1998 John Deere 4300 grinding gears! Help!

[gracianoh]

Just bought this used 508 hours
So far I have done a full hydraulic oil flush with new filter and cleaned the tranny screen also did an oil change all John Deere oem filters and oils. I’m new to tractors and need help. About 80% of the time the when I shift from say b-3 to reverse it will grind and go in. And when I want to put it back into a forward gear it will grind again occasionally 20% of the time it’ll shift into other gears just fine no grinding. Need to figure out steps that I can do to correct this issue. Yes I have the clutch pressed in completely and I’m stopped 0mph when I switch gears but they still grind. Any help is appreciated ! Thanks

 

[handirifle]

Sounds like your pressure plate might not be releasing the clutch completely. If they are designed like automotive, there are about a dozen "ears" that the throw out bearing presses against. This releases the clutch disk, and allows the gears to slow enough to synchronize and mesh. If some of those ears collapse the clutch disk will not release evenly, and thus drag slightly.

Some gears do not mesh as easily as others, thus the possible reason it only grinds with certain shift combos.

Now that is automotive, and having said that, never worked on tractor clutches, but are probably similar.

 

[handirifle]

Nice looking tractor, bu the way.

 

[DJ54]

A buddy of mine has a 5300, and had the same problem 4-5 years ago. That series tractors have clutch packs, instead of a single clutch plate, and pressure plate, like most of us are used to seeing. They remind you more of an independent pto clutch pack, only these run dry. As I recall, rust was the problem, and does not let the plates release evenly, causing them to drag, causing gear clash. He bought his as a low hour machine too, for it's age. It was always parked inside, according to the previous owner, and he also kept it inside, so apparently, according to the mechanic who replaced the clutch pack, the rust is caused by condensation.

According to the mechanic that replaced it, those were not re-buildable at that time, without replacing nearly everything. So it was less expensive to replace the whole clutch pack, which is not exactly cheap. If you have a shop,and tools to split it, and replace the clutch pack, you can save yourself the labor cost. I went to the JD online parts store, and that clutch pack cost is right at $1475.00. Not the news you wanted to hear, I'm sure, for that new of a machine.

Here is a link to the JD online parts store, with the prices for the clutch assy. components, and, #10 in the list, the complete clutch pack assembly. John Deere Parts Catalog

If you bought it from a dealer, and had any kind of warranty with it, and are still within the warranty period, I'd think it'd be up to them to pay for this repair. If bought from a private owner, "as is", looks like it is up to you to foot the repair bill.