Let me begin by saying I am a newbie in the dozer world, I have aquired a John Deere 450G with what I have been told has a direct drive transmission. I am slightly confused on this however, from what I have read up on these machines the direct drive models have an "inching pedal on the left side of the floor board, mine does not. Is this a variation of a direct drive transmission?? Any help is greatly appreciated.
The "direct drive" as you call it has a four (4) speed manual transmission. It also has a "shuttle shift" wherein there is a foreword, reverse lever which allows shifting from foreword to reverse quickly and easily. The clutch you are talking about with a pedal on the left is actually a two stage thing. Push it part way down and it disengages by hydraulic. All the way down disengages the conventional pressure plate clutch. This is done if you wish to shift between the four mechanical gears. You 450G should be a powershift machine with a decelerator pedal which you push in to bring the engine to idle speed so you can shift between the foreword and reverse gears. Should have four foreword and four reverse.
If it does not have a inching pedal & has a decelerator pedal on right side . it may be TC model . Torque drive . Having a torque convertor .
Somebody may have yanked the inching pedal, I've been tempted to do that myself. If you put it in gear at low idle rpm, stand on the brake and it kills the engine it's what would be called direct drive, as opposed to a torque converter model which has to be revved up a bit to move. (like an auto trans in a car)
Thanks for the all of the replies, I gave the serial number to my local dealer and they found all of the specifics on the machine for me. Turns out it is a Torque Converter machine. I appreciate all of the help and info, I'm sure I will have alot more questions as I begin using the machine.