M4900 is at farm 500 miles away. The Shuttle Safety Switch (,Lever part 3A011-75100, $50) is 20 years old and causing no start issues.
Found a thread here by Jayste that describes rough ("hitchiness")shifting of the shuttle lever that I have am experiencing with my 4900 and plan to change this switch next trip.
I understand that this switch is located near the shuttle lever - can anyone advise exact location of the switch and what parts/cowling pieces I should begin removing to get to the switch. Here is Jay's solution to the sticking shuttle lever as it may help others diagnose a no start issue:
"It's fixed. I've posted this on another thread but here it is again just in case.
I***8217;m back to smooth ***8220;shuttle shifting***8221; again. My problem of ***8220;hitchy***8221; 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 ***8220;hitchiness***8221; there. I was still at a disadvantage here because I wasn***8217;t going into this knowing how smooth the lever should move back and forth. This didn***8217;t really reveal anything to me so I moved on to the shuttle shifter itself and the linkage that connects 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 ***8220;hitchiness***8221; 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 ***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.
I hope this helps someone out there with the same problem and you won***8217;t let the length of this post scare you away from getting this time-saving information. Happy tractorin***8217;!
Jay"
Found a thread here by Jayste that describes rough ("hitchiness")shifting of the shuttle lever that I have am experiencing with my 4900 and plan to change this switch next trip.
I understand that this switch is located near the shuttle lever - can anyone advise exact location of the switch and what parts/cowling pieces I should begin removing to get to the switch. Here is Jay's solution to the sticking shuttle lever as it may help others diagnose a no start issue:
"It's fixed. I've posted this on another thread but here it is again just in case.
I***8217;m back to smooth ***8220;shuttle shifting***8221; again. My problem of ***8220;hitchy***8221; 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 ***8220;hitchiness***8221; there. I was still at a disadvantage here because I wasn***8217;t going into this knowing how smooth the lever should move back and forth. This didn***8217;t really reveal anything to me so I moved on to the shuttle shifter itself and the linkage that connects 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 ***8220;hitchiness***8221; 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 ***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.
I hope this helps someone out there with the same problem and you won***8217;t let the length of this post scare you away from getting this time-saving information. Happy tractorin***8217;!
Jay"
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