Broken FEL

Sackett2 · Oct 10, 2010

Just a Montana update.
I was doing some brushogging at a friends; removing and mowing scotch broom Cytisus scoparius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
when the left-right of my joystick went loose. I found that a piece of brush hit the joystick cable to hyd valve (under the right floorboard) attach point and broke the cable adjustment piece. One person who does warranty work for Montana said he has replaced several of these (but had none in stock) Took me a while to find a dealer (I now have a great dealer on my speed dial) and was able to reassemble the tractor. Dad and i plan to build a shield around the unit to prevent this from happening again.

Thomas · Oct 10, 2010

"Dad and i plan to build a shield around the unit to prevent this from happening again."

Many TBNer's fine tune there equipment..post pic if can.

JDeerekid · Oct 10, 2010

Same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago except I was just mowing 2ft tall grass. I lost the fuction to lower the bucket. Must have had a slight crack in it and finally let loose when I wanted to use the loader.
My dealer stocked quite a few of the replacement kits for that part.
Another fella down the road from me that has the same model tractor as I have broke his 3 times in the last couple years. He is rough on his tractor.
My tractor is out of warranty and that part is not as cheap as I thought it should have been, but you have to buy the kit. But I was glad I did not have to wait days or weeks for parts.
My dealer says he gets the parts directly from the loader manufacturer "Ameriquip".

Sackett2 · Oct 10, 2010

I had the one guy trying to chase down the loader part thru Ameriquip, lost 2 weeks trying that route; found a dealer that called Montana directly, and had the kit sent. with all the shipping it was just short of a 100$ but am happy to have it working now. It was down about a month, and if I had a metal lathe I would have just made one.

JDeerekid · Oct 11, 2010

My dealer charged me his cost because he felt it cost to much also. I think it was around $70 and some change. I just wish they would sell just the one part instead of the whole kit. The part that broke should only cost $15 at the most. And I don't think the part should me made out of cast aluminum. I also said I was gonna make some type of guard but I probably won't until it breaks again just because I don't have the time.