rwheele4
New member
Had a noise in my JD X300 that I thought might have been in the trans. Read alot of posts on this site, looked at the tuff torq website and ran thru a coupla videos on you tube. Info from LotsofGreenGrass on this forum was very helpful with the printable repair guide. Tractor finally quit moving with noise suddenly which prompted me to pull the trans out and start looking for the problem. The key here is SUDDENLY which I let fly over my head. Pulled trans apart based non the info I found in LotsofGreenGrass' repair guide and expected to find scored pump and motor piston. That is not what I found and axtually the guts of the trans were in very good shape with no observable scoring on the pistons or cylinder walls. The gears were worn in but zero damage observed to the gear train. Now I am scratching my head and start looking at parts that were removed from the exterior. Well I found the culprit and gave myself a "dumbass" sticker to wear, the splines on the input shaft pulley were completely gone although there was very minor damage to the input shaft. One of the posts I had read mentioned the pulley spline wear but that got away from me. So $100 later for a new pulley, sealer, 5W50 oil, a vent cap and two new spring washers to go below the pulley, the tractor runs as well as ever. a few points here: 1. the posts about the trans wearing out prematurely effected my thinking and led me in the wrong direction, 558 hours at the time of malfunction 2. Be sure to use the tags off the trans for getting the right parts, the unit I have apparently was filled with 5W50 from the factory based on the tuff torq lubrication guide 3. the bleed procedure after installation worked just as tuff torqs instruction advised, took about 5 minutes overall and was really a non-issue 4. Adding oil to the trans before installation was made easier by using a mustard squirt bottle, ketchup one should work also, added 2.2 liters which put the oil level at the top of the case, after the bleed procedure the oil level was about 1.5 inches below the case top 5. several posts warned about all the pieces/parts that had to go together at one time and for someone not used to working with transmissions would seem that way, the only part I worried about was the little pin in the motor housing side that can slip out, a dab of lithium grease is sticky enough to hold the pin in place 6. i saw posts that referred to the oil as "non-detergent', the 5W50 and 10W30 oils are engine oils and certainly contain detergent/additives which are clearly required, the tuff torq oil bottles indicated the oil met "SH and SJ" standards which are for spark ignition engines 7. This trans may be considered "throw away" but is easily fixed with the right parts and some time.
