Hello I have a John Deere 310d backhoe. I appreciate any information or feedback. Here is what’s going on. I was driving it down the road in 4th gear and all of a sudden it started slowing down with no acceleration. There was a deep grinding sound. I came to stop and put it in 3rd gear. I accelerated a little bit and then again the sound started again. It actually locked up on of my rear tires. I then loaded it on a trailer home. When I got it home it would not pull in 4th, 3rd, 2nd. It would in 1st gear. Then 1st gear would not work. I used the stabilizers to set up in neutral to turn the rear tires and they would not move by hand or with power of machine. I then thought it was the transaxle. I removed the transaxle from matchine and it looks good. No metal in case, gears looks good. The only thing is in neutral it will not spin by hand. I also took off the driver and passenger axles and you can spin them easy when it is not connected to the main case. I am unsure what the problem is. Kinda thinking it is the brakes in the transaxle I am unsure. Thank you so much for any information.
Hello Austin, Just to double check for my information, did you remove the driveshaft and make sure the reverser turned before removing the transaxle? When you say "turned by hand", is that when trying to turn the input shaft by hand? With the axles off, you still can't turn it by hand? Are you sure it is in neutral while trying to turn it by hand? Is the differential lock sleeve engaged on the left side when trying to turn it by hand? While I do not think your issue is in the reverser, the only gears you do not see and I have seen issues with, especially if the machine is roaded a lot, are the bevel pinions (some call them the spider gears) inside the differential. The clue there is you should have been able to turn the wheels when in the air in neutral. Your this far into it now. You should remove the ring gear and disassemble it to inspect them. Maybe post a picture looking down into the transaxle with the top cover off.
I believe we have found our problem. Unsure how to fix…. Maybe you can help? So we took our time looking over it very closely. We found out that the brake rotor on each planetary was out to far. Pressing on the brake disk not letting us move by hand in neutral with the planetary installed. We don’t understand how the brake rotor moves back with no hydraulic return. (Only inlet at the top) has anyone had this problem? The bottom of the transaxle is very clean not metal or and broken gears.
You can turn the input shaft of the transaxle with the axles off? The piston seals "flex" (or twist) when the brake is applied, and when the brake is released, the oil should escape back through the brake valve and the "un-flexing" of the piston seals pull the piston back from the brake disc. If the brakes were dragging, the two things I would check first are; 1. Check the brake valve adjustment. A quick and dirty check is having the brake lines disconnected, making sure oil is constantly running out of the lines from the brake valve. If the oil does not flow freely from the line, then the brake valve needs to be adjusted, or the pedals are stuck partially applied, not allowing the oil, and therefore the brake pistons, to return to their "at rest" position. 2. The other thing to check are the piston return stops on the axle itself. If for some reason someone adjusted them too tight, then the piston cannot return far enough, allowing brake drag which worsens when the axle warms up. Also, a good habit to get into is to not operate the machine with a foot resting on the brake pedal. That causes brag drag as well and glazes the pistons and discs.
Piston return stops.
Starting at machine sn # 796852 and above, the piston return stops were replaced with internal “automatic“ piston adjusters. Post a serial number when you can. .