Hello, I have a John Deere 310A that I having transmission issues with. I have flushed the fluids and changed filters and the sump screen, but the machine has very little power when going in forward or reverse. The machine has been sitting for a couple of years so I flushed everything and even pulled the spring on the bottom of the reverser valve body and flushed everything the best I could with out pulling the reverser off. The hydraulics work well and have plenty of power and no hesitation so believe the main pump is strong. My last resort are the transmission pump or possibly the dry clutch slipping. I do not have the tools to do pressure checks on the pumps. Any ideas?
If by "little power" you mean the machine doesn't move, I had a similar problem, it was the adjustment on the dry clutch. Mine would move in the lower gears, but not in the higher gears.
Sometimes it will move good in low gears on flat ground with out trying to put any load in the bucket or go up any gradual grade. Reverse wasn't working at all at first and after flushing the system and playing with the reverser it actually works better than forward. I will give the dry clutch an adjustment and see if that works. Was your clutch making any noise? Mine does not make any noise and the throw out bearing is good.
Nope, no noise. And my reverse reverse was fine, too. Sounds like that clutch adjustment is a good place to start.
I made the adjustments per the service manual. It seemed to help a little for about 5 minutes. I had a little more forward power and was able to get half a bucket before I lost power. Maybe my clutch needs replaced completely? I still had about the same power in reverse. I was still unable to backup onto my shop slab which is about a 3 inch ledge.
Sound to me more like low pressure at the clutch pack, quick way to test most of the time is to see if you move better in forward or reverse, nine out of ten times you will have better power in reverse then forward, and usually if the dry clutch is slipping that bad you can smell it start to heat up and stink a little bit, trust me I know I own a 310 and 410 hoe and have had to rebuild both of them over the years
You are correct, I do have more power in reverse and I have not had any burning clutch smell. Is the transmission pump the cause of low pressure at the clutch pack? When I pulled the screen out I did notice a lot a gritty sand like material in the bottom of the housing and was concerned that it got into the pump and caused damage. I just wanted to try everything I could before I have to start pulling the machine apart.
Let me ask a couple of questions first what kind of hyd fluid do you run in it, the 410 I have will slip like crazy if you put anything in it but john deere fluid in it on the other hand the 310 I think you couple water in it and it would probably still work ok, the sand like stuff you got out of the housing was it black and have a slight odor to it, because if it does most likely clutch from the clutch disk in the reverser hope this helps
I am running 303 tractor hydraulic/transmission fluid. Someone seems to have put and oil in it with a detergent in it. The fluid was milky like it frothed up in the system. I flushed it the best I could but it still has some residual in it. The sand material looked like actual sand. Tan and grey colors with no odor. I did notice Small black specs when I drained the fluid and I also pulled the spring on the front of the reverser.
OK first of all 303 will eat the packs up on most of those old jd machines especially if they already have some wear on them and are starting to get weak, the milky color is from water in the oil, if hydraulics are strong will almost bet internal pump is ok because it feeds the main pump, almost every time is see a post like this it is just about always the same sat for a while tried to use it started slipping, if you will think back you probably noticed it did not seem to have quiet a much power when going from forward to reverse when at fairly high rpms, you know that jerk they give you kind of rocks you in the seat when you work it hard.
Yes I did notice that. Good to know about the 303 oil. I did notice today it would not hardly move in forward at high RPM's but as soon as I would idle down it would start moving forward.
A lot of people will tell you oil doesn't make that much difference, but I have unknown hours on both hoes I own and in all the years I have owned them, total of two engine rebuilds per machine and one rebuild on clutch packs per machine run jd hyd fluid since the 303 incident my fault, shell 15-40 motor oil
Good to know, Thank you. Should I proceed forward looking into the reverser clutch pack? possibly rebuilding the reverser control valve? I'm not sure what to try next.
most likely rebuild on forward and reverse clutch pack, do you know a good mechanic, that can look at it real quick kinda hard to diagnosis from long distance with out seeing machine run, and you don't want john deere dealer to do it will cost you a fortune, could try draining fluid and going with hy-gard from jd and see if it will help around 65$ per five gallon
I have been talking to the lead mechanic for the company I am with I am just trying to diagnose it to save him the time. I will try changing the oil. Thank you for the help.
My 410 was doing the same thing a few years ago.. I finally crawled under it and traced the clutch linkage.. Turned out, the rod that runs from left to right under the machine had years of dust and oil buildup on it and was not allowing the clutch pedal to fully release.. Scraped it clean, sprayed with PB blaster, was good to go.. Crawl under it and see if you can push up on the clutch rod/pedal doohickey.... It don't take much ..