The outside temperature has dropped below 20°F which seems to have caused the travel levers in the John Deere 35D to resist being moved forward or backward. After the machine runs for a while the travel levers return to normal function. I’m wondering if anybody has seen this happen and if they know of a fix. Looking at the parts diagram it appears that there is a damper (p/n 4630757) connected to the travel levers. I suspect that this may be related to the problem. Thanks once again for all of the information that everybody posts here at HEF, it’s really helpful.
Did you make sure there wasn't dirt pack around the levers under the floorboard that froze. That is a common issue with them.
Yup our 35d use to always get dirt jammed under the travel levers. Take the floor apart and clean it out. After you see how its made take a piece of vinal tube and tape it to a shop vac hose and you can normally suck everything out every couple of months with that.
Thanks Don and mg for pointing me in the right direction, your help is much appreciated! I'll check for dirt in there.
If you are on a job and the pedals start to get stiff switch to using your hands. The way the pedals are made only have a little piece of plastic that stop them from folding down to far. If you push too hard on them they plastic will flatten out and the pedals will become too flat and touch the floor when trying to reverse.
Removing the dirt that had accumulated around the travel lever brackets solved the problem. A vacuum cleaner with a hose small enough to fit under the brackets did a nice job of removing the dirt. If the dirt is frozen you’ll have to thaw it. Waiting for warm weather worked for me. Removing the floor panels makes getting a vacuum hose into the area around the travel lever brackets easy. You could probably get a hose in there without removing the floor panels if you have the right amount of “flexibility.” The floor panels are easily removed with a 13mm socket wrench and a 6mm hex wrench. Here are some photos. Thanks again to Don and mg for getting me on track with this fix.