L3300 Shifter cables

[bbrocious]

Holy Mother of Pearl! My hydrostatic transmission started acting up. It would not shift into higher gears even though the shift lever moved freely. At first I thought it was low on hydralic oil. But ... nope. It was good. Trying to diagnosis the issue I shifted it into neutral. That was it. The shifter would move easily but the tractor would not budge. No strange noises. No difficulty moving the gear shift lever or the forward/back lever. All other hydraulics continued to work just fine.
Had the tractor hauled to the local Kubota Dealer. They took a look at it and said there was nothing wrong with the transmission. The problem was with two cables on the gear shift lever. They were shot and had to be replaced.
$600 for the two cables and $300 for labor. I was in shock. I would have been in shock if he had said the cables were $200 let alone $600!!! What the hell?!
The good news is, it wasn't the $10,000 transmission. Is anybody else surprised by this cost for materials?!
I'll get over it ...
Bob
Campbellsburg, Kentucky

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

My hydrostatic transmission started acting up. It would not shift into higher gears even though the shift lever moved freely. At first I thought it was low on hydralic oil. But ... nope. It was good. Trying to diagnosis the issue I shifted it into neutral. That was it. The shifter would move easily but the tractor would not budge. No strange noises. No difficulty moving the gear shift lever or the forward/back lever.

Bob,
You don't have a hydrostatic transmission!
They didn't make a L3300 HST.
Sounds like you have a GST transmission, as an HST does not have a shifter or a forward / backwards lever and it is not operated by cables.

 

[lugbolt]

IIRC, the cables aren't available separate from the entire shifter assemly...thus the extravagant cost. Then the labor-replacing them is not easy. If it has a loader, I think the loader frame on the left side has to come off to gain access. And...if it's got a backhoe, the hoe's gotta come off so that the subframe can be moved. Lots of fun.

 

[bbrocious]

Wolfman ... well ... now I feel stupid. I made the assumption that because I could shift without touching the clutch it was a hydrostatic transmission. Teach me. What is a GST transmission?
Thanks for the education about my own tractor. I tickle myself sometimes!

 

[bbrocious]

Lugbolt, well, that would explain the expense. All I had to go on was what the technician on the other end of the phone told me. Is there somewhere I can see what this shifter assembly looks like?

 

[D2Cat]

You can go here. Go down and click "accept", then go down and enter your tractor model, then look for your part. You can enlarge the picture to get a good idea of what it consist of.

http://www.kubota.com/part/partsList.aspx

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Wolfman ... well ... now I feel stupid. I made the assumption that because I could shift without touching the clutch it was a hydrostatic transmission. Teach me. What is a GST transmission?
Thanks for the education about my own tractor. I tickle myself sometimes!

A GST is a Glide Shift Transmission.
It's a hybrid between an automatic and a standard transmission.
You get the ease of shift on the fly (any gear to any gear) and a quick easy shuttle (Forwards / Backwards), and yes the best part is you don't need to use the mechanical clutch in either operation, because the hydraulic clutch does the work and takes 100 times more stress and abuse without the wear.
Sad part is that all the shifter cable does is rotate a selector dial, you wouldn't think it would cost so much.

Your dealer is marking up the part pretty high, P/N 34076-64803 $493.65
http://www.colemanequip.com/parts/KubotaParts/34076-64803/

I'm not sure on your model, but on mine it only requires me to remove one brake linkage to replace the cable and it can be done with simple tools and a little mechanical knowledge.