Kubota M4800 gear drive transmission wont shift to low or reverse.

[jpurifoy4]

I have an m 4800 with the straight gear transmission. i was working with it today and it just stopped going into low forward or reverse. high forward still works but that operates on a separate linkage. looking at schematics, the most likely failure inside the housing is the shift lever spring that connects the two shift levers. Does anyone have experience/ advice on this problem? It looks to me like the rearend has to be taken off to get to this area. i took the access plate off under the 4 gear shifter and you cannot access it from there. If thats the case, what kind of labor prices am I looking at. Is it something I can handle doing myself. Thanks in advance.

_ -Jordan

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

If you want to save yourself a ton on labor rates and you are at least a little skilled at being a mechanic and have space, get yourself the WSM for the tractor and it will help guide you through the repairs.

 

[DocHolladay]

A friend has the older MX 4800 tractor and his quit also. I just happened to stop over and was looking at it while sitting on the seat. I looked down the channel that the gear shifter sits in and could see the problem. There is a U channel that the shifter sits in that is attached to the transmission/gear box. The shifter had jumped out of the U channel. We popped it back in and everything was back to normal. This may not fix your problem, but start simple and work out from there.

 

[jayste]

your thread is so close to mine I thought it was mine. Mine http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30481 is doing the same thing. Can't tell if it's having trouble coming out of forward or going into reverse. Whatever it is, shuttling back a forth between forward and reverse is VERY hectic. I too was going to remove the cover that's below the center gear shifter and see what lays below it. AAARRRGGH! I've got 3 people waiting on me to come do some work as well.

 

[jayste]

Wolfman, WSM? ________ Service Manual?

 

[jayste]

I’m back to smooth “shuttle shifting” again. My problem of “hitchy” movement from Forward to Reverse has been solved! After finishing a mowing job yesterday I took some time to look closer at what may be causing the problem. Below is what took me about an hour to do and hopefully less than 500 words to explain.
First. I removed the plate just below the 1-2-3-4 shifter of the transmission. This only revealed the levers that go into the transmission that are connected by way of several linkages to the shuttle shifter on my tractor. I identified which lever was the Forward(Low/turtle)-Reverse lever and which was the Forward(High/rabbit) lever. Identifying this revealed which linkage I wanted to disconnect from which lever to allow me to manually work the lever back & forth to check for the “hitchiness” there. I was still at a disadvantage here because I wasn’t going into this knowing how smooth the lever should move back and forth. This didn’t really reveal anything to me so I moved on to the shuttle shifter itself and the linkage that connects it to the lever I just looked closer at. As I was working the shuttle shifter back and forth from Forward(Low/turtle) position to Reverse position I was experiencing the “hitchiness” of that motion. This revealed to me that It may be in the moving of the shifter and not in the lever of the transmission since I had it disconnected from the linkage (which by the way was still connected to the shifter). Looking closer at the shuttle shifter itself and all that moves with it I noticed the area of the neutral safety switch and what all is involved there. Noticing that while the shifter is being taken from one position and traveling to another it has to pass through the position of Neutral which works the switch. It was during that part of the travel I was experiencing the interruption or “hitchiness”. So, after reaching in and manually trying to work the plunger on the switch I realized it was pretty stiff and hard to move. Instantly, WD40 came to mind since I’m old school and grew up with it and it’ll loosen most things even Grandma’s arthritic joints! No, I reached past that and grabbed the PB Blaster and shot the plunger several times with that. NOW I’m back to smooth shifting again. I reconnected the linkage to the transmission lever and tried it again and SMOOTH shifting has returned.
I hope this helps someone out there with the same problem and you won’t let the length of this post scare you away from getting this time-saving information. Happy tractorin’!

Jay

 

[mjg321]

I recently encountered the exact same issue. Did you ever find a solution to the problem?

 

[D2Cat]

Jatste had a rather long winded answer, but he did answer. You really just need to read it.

"It was during that part of the travel I was experiencing the interruption or ***8220;hitchiness***8221;. So, after reaching in and manually trying to work the plunger on the switch I realized it was pretty stiff and hard to move. Instantly, WD40 came to mind since I***8217;m old school and grew up with it and it***8217;ll loosen most things even Grandma***8217;s arthritic joints! No, I reached past that and grabbed the PB Blaster and shot the plunger several times with that. NOW I***8217;m back to smooth shifting again. I reconnected the linkage to the transmission lever and tried it again and SMOOTH shifting has returned."