I've been working on this tractor off and on for a few months now and finally got it to crank last night. Now I push the clutch in and it bogs the motor down and smokes. It sat up for about 5 years in the weather so the clutch is rusted pretty bad. Whats the best way to go about freeing this thing up without splitting the tractor. I did grease the throwout bearing after I took this picture.
L1801DT Clutch stuck
- Thread starter benpete08
- Start date
You can de-rust things chemically but that is usually a bad idea with a clutch. You can try impact items like hammers and/or pneumatic hammers, basically vibrate it loose.
Speaking strictly for myself, I think I'd want to split a tractor that hasn't been running for many years just to clean it up thoroughly and make sure everything was greased and all the seals were okay or replace them if not.
Speaking strictly for myself, I think I'd want to split a tractor that hasn't been running for many years just to clean it up thoroughly and make sure everything was greased and all the seals were okay or replace them if not.
Lay out a couple of sheets of plywood and get to work. You need some solid wood cribbing and a good floor jack. You can have that tractor split, analyzed, cleaned and reassembled in a couple of days. It can't be any worse for the tractor then the last 5 years!!
Spray the heck out of it with some PB blaster, or other penetrating oil, chain it to a tree, and see if you can get it to free itself. Oh yeah, have the pedal down when doing this...
In order to provide some advice there are some missing details in your story.
If the clutch disk is rusted/frozen to the flywheel, the obvious symptom is that you cannot shift from neutral into a gear. The fact that, as you state with the engine running and you step on the clutch, the engine bogs makes me think you have not correctly diagnosed the problem.
I dont know your particular machine but is the pto clutch activated by the main clutch pedal?
Seized release bearings, (with some designs of live pto there may be two) would seem to me to be the major part of what is wrong. When you step on the clutch pedal with the engine running you are bringing the release bearing(s) into contact with rotating parts. If the bearings are seized you now have metal to metal contact which will quickly ruin everything. A bit like a disk brake where the brake pad is completely gone.
I agree with the other forum members that it is time to fix it properly as even if you get it freed up it will want to seize again at the earliest opportunity.
Dave M7040
If the clutch disk is rusted/frozen to the flywheel, the obvious symptom is that you cannot shift from neutral into a gear. The fact that, as you state with the engine running and you step on the clutch, the engine bogs makes me think you have not correctly diagnosed the problem.
I dont know your particular machine but is the pto clutch activated by the main clutch pedal?
Seized release bearings, (with some designs of live pto there may be two) would seem to me to be the major part of what is wrong. When you step on the clutch pedal with the engine running you are bringing the release bearing(s) into contact with rotating parts. If the bearings are seized you now have metal to metal contact which will quickly ruin everything. A bit like a disk brake where the brake pad is completely gone.
I agree with the other forum members that it is time to fix it properly as even if you get it freed up it will want to seize again at the earliest opportunity.
Dave M7040
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By the look of the pictures it needs to be split.
I've split many a tractor on plywood, even OSB (stick with ply over about 8 2x6's) just screw the ply sheets to the 2x6's for a real stable and strong base to work on.
Dave,
If the pressure plate is stuck, the engine will bog because you are fighting it to open the clutch.
I've split many a tractor on plywood, even OSB (stick with ply over about 8 2x6's) just screw the ply sheets to the 2x6's for a real stable and strong base to work on.
Dave,
If the pressure plate is stuck, the engine will bog because you are fighting it to open the clutch.
Thanks guys for all of your advice. I managed to get it in gear and after driving around the yard a bit the clutch freed itself. I probably will end up splitting it anyways and cleaning everything up and replacing the release bearing at the least.