L3800 HST Cruise control not holding

[gsganzer]

I was mowing the other day and decided to try the cruise control. I noticed that it doesn't hold it's position and slowly backs off as you drive. Anyone else experience this? I have the shop manual, so I'll see what it says about adjustment. Seems like it should just be a simple tightening of something.

 

[Johnret]

I have the same issue with an MX5100, can't find out what to adjust. Dont have shop manual. Would ready like to fix it... if you find a solution I would really appreciate hearing about it.

 

[k0ua]

I have the same issue with an MX5100, can't find out what to adjust. Dont have shop manual. Would ready like to fix it... if you find a solution I would really appreciate hearing about it.

I have looked at the "all tractor WSM" There are several pages dealing with how the cruise control and its release mechanism works. It looks complicated to me. There are friction plates and friction disks. The diagram looks to me like it may be adjustable by a nut. It appears about 10 times more complicated to have this mechanical solution than the simple electromagnetic solution on my tractor. Of course this is just my opinion. When I had the Kubota, my cruise worked well so I never really looked into any adjustments on it.

 

[k0ua]

Here are some pictures in PDF format. You will need Adobe acrobat to view these files.

View attachment cruise.pdf

 

[ras5309]

Have the same problem with my L3800HST. Talked to service guy at my dealer today and he gave me install instructions for the cruise with adjustments. I'm new as a member here and I'll see if I can figure out how to upload the adjustment section. Basically though, the adjustment is a spring with an adjustable u-bolt under the left floorboard. If you look at the bottom of the lever, where the tension unit is bolted to the transmission case, you will see the spring in front & below it. The lever tension is supposed to be 7.8 lbs/ft with the drive pedal depressed. Not sure how that would be measured without some type of special tool to attach a torque wrench to the lever. I am going to adjust the spring tighter in small increments until it holds and brake release operation still works correctly. Hope this helps and I will upload the page later tonight.

 

[ras5309]

Ok, here it is. Section 2 is what you're looking for. 210 is the spring I'm talking about and 220/230 is the adjustment. The spring tension compensates for the pedal pressure (should have designed that one better :thumbdown. Johnret, not sure if MX5100 is the same, but take a look. This covers L3200/L3800. Hope you can see the pic/PDF ok. If not, let me know & I can email it to you. Gonna do mine tomorrow, too darn hot today!

 

[Johnret]

Ok, here it is. Section 2 is what you're looking for. 210 is the spring I'm talking about and 220/230 is the adjustment. The spring tension compensates for the pedal pressure (should have designed that one better :thumbdown. Johnret, not sure if MX5100 is the same, but take a look. This covers L3200/L3800. Hope you can see the pic/PDF ok. If not, let me know & I can email it to you. Gonna do mine tomorrow, too darn hot today!
View attachment 474308

Thanks, I will be looking at mine today....

 

[Johnret]

Thanks, I will be looking at mine today....

OK so I spent some time on this today, been on the phone with my dealer (they have been very helpful). Although the dealer service department has never worked on this he did send me some very good pictures of my Tractor's cruise control. The spring adjustment mentioned earlier may be the trick but you may have to loosen a couple of locking screws on a rod cam before the adjustment would do any good. I'll look at it again tomorrow, to hot to do it today.

 

[ras5309]

OK so I spent some time on this today, been on the phone with my dealer (they have been very helpful). Although the dealer service department has never worked on this he did send me some very good pictures of my Tractor's cruise control. The spring adjustment mentioned earlier may be the trick but you may have to loosen a couple of locking screws on a rod cam before the adjustment would do any good. I'll look at it again tomorrow, to hot to do it today.

Haven't looked at mine yet either. Been doing repairs to my truck and other chores, so the cruise isn't that important right now. It's in the 90's by 11 am every day so time outside is limited as I'm sure it is by you also. My dealer was great, although I was picking up my brand new Land Pride RFM1672 rear mower from them so they were more than helpful! Good luck with it!

 

[Johnret]

OK, so I got my MX5100 fixed. Like the L3800 there is two locking nuts that when tighten apply pressure to the return mechanism. I have no way of knowing how much pressure should be apply to the locking nuts, but I did tighten mine down a bit and started cutting my pastures and it held like brand new for 3 hours. I would recommend that is these nuts are tighten to the point passed holding the cruise control in place when engaged. To then back them off till you notice a slight creep back to not set and then tighten just past that point. I figure that is going to be the only way of setting it so it doesn't hurt anything but still holds the cruise when set.