L 3301 Clutch won't disengage.

Alton

New member

Equipment
L3301
Sep 11, 2022
1
0
1
Texas
This tractor has 250hrs on it. Has been used mostly to brush hog. Was moving some dirt from a pile with the loader, stalled tractor on an incline. Clutch would not disengage and it was stuck in gear. This is a traditional transmission, not shuttle shift. Dealership came to pick up tractor, pulled it backwards and it popped out of gear. Now, when the clutch is depressed it does not disengage the clutch. Dealership has quoted $4,200.00 to split the tractor to see what is wrong. The tractor is under warranty but dealership wants the money up front to split the machine and then they stated that they will determine if this is a warranty issue or if the tractor has been "abused". I bought this machine new, it has 250 hours on it, 95% of which has been brush hogging. I am very frustrated and irritated with this situation. So I now have a tractor, with 250 hours that I am making payments on that I can't use because I don't have $4,200.00 to give the dealer to look and see if it is going to be covered by warranty. Any comments, suggest of what to check, ideas
 

Roadworthy

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L2501 HST
Aug 17, 2019
1,649
526
113
Benton City, WA
One big thing I noticed before purchasing was that Kubota does not cover their clutch under any warranty. Fortunately it does not appear you likely have a clutch problem, it sounds more like clutch linkage, throwout fork bent or something of that nature. You could play with the pedal feel and adjust linkage if required. You should have about an inch of free play before you feel the added pressure of the pressure plate itself. Inspect carefully underneath to see if something is jammed under there. Beyond that I can't tell you where to scrape up $4200. It seems you're at the dealer's mercy for that part.
 

MountainMeadows

Well-known member

Equipment
L2501, JD 655, Ford 841, JD 6x4 Gator, Gravely 432.
Jun 6, 2022
222
303
63
Poconos, PA
I can understand your frustration! Money up front seems a little mind boggling to me since they'll have the tractor for collateral.

For $4200 bucks "to see whats wrong" I'd be rigging up to split that tractor myself.
 

Tx Jim

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
M7040 HDC-1,JD 4255,Ford 6700
Apr 30, 2013
1,199
128
63
Coyote Flats,Texas
I can understand your frustration! Money up front seems a little mind boggling to me since they'll have the tractor for collateral.

For $4200 bucks "to see whats wrong" I'd be rigging up to split that tractor myself.
Ditto L3301 tractor shouldn't be very difficult to split so I'd split that small of a tractor.

With only 250 hrs of use failure of clutch to release should be covered under warranty as that sounds like a ""mechanical failure"" not clutch plate failure
 

lugbolt

Well-known member

Equipment
ZG127S-54
Oct 15, 2015
5,205
1,889
113
Mid, South, USA
disc might have come apart (wear/damage)

or maybe the disc is rusted/stuck to the pressure plate or flywheel. THAT is not uncommon

if it were a release bearing or linkage issue the pedal would have a ton of freeplay (flop around)

does your tractor haves a dual stage clutch? They're real expensive. HST solves that issue as you never use the clutch and it's single stage, lots cheaper!

warranty generally don't cover clutches as they're wear items. It's getting much more common to get money up front on jobs that the consumer expects to be "warranty" but really isn't, or might not be. That comes from abuse of the limited warranty system.

"it's just 250 hours"......I've seen them smoked in 12 hours. 2 days' use. Warranty didn't cover that one either. The majority of those, tractors with a loader, owner uses the clutch slippage (sometimes unknowingly) to vary the speed/load of which the loader is pushed into a pile or tree or whatever.
 
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