frankg
07-11-2013, 08:01 AM
Greetings everyone, my name is Frank & my wife & I live in central North Carolina on 50 acres of forest land on the Cape Fear River. This is our retirement place but since I retired last year I stay busy working in the woods, running my sawmill and working/playing with my four Economy/PowerKing tractors. Three weeks ago I bought a 2004 Gator CX to be used on our trails and also off trail when needed. This is my first Gator of any kind so I have been busy trying to obtain information concerning operator maintenance and troubleshooting when needed. I have downloaded and read the John Deere Operators Manual from the JD Website and also all 7 pages of posts in the CX, TS and TX Gator discussion section of this forum. This CX starts very easy and the engine runs fine, it had 907 hours when I bought it and I have put another 11 hours on it since I brought it home. I have completed all the operator checks in the manual and found everything to be fine as far as fluid levels go & the drive belt measures good. The clutch bumpers are all there and look fine to me but unfortunately I don't know exactly what new ones would look like. Here are my concerns and any advice will be greatly appreciated: The brakes stop just fine and the parking brake works great, but the brakes really squeal a lot when applying them, is this something I should be concerned about & if so is this something a "shade tree mechanic" like myself could correct? My second (& last) concern is that when I put the Gator into forward it sometimes (not always) grinds a little and sometimes in either forward or reverse the start is rather abrupt because you must accelerate a little to increase rpm's before the transmission engages. Again is this something to be concerned about & if so are there any adjustments that I need to do to improve getting under way smoothly? In closing let me say that this forum contains lots of great information from experienced and thoughtful members, I look forward to signing in often. Frank