01 trail gator tranny problem

[jbadamcik]

My01 trail gator 6X4 will not stay in forward gear, I've tried lifting the rear wheels and making linkage adj. to no avail, it works fine while in the air, but as soon as you drop it down it jumps out of gear. The reverse gear works fine. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[John Deere Nick]

Have you pulled the tranny to look at the gears to see if they are binding causing it to jump out of gear? Does it have any loud popping noises right before it pops out?

[jbadamcik]

I have not yet opened up the tranny, but I do not hear any popping sounds. The forward gear always had a grinding sound as it was going into gear, but now it is much more pronouned and it refuses to stay in gear. Does anyone in the Dallas Ft. Worth area know any good gator mechanics who could give me an honest assessment.

[Suffolk Dave]

If you disconnect the shift linkage with your gator lifted so the rear wheels are off the ground and manually move the shift arm on the top of the transaxle into forward and reverse it should lock into position and stay. You say it pops out of forward gear but stays in reverse...the most probible cause would be the "shift collar" on the input shaft.The shift collar is a movable splined collar on the input shaft in the transaxle (upper shaft) that moves via the shift arm. In the neutral position it allows the input shaft to spin free and depresses the neutral switch for starting. When pushed into forward it engages the forward drive gear to transfer power to the reduction shaft...it is held in this position by a spring and 2 balls that pass thru the input shaft and act as a detent inside the shift collar's intermittant splines that allign with the balls and is held until the shift arm is returned to neutral. The same thing occurs when going to reverse only the collar is pushed in the opposite direction on the input shaft engageing the reverse drive sprocket to transfer power to the reduction shaft in the opposite direction via the reverse drive chain. The intermittant splines could be damaged on the shift collar or the balls and spring could be worn and not engageing and holding the collar in gear. If you are willing to disassemble the transaxle the parts can easily be inspected to determine the cause and the parts are not expensive. If the problem is the splines worn on the shift collar it is possible that you could remove the collar and rotate in on the input shaft to allign a different set of intermittant splines with the detent balls. This is a 16 spline shaft and the shift collar could be 8 or 16 spline depending on year model.
Hope this helps
Suffolk Dave
Hope this

[purplewg]

Maybe some pics will help also.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/purplewg/Gator%20Project/95ece46c.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/purplewg/Gator%20Project/f26f2fc3.jpg

[lugnutgmc]

New member here, trying to replace the foward gear. I have everything apart, the input shaft out, not sure how to pull the bearing off the input shaft without damaging it, doesnt seem like a lot of room to grab it on the inner race. I sent a PM to Suffolk Dave, he seems to be well versed in this subject, waiting for a reply, I'm sure other members could use the advice as well.

Thanks!

-Kevin

[lugnutgmc]

I was able to remove the bearings with a tie rod puller. I just grabbed the outer race and tightened the puller. It didn't take much at all. They're not really pressed on. I was nervous I would wreck them.