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Do you mean the “return to neutral” rod that goes between the 3 point control lever and the 3 point lift?
On my 284 the return to neutral rod has a 90° bend on one end and is threaded on the other for adjustment. This rod pushes the control lever back to neutral just as the 3 point lift reaches the top of it’s travel.
The picture in my parts list is so poor it is worthless. I can take a picture of my tractor if it would help.
In 2WD the front and rear wheels won’t be connected to each other and the problem should not show itself as the front wheels are free to turn at whatever rate is needed.
I measured my tires this afternoon. I have a 2006 284 with AG tires. Rear are 9.5 X 24 Front are 6.00 X 16
Circumference of Rear is 129″ and the front is 91″. One side jacked up and locked in 4WD the front tire travels 126.5″ per revolution of the rear tire. This is only a 2% difference which is probably within the allowable tolerance. The backlash of all the gears in the system probably adds up to more than that.
These are the original factory tires and have less than 20% of the tread worn off. They appear to be wearing evenly between front and rear. Also the 2% difference could probably be removed by altering the PSI in the tires. I did not check the tire pressure and only measured the one side.
It would be interesting if you could find some tires and rims from another unit to swap onto yours to see if that cures the problem.
Let us know what you find.
Stuart
It doesn’t hop the 14″ all at once but rather hops a little each time it “binds up”. It also may be sliding some before it gets enough pressure built up to cause it to break loose. This is probably contributing significantly to the wear of the front tires which in turn makes the problem even worse.
There are a couple of different ways to calculate the gear ratio and tire sizes but they all boil down to exactly what you did. However far the rear tire travels, the front one must travel the same distance or something has to give. By jacking up just one side you kept the opposite tire from rotating which effectively took the differential out of play
If I remember correctly, when doing ground work (plowing, planting, cultivating) it is proper to have something like 6 to 8 percent tire slippage. This allows the soil to build up into the lugs of the tires give the best traction. The tracks left by the tires make this really obvious. That is why I had suggested finding some soft ground. Your idea of waiting for some snow or ice would do the same thing.
You may be able to duplicate the effect on dry pavement. Get lined up for a straight run on a consistent surface such as a paved driveway. Put it in 4WD and first gear, in low range and in creeper gear. Put a chalk mark on the bottom of all 4 tires, and a corresponding mark on the pavement. If you have a helper one person can drive while one watches and marks the pavement where the mark on the tire comes back around to the ground. You can do this yourself if you have to as at idle the tractor is moving slow enough to get off and back on. If you are uncomfortable with getting back on, you can at least grab the fuel cut off and stop the engine.
Having a helper is best because the person on the tractor can yell you “HOP” when he feels the tractor bind up and release. You can make a mark on the pavement when this happens. After 2 or 3 revolutions of the rear tires you will have enough “tracks” on the ground to get a visualization of what is happening.
I will try to get out and measure the circumference of my AG tires today. Then we will at least have something for comparison.
Ah Ha! There is your answer. That works out to a 12% difference, which is quite a lot.
When the rear tire travels 127″ the front tire must also travel 127″ or “something has to give” In your case the rear tires probably have more traction and are making the front tires slide (or hop) those other 14″ in every revolution.
The gear ratio itself is not really important until you try to figure out what circumference the front tire needs to be to match the rear tire.
Maybe someone else with turf tires can measure for comparison. I have AG tires on mine.
My 284 charges intermittently. In this case I know that it is a bad connection at the back of the regulator. Most times unplugging and plugging in the regulator will make it work. However the connectors like to slide out of the fuse holder.
The wiring on these units is not exactly high quality wires or connectors. Also the placement of the regulator in the fuse block makes it subject to a lot of vibration. When I have time I will remove the wires for the regulator and move it to a better location where I can stop the vibration of the wires where the connectors crimp on. I think that is where the problems are. Some strain relief and some wire ties to secure everything should be a permanent fix.
From what I can tell the alternator and regulator are working fine as long as there is a connection between them. However if the alternator should fail, a one-wire Delco would be a nice upgrade.
Stuart
Jester,
After going back and reading the entire thread from the start, I think that David was on the right track with his remarks about the tires. You said that you have had the tractor since new, everything is original and that the problem has been getting worse over the last year.
Somewhere in the past I have read that you can not mix tire types. That is to say you can not put ag tires on the back and turf tires on the front for example. This is because the tires are sized to roll together for the gear ratio involved.
I think it is entirely quite possible that the front tires have worn down faster than the rear tires and now as David pointed out they are not within the working limits of each other.
Here is an experiment that won’t involve any dis-assembly.
Jack up one front wheel and the same side rear wheel just enough to get ground clearance. Mark the “bottom” of each tire and with 4WD engaged, rotate the rear tire one complete revolution. I would do this by hand with the engine off and the transmission in neutral. Watch and count the revolutions of the front tire. This will give you the ratio of front to rear.
Now, measure the circumference of each tire. the ratio between the two should be really close to the gear ratio between the axles.
Do the lugs on the front and rear appear to be worn at at the same rate? It is quite common for the fronts to wear faster especially if you do a lot of tight turns on hard surfaces.
Another experiment would be to drive on some smooth sand or soft soil in 4WD and watch the tracks. More than likely the lugs on the front tires will be “pushing” the soil and leaving deformed tracks as the front tires are not rolling at the same rate as the rears. In really soft conditions, I would bet you won’t feel the binding as the fronts will be sliding instead.
You could put it in 1st/low/creeper and get off and watch as the tractor runs under power. You should be able to see the front tires “load up” and then slide forward to release the tension. Sort of “skipping” as they try to catch up to the rear tire travel.
I am not sure if I have explained these thoughts very well. Please let me know if something is confusing.
Stuart
Yeah, RSS is not my method of choice but it does help out.
When a message shows up in Outlook through an RSS feed, it looks like an email but is not.
For one thing you can not reply to it. But there is a link button in each message called “view article” that if you click that, it will launch your browser and take you directly to that message in the online forum.
Once the message is in Outlook, I can use all of the other features to manage the messages (apply rules to sort and move). It makes dealing with 100+ messages from several forums and list-servs a little easier each day.
BTW, I do like the new nice clean look of the site. Not a lot of “jibber-jabber” in the code so it loads nice and fast!
There we go! Had to subscribe to the individual forums (that is OK) first, then activate the RSS to my Outlook. The subscribe button is a little camouflaged but once I found it the rest was easy.
Looks like it is working now.
I didn’t see the feed button on the site pages, but the link you posted worked fine.
Thanks,
Stuart
Yes, but I still have to fire up a browser and go “looking” for a post.
List-serv or RSS delivers it to me automatically and I new post are highlighted in my always running email program.
I don’t have a reason to log onto COTA every day but would if the RSS feed gave me a reason to do so. The only reason I noticed there was a new site for COTA is when Outlook started telling me there was a problem with the RSS feeds. After a couple of days I decided to see if I could figure out what was wrong. Logging on for the first time in months revealed the problem.
Being forced to use the onsite forum as my only means of contact, I will likely not monitor nor participate in the exchange of information until I “need” something.
As a former sys-admin I understand the problems associated with list-serv and RSS. As an end user, I appreciate them greatly and sites that use them are much more valuable to me.
For me, mobile device access is a non-issue. My wired internet works in the metal walled shop, the cell phone doesn’t.
Will the RSS feed come back, or better yet, get a list-serv for email?
I would rather have messages come in via email and let my email program handle the sorting and categorizing. Even a daily digest of posts are better than having to log on and search for new posts.
RSS was at least delivered to my inbox.
