Kubota L3400DT 4wd gear replacement.

BrokeRichard · Aug 23, 2016

Replacing a stripped 4wd gear and the gear it meshes with. Have a question if anyone can tell me the proper procedure for removing the pinion shaft from the mid case. I have removed the nut and the six bolts but the shaft appears to be pressed into the bearing. Do you press the shaft out of the bearing or the bearing out of the housing. Have a couple days before the parts get here just wanted to get a better idea of how it should be done. I do not have a service manual for this tractor. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

jabelding · Aug 29, 2016

Looks like you will need to remove all 3 shafts from the casing. Pull the lock nut off the center one pull the flange and keep the shims exactly the same for the differential spacing. The other 2 shafts should tap out with a brass bar. once they are all out you should be able to slide and press all of the other gears off the 2 shafts to get at the ones your replacing you may have to also remove some c-clips .

BrokeRichard · Aug 30, 2016

Thanks for the info. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get a response on here.

BrokeRichard · Sep 4, 2016

Got it finished up with no issues. Bottom shaft pulled out by hand. Center plate pulled off easily. Pulled one more bearing off the pinion shaft and and a couple cir-clips to get to the 4wd gear. Had to pull the the bearing off the lower shaft and a cir-clip to replace the lower gear. All total the gear replacement took less than an hour. One dealer quoted me 6hrs labor to pull the bearings and cir-clips and replace the gears. I probably have less than 8hrs labor in the whole job. The 4wd gear was not available in the US. Had to pay air freight to get it in a reasonable amount of time. The replacement gear set is about .060 wider than the original set. I have searched the web for info about l3400 breaking the 4wd gear but I come up with nothing. With the upgraded gear I would say it has been an issue.

teg · Sep 4, 2016

I have not heard that happening before... any idea why it might have happened to you??? I've over-loaded my front axle a time or three...

jabelding · Sep 4, 2016

Were you pulling something very heavy in reverse with it hitched to the loader? That will destroy the 4wd gears quick. Always let the rear tires do 80% of the pulling.

k0ua · Sep 5, 2016

I have been on this forum for years, and this is the first one I have seen.

BrokeRichard · Sep 5, 2016

Yes it was overloaded. Went to do a 5 min job of removing a small sweet gum stump without the box blade on the back. Pushed on the stump and put to much weight on the front tires. I have done considerable research to find a similar repair but no luck. It was definitely operator error. Ended up not being that tough of a repair.

BrokeRichard · Sep 5, 2016

This was on a shuttle shift tractor. I think it would be hard to break the gear with a HST.

ultrarunner · Sep 5, 2016

How much did you get nicked for the new gear?

Sends shivers down my spine when I see how deep some have had to go to make repairs.

Congratulations on getting it done!

The first time I did a transmission repair was for my brother... he was in college and money was more than tight... took it all apart and replaced the bad cluster gear only to put it back together and have it be noisy... so took it out a second time and replaced the sliding gear...