Diff Lock Difficulty

[nbryan]

I personally don't see much difference in steering the tractor so that one rear wheel turns faster than the other or just letting one spin slowly and engaging it, especially if on soft ground where dif-lock will actually do some good. It is difficult to engage. If I start spinning, I ease off the HST treadle to slow the differential speed of the rear tires and just rest my heel on the lever . Nary a knock, bump or any noise whatsoever from the dif when it locks. Bottom line is that the splines in the planetary must be aligned to get the dif-lock to operate. If they're not, then one wheel must turn more than the other. Sometimes, a steering maneuver isn't possible if you're in tight quarters. Spinning one wheel [SLOWLY] is nearly always possible if positive traction (locked differential) is needed. I'm not sure a dif-lock would be advantageous on a manual transmission versus HST, unless it was a lever to turn it on and leave it on until the lever was switched back to open dif mode. HST makes it too easy to slip one wheel. I sometimes use Dif Lock just to get through a mud hole rather than running 4x4 mode and making either side of the mudhole deeper. It might be shaped somewhat similar, but just remember you're not driving a top-fuel dragster.

Very often when I'm maneuvering even while on soft uneven ground, driving straight, slowly, with the difflock lever pressed down, the rear tires simply won't rotate against each other! Happens so much that the habit of getting them locked before I'm fully in position, by turning sharply for a short distance (maybe 1 or 2 feet) it EASILY slips into locked mode.
I am also learning from doing this that you only barely need to push down against the return spring on the difflock pedal and wait for the pin to align - when turning slowly - and it slips REALLY clearly and easily down into locked position.
I used to just cram the difflock pedal to the floor hard and wait until the wheels seemed to lock. Which they often did not! I am fairly certain I was wearing the pin and slot mechanism in the differential unnecessarily hard that way as the pin was popping in under a lot of pressure from my foot and often under some kind of load.

I've adjusted my habit now to crank the steering wheel for a sec and lock it up EASILY before loading up.

 

[Old_Paint]

Most of my spinning is when I get opposite corners of the tractor high enough to take the load off the other two. Not uncommon when you have to cross a ditch at a diagonal. [I really should put a culvert across that ditch] When it spins, I back off the HST treadle, put my heel on the dif-lock, and as you say, it drops right in when I try to move again. If it won't go in, it probably doesn't need to.

 

[OrangeKrush]

Just a guess here, but I presume if the pins that lock the differential are not lined up correctly, it won't engage. To vary the alignment you may have to press the locking pedal while moving and turning slightly in one direction or the other. At some point, it should engage, but when engaged, don't try to make any sharp turns, cause you will be dragging one of your rear wheels.

Thanks wingnut this works every time now!

Also thanks to nbryan, this method works great!