttled down. once the pressure went under 300 psi the steering clutches engaged themselves and the machine started moving again. so the clutches seem to be operating properly and evenly when the pressure is sufficient.