Solved- L3901 HST had no power going to rear wheels

[thedevilyoulove]

A few days ago I noticed that one of my rear tires was leaking solution. Well, over the past several days another issue with my otherwise extremely dependable Kubota L3901 HST began to rear it's ugly face. Tractor is a 2015 and had 275 hours on it. I purchased it new and have performed all the required maintenance.

My tractor is an HST, and when I pushed the petal down to go, the tractor would sometimes not move. I'd play with the petal and it would sometimes go again, and sometimes it wouldn't. Forward or backward didn't matter. Other times I'd be driving along and it would slowly come to a stop even though I hadn't moved the petal at all. I checked the hydraulic fluid and it was normal. I could almost always make the issue happen by going up a hill or by turning.

As this problem began to happen more frequently, I noticed that putting the tractor in 4wd would make it move again as if nothing was wrong. I suspected that the rear wheels were still not working, and that was confirmed when going up a muddy hill today, and only the front tires were spinning. The HST was not making any terrible noises or anything and there were no dash lights indicating any problem at all.

Hoping that the HST petal was having issues, I took the floor board off and cleaned out out all the grass and stuff that was under there. No improvement whatsoever. Finally I had my wife get on the tractor and drive it around. It was doing the same thing for her, where it wouldn't move forward/backward at all. But I could see exactly what was happening, and I was relieved that it wouldn't cost me too much (hopefully, lol).

Here was the problem: the solution leaking from one of the rear tires made the wheel spin on the tire bead. So in other words, the wheel was spinning just fine, but the tire wasn't. Glad it wasn't a bad HST!

 

[Big Hoss]

That old addage of "step back and look at the problem from a different angle" paid off in your case. Glad you figured it out.

 

[old and tired]

Heard that happen a few times before... with different color tractors!!!

 

[je1279]

Is it as easy as adding air to the tire/tires to reseat the bead?

 

[Henro]

A few days ago I noticed that one of my rear tires was leaking solution. Well, over the past several days another issue with my otherwise extremely dependable Kubota L3901 HST began to rear it's ugly face. Tractor is a 2015 and had 275 hours on it. I purchased it new and have performed all the required maintenance.

My tractor is an HST, and when I pushed the petal down to go, the tractor would sometimes not move. I'd play with the petal and it would sometimes go again, and sometimes it wouldn't. Forward or backward didn't matter. Other times I'd be driving along and it would slowly come to a stop even though I hadn't moved the petal at all. I checked the hydraulic fluid and it was normal. I could almost always make the issue happen by going up a hill or by turning.

As this problem began to happen more frequently, I noticed that putting the tractor in 4wd would make it move again as if nothing was wrong. I suspected that the rear wheels were still not working, and that was confirmed when going up a muddy hill today, and only the front tires were spinning. The HST was not making any terrible noises or anything and there were no dash lights indicating any problem at all.

Hoping that the HST petal was having issues, I took the floor board off and cleaned out out all the grass and stuff that was under there. No improvement whatsoever. Finally I had my wife get on the tractor and drive it around. It was doing the same thing for her, where it wouldn't move forward/backward at all. But I could see exactly what was happening, and I was relieved that it wouldn't cost me too much (hopefully, lol).

Here was the problem: the solution leaking from one of the rear tires made the wheel spin on the tire bead. So in other words, the wheel was spinning just fine, but the tire wasn't. Glad it wasn't a bad HST!

Glad you found the cause. I also have read about this but never experienced it myself.

Love it when what first appears as a potentially serious issue turns out to be a simple cause/solution.

 

[old and tired]

Yes, in all the threads I've read, adding air to the tire fixes it...

 

[lugbolt]

coulda put it in 4wd?

 

[Henro]

coulda put it in 4wd?

He certainly could. But wouldn’t that just make finding the cause more difficult?

Novice question I suppose...

 

[old and tired]

He did the 4x4 thing....

...I noticed that putting the tractor in 4wd would make it move again as if nothing was wrong...

 

[Old_Paint]

Umm, this is almost as entertaining as finding out the oil leak that freaked me out on my other orange brand lawn tractor was just a loose oil filter. While greatly relieved that I didn't have to bust the block to fix it, I felt pretty silly for not checking the easiest and most obvious possibility. But, took the opportunity to do some other repairs and maintenance on it just the same.

 

[lugbolt]

no, novice answer

process of elimination.

if equipment won't pull itself, try different things. Toss the lever into 4x4 and it pulls, you know there's a problem with the rear traction drive, so next thing to do (in my mind) would be disengage 4x4 and try the differential lock. If it pulls in diff lock, you know there's some kinda problem back there with one of the two traction devices (wheels/tires/axles/etc)

A novice or inexperienced 'tech' would automatically suspect a differential or clutch or something major like that, but experience tells us to check the simple stuff first. A novice or inexperienced tech would have already attempted to disassemble to 'find' (make) a problem while a seasoned tech would call a customer and say "sir I know you were expecting an expensive fix but it was a lot simpler...your tire was spinning on the rim". Now that person who diagnosed it made him/herself a hero. For this reason I always told my guys at the shop to check the simple stuff first when I can. Sometimes I was too busy to keep up with them. I have seen guys at another shop I worked at replace an HST in a lawn mower just to realize that they "lost" the wheel's key, which was the cause of the "HST failure" from the get-go. A $1 square key installed between the wheel and axle would have solved the problem, however people sometimes get into the mindset that if the pulley's turning and the linkage is hooked up and it's got oil in it, it's gotta be the transmission. Remove the stupid cap in the middle and look at the axle. If axle turns and wheel don't, you found your problem. So instead of the customer spending $40 for labor + a $1 key, they spend $1200+ to replace an HST and a key.


saw it with a guy's truck once too. Wouldn't pull so the "shop" automatically ordered a new transmission (which is was going to need sooner or later anyway since it was a gm 4L60E), get the trans in and when the truck went on the rack, they found that the rear driveshaft was completely missing. Front yoke was in the transmission but the u-joints were both broken and the shaft came out. If they'd have put it in 4x4, they'd have realized that it'd go under it's own power. Novice diagnosis that cost the customer more than it should have. They sent the trans back and replaced the shaft, at 4.6hr labor. Jack the labor up to pay for shipping/ordering a reman 4L60E.

 

[old and tired]

Bought a 3ph Long Backhoe from a farmer... he had another John Deere TLB but he had a problem, It would barely move. So he was going to have to take it to the dealer.

I looked at it, move one lever from Neural to Drive; fixed it. Farmer said he never used that lever and didn't know what it was for (between high and low is another neutral...) Simple stuff first.

 

[D2Cat]

I remember one winter I hooked up my Hiniker snow plow and could not get it to work. Seems like it would raise, but not turn. Had a friend discover the switch on the side of the hand control was in the OFF position! Sometimes simple isn't simple at the moment.

 

[TX Chris]

Glad it was an easy fix OP.

Kinda like when your boat won't start and you realize after WAY too long messing with it (during a tournament, no less) that the safety kill switch got pulled out on accident...