XR4046 popping out of gear

KiwiBro · Nov 3, 2014

agentman said:
Mowing this hillside is what I bought the tractor for. I showed the dealer where I wanted to mow the day he delivered it.

The dealer just called me back. He learned that there is a ball and spring system in the shifter linkage and based on the little effort it takes to shift in and out, they suspect the spring is weak or missing. He said he can make the repairs where ever the tractor is sitting. It would be nice to compare the feel of my shifter to the feel of another, or measure the effort it takes before and after the repair it made.

Weak detent pressure or broken detent springs are the easy fix and here's hoping that's all it takes, but, using the tractor while like this can wear the gears prematurely (even if it doesn't pop out at the time) necessitating an expensive fix. How can you or your dealer be certain this wear hasn't happened and swapping the spring/s will definitely solve it? I wouldn't be using the tractor in the meantime - it could still be putting premature wear on the gears even if it isn't kicking-out.

Let them hook a loaded trailer to the back, fill the FEL bucket with gravel, and spend half an hour going up and down the steepest safe hill, to guarantee to you the fix is good. Otherwise, the 3rd time you go down a hill after thinking the tractor is all good because it didn't kick out the previous 2 times since it was 'fixed', and it kicks-out and you roll the tractor 5 times before it bottoms out leaving bits of yourself scattered further up the hill, it will be a bit too late.

agentman · Nov 3, 2014

I do have some hills with less threatening consequences from a run away. I will hunt down a 3 pt. bale mover to borrow and load it up with hay bales on the back and on the front pallet forks and turn him loose with it.

I can't imagine that this tractor would have much wear on the shifter linkage with the back hoe attached and only 107 hours.

I think it will be resolved in the near future and I will post an update.

KiwiBro · Nov 3, 2014

agentman said:
I do have some hills with less threatening consequences from a run away. I will hunt down a 3 pt. bale mover to borrow and load it up with hay bales on the back and on the front pallet forks and turn him loose with it.

Sounds like a plan. Even if you have to pay him a 1/2 hr to go up and down it and other hills you can find for him.

agentman said:
I can't imagine that this tractor would have much wear on the shifter linkage with the back hoe attached and only 107 hours.

Me neither. But kicking out under load, or even getting close to it but not actually doing so (so the user is actually not aware of an issue at all) is not the healthiest thing for the gears to be doing. The above mentioned crash-test-dealer routine might be better in the dealer's eyes than splitting the tractor to check the gears, for all parties to rest assured there won't be an issue in the future the greater spring pressure is simply delaying or masking for now.

agentman · Nov 6, 2014

We solved my problem. The dealer picked it up yesterday and took it back.

He came with a replacement detent spring but that didn't change the feel of the shift, and he admitted it didn't snap into and out of 1st like the new tractor on his lot.
He offered to take it back and get it repaired under warranty, and he also offered to just take it back. I chose the later.

If I had not had the hills to contend with, I think I would have been happy with the tractor and probably would not have ever had a problem with it jumping out of gear.