I've been doing some rehab work on my JD350, it looked sad sitting under a tarp in all this snow and there's a lot more snow on the way and figured it'd be a good resource to get it ready. Drained the water/oil mix out of the trans after letting it sit in front of the reddy heater for a few hours, gallon of diesel fuel, run it around, flush, refill with gear oil. My question is there was a plate in the toolbox, it looks like it was removed because it wouldn't start in neutral (seems regular sized bullet connectors fall out of the neutral safety switch. so it got bypassed) Anyway, fixed the neutral start, new choke, fix hourmeter wire, find the brake chamber drain plugs missing but, the shift plate has the following 4 notches. R - 1 - 3 2 for gear layout, but the trans has R - 1 - 3 2 - 4 Fourth is pretty crazy fast but it'll travel at part throttle as fast or faster than 3'd at full throttle. Was 4'th blocked out just to limit travel speed on a dozer, was it available on cralwer loaders? The owners guide mentions four gears and lists 6.5 mph in 4th at 2500 rpm. This is also a four roller bottom not the more common five. Thanks in advance!
I'm not used to the old machines but that does sound logical!
Yeah, I might call the JD dealer up nawth and ask. The parts diagram shows the plate with 4th open but this plate has no cut out at all. Maybe see if the local machinist can cut the notch exact as I'm planning on taking it to a few antique shows come late spring in the working class.
The book for my jd350 B with reverser list a 4th gear. The dozer has a slot for 4th but you cant put the lever there.
yeah it definately has me curious, the service/owners/parts manuals don't list a special reason or an option for a 3 gear dozer.