M5700 stuck in ditch due to locked brake! Help please!

[Wild Turkey]

A friend sold me his M5700 (with 650 hours on it!) with loader and after-market PTO driven backhoe for a very nice price.

I grew up on a wheat farm in Texas, started driving "Poppin' Johnnys" when I was 11 or 12. As I grew so did our farm and tractors got bigger, up to 300 HP FWD monsters so am familiar with tractors.

Only problem that I knew of was the brakes. He never used them independently while I do so constantly. Right brake make nasty noises and was scheduled for repair soon but today I had to finish a trench with the backhoe.

When I finished the trench I had to turn across it -- both ends were blocked.

So I lifted the backhoe and cranked in a right turn with the front wheels and tapped the right rear brake to cut across the trench.

Right rear fell into the trench and when I hit the differential lock nothing happened except the front wheels digging harder. I'm assuming the brake locked up and when I engaged diff lock it just sent all power to front wheels.

So now the tractor is sitting with one rear tire in trench (less than a foot down) and it won't move front or back. Can't tell if diff lock is unlocked or locked. Backhoe doesn't have umph to push tractor forward. Called it a day (heat and fatigue made this old man reluctant to try anything more.)

Tomorrow I hope the brake and diff lock have relaxed overnight, if not I'll use the backhoe to lift the rear tires enough to get some planing under it and see if the front wheels can pull it onto solid ground (or even into the shop!)

Any idease about what I can try to get it moving again? I've got work to do

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Is neither rear wheel spinning but the fronts are?
Or is it just the right rear is spinning and the diff lock won't engage to shift power to the left?

If just the fronts are pulling...Your not going to like this answer, but you've broken the differential or something else in the rear drive as the front's should not spin without the rears spinning.

Sounds like if you were hitting the right brake and getting nasty noises, it's the diff broken you were hearing and not the brakes.

 

[D2Cat]

I'd try putting the loader down flat and use the backhoe to pick up the rear of the tractor and move it over the ditch. Once you have both rears to one side you can pick up the loader bucket and back up. Probably have to clean your crumbs out from the side, or use a shovel if it's too tight.

 

[100 td]

X2.
Not the best example but the quickest when I searched
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If0OpMyKEjk

 

[Wild Turkey]

Little backhoe didn't have oomph to do that. Got it pulled out of ditch, rear didn't turn but front did. It's now in the dealer shop.

Oh well, it's only time (two weeks is their best guess) and money.

 

[Wild Turkey]

Just got back from the dealer.

Both axles were broken; one had been gone for a while and other apparently broke when I tried to cross the ditch.

But they also found some rocks and gravel in the hydraulic reservoir. Obviously vandalism -- some of the rocks were the size of a pack of chewing gum, plus some smaller stuff.

bottom line is repairs will cost about $2k

More than I hoped, less than I dreaded.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Just got back from the dealer.

Both axles were broken; one had been gone for a while and other apparently broke when I tried to cross the ditch.

But they also found some rocks and gravel in the hydraulic reservoir. Obviously vandalism -- some of the rocks were the size of a pack of chewing gum, plus some smaller stuff.

bottom line is repairs will cost about $2k

More than I hoped, less than I dreaded.

I figured something like that was the issue.
Sounds like you might have gotten off lucky... $2K is not bad for thak kind of repair.