John Deere 5320 gets stuck in P (park)

Kmicah40 · Jun 28, 2020

Hello mechanics. I have a JD 5320 with power reverser and while balling hay I ran into issue where I put tractor in P (park) and it got stuck. The only way I could get it out of park was to take the loader bucket and place on ground with force and rock the tractor back and forth and it would release. It would then shift to F, R and N. As soon as I put in P the same issue happened again. I used bucket again to release and finished bailing my hay. Tractor is now parked in barn with shifting lever in N and bucket loader on ground to keep from moving. Any help on my issue would sure be appreciated plus is there a problem if I continue using tractor and never place in P. I still have hay to do and would like to be able to use the 5320 to pull the baler. Thanks for any help. Larry

LouNY · Jun 28, 2020

I'm not familiar with the Deere and power reverser but on the JD 4430 if using park with any kind of hill you have to use low forward or reverse to get the parking pawl to disengage,
facing uphill forward, facing downhill reverse.
Maybe something in your owners manual.

jd110 · Jun 29, 2020

There is no problem with not using Park as long as you take proper precautions to prevent it rolling away. You should probably chock the wheel as well as using loader bucket as stopping device. Pressure on hydraulic cylinders can leak off and allow it to roll on a hill.
For the problem of sticking in park, there are different things that can cause this. I assume you have left hand reverser? The shift cable could be sticking and needs replaced. Also there were some updates made to the park system at serial number 130054 and higher that helped prevent this problem and also to beef up the park pawl. If you are lower than that serial number, updating to newer parts would make your park work much nicer. Unfortunately tractor needs to be split in order to install these parts. If it is higher serial number or has been already updated, then a thrust bearing on park pawl cam could be failing. That can be replaced from the outside by removing a small plate on right side of transmission.

joecdeere · Jun 30, 2020

How about setting the parking brake before putting it in park? Maybe that would take the load off the park pawl

Bavarian · Jul 5, 2020

joecdeere said:
How about setting the parking brake before putting it in park? Maybe that would take the load off the park pawl

There is no separate parking brake apparently.
I have a 6 series with a 24 speed power quad transmission. No parking brake, just a park position on range shift stick.

I tried it one time, drove the tractor up a sand hill, put it in gear and shut down the tractor, released the brakes and it rolled backwards. The clutch pack is not activated when the tractor is shut down.

For the OP, I have no solution for you. I would do what you do right now and I would have asked the same question regarding possible damage if used any longer.

You are the only one who knows the terrain that you are going to park the tractor. Make sure it doesn't roll off.