More problems than bleeding the brake fluid!

[annvalentine]

Well I did find the bleed valve and with the help of a friends son we were able to refill the brake fluid reservoir and get the air out so to speak. Now I can depress the clutch and shift but the tractor is stuck in reverse. When I shift it into first gear and let off the clutch it almost feels like the hand brake is on and it stalls. I can shift into reverse and move the tractor. Have I caused bigger problems by letting the brake fluid go dry. Any suggestions? Please help!

Ann

 

[zetor3545]

sounds to me like your tractor is stuck in forward and reverse

 

[annvalentine]

No Matt it will go in reverse but getting the tractor out of the barn will be tricky!

Ann

 

[treaney]

It sounds to me like your brakes are binding locked when moving forward. They must be pretty good if they cause the tractor to stall! Try slackening off the brake adjusters.

 

[zetor3545]

or your slaves have gone to far out and wont return???

 

[diamond_b_farm]

the pivot point for the parking brake on my 6341 froze and made the parking brake stay on all the time. there is no grease fitting on it. i use the loader as a parking brake and will fix it in the spring.

 

[four]

I think you have a gearbox problem - this happened to one of our 7540s(I think), had to drop off a full load of grass nad go back to the farm in reverse!
The dealers mechanic came out and opened the top of the gearbox, then with a metal rod pushed things back into place.
The longest job was getting access through the cab floor 69)

It never did it again.
I suspect it would be something you could easily do yourself with patience.

 

[ixer0]

Hi Ann,
Can you give us more info. Does the gear lever actually go into reverse to get reverse or does it do it while in the neutral position ? When it stalls does the tractor move at all, or is it solid ?

Regards

Mike

 

[paul_walpole]

Hello there,

If the tractor will go into reverse and there is no brake bind, then problem is in the selectors in the top of the box. You see sometime the selectror shaft gets out of the 3 selector races, especially if the gear shift is getting sloppy or it is forced. With low clutch fluid, it is likely you may have been a bit forcefull getting it ina and out of gear.
Simple fif, pull of the gear shifter where it enters the gear box. Align the 3 selectors in their centre position. Not forward, not back.
Put it back together and get back to work.

By the way, why did it run out of fluid. Identify the leak or keep it topped up more regulary.

Old zetor brake systems suck.Cheers-Paul

 

[annvalentine]

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. I am itching to get my Zetor moving but we have had a cold snap here in the US and at -9F or -23C this morning I can't get more done than feeding the livestock. So it seems I have three fixes when we get to a balmy -10C.

1. Brake adjustment
2. Slaves gone to far out
3. Remove the floor and aline the gears.

I have to agree it does feel like the shift selector works fine now with fluid and I can shift into all gears. The tractor will move in only one though, reverse. When I shift into any forward gears and slowly lift my foot off the clutch it almost feels like the parking brake is engaged. I can feel the Zetor kind of trying to move forward like the rear wheels are locked but I can't understand if the brakes are locked why can I move in reverse? Most likely my problem is related to running the brake fluid dry, I think, as all this started then. As far as why I ran the fluid dry, the Zetor has leaked for some time and I would feel the clutch grabbing at a different height and top off the fluid but I recently hired a 16 y/o down the road to pull logs for firewood. He said he could the feel the clutch changing and the gears not engaging but he thought it was his lack of experience.

Sooooo, how can I tell if the "slaves have gone to far" and why would I need a "brake adjustment"? Would these recommendations be low fluid related and if so why?

Do the gears have a tendency to go out of alinement without fluid?

I'm so glad I found this forum. I didn't know I was in such good company just because I own a Zetor!

Ann

 

[zetor3545]

hi the brakes themselves are non adjustable. they self adjust. and there is no way you can tell if they have stuck by looking from the outside. what you could do is jack on side of the tractor up and see if you can turn the wheel forward. on my 3545 you can slacken offf the handbrake band. there is a vent cover looking thing which is around 9 inches long by 3 inches wide you can remove this and get a socket in there and slacken it off. (im not sure if it is the same on your model) or leave the bleed nipple open on the slaves. ( we had to do this on our lorry as the brakes locked going on the motorway).

give this a go no luck just ask again and ill have a good think.

p.s this forum is great. evryone helps one another

 

[dave_peters]

I would say that you still have a selector problem. When you had the floor out it would have been a good idea to check that the rails were moving with the selectors. I have had a selector locating bolt work loose so that the rail moved but without the selector, you will probably have to take off the gearbox top to check this.
The only way the brake slave cylinder pistons can come out is if the adjuster is backed right off, this seems unlikely as you wouldnt have any pressure on the pedal if it did. Its extremely unlikely that the brakes would bind to that extent in one direction only, and then it would only be one so the tractor would try to move with one wheel only. I believe the slave cylinders are self adjusting and as Mathew said, the only way is to jack the tractor and try turning each wheel. If there is a problem then you will have to remove the reduction drop box to look at the brake in the side with the problem.

 

[dave_peters]

Thinking about this further. if the main gearstick is in neutral and the hi-lo stick is in gear, does it try to reverse? if not then it probably isn't a gear selector problem.....

 

[annvalentine]

Thanks for all your suggestions guys. Dave P, no when the main gear stick is in neutral and I let off on the clutch and I select a high or lo range it stays in neutral.
So how does everyone think I should approach this today? A snow storm is predicted for this week and I might need to use the tractor to get to my cattle.

By the way Dave, Nice pic's of your farm!

Ann

 

[annvalentine]

Thanks for all your suggestions guys. Dave P, no when the main gear stick is in neutral and I let off on the clutch and I select a high or lo range it stays in neutral.
So how does everyone think I should approach this today? A snow storm is predicted for this week and I might need to use the tractor to get to my cattle.

By the way Dave, Nice pic's of your farm!

Ann

 

[ixer0]

Hi Ann,

I think the first thing you should do is jack up each rear wheel in turn to check if they will turn. I am thinking that maybe your handbrake cable is frozen on. You would probably be able to reverse if this happened.

Good Luck

Mike

 

[annvalentine]

Thanks all

The floor was not to easy to remove and took me a couple of hours. After I removed the stick shift I could not believe how simple the gear system was. The last one was only out an inch so I lined all of them up and put the shift back on thinking It can't be this easy. It works!!!

I guess I was looking for a simpler solution, kind of afraid to attempt the fix but you guys got it right off. This would have cost me hundreds of dollars just for the tractor shop to pick the machine up. Thank You all.

Ann

 

[zetor3545]

are you trying to say you have sorted out the problem???

 

[paul_walpole]

It is good to see you have followed the advice from all of us and are now mobile again.
You will now know what I meant by one of the selectors being out.
Did you find the source of the brake fluid leak.

Paul

 

[ricc]

i had similar on a 6711... no cab floor to get in the way, occasionally always on changing from 1st to rev it would feel like two gears were engaged at the same time .... taking the gearstick out and aligning the selectors would clear it till the next time, initially i thought it was a worn gearstick jumping out of the slot in the selector. so bought it anyway, just carried a spanner and large screwdriver in the toolbox for a while.
turned out theres a row of 3 bolts and lock nuts under the inch of oily mud on the top of the gearbox above the front end of the selectors , these have a spring and ball bearing under which engage in grooves in the selectors to hold then in position , forward, neutral and back, one had come loose which allowed the selector to move and try to engage another gear whenever it felt like it.
screwed the loose bolt down to match the others , and locked the locknut and its been fine since.
this was maybe 10 years ago , igot the tractor down to a hundred pounds because of the "faulty gearbox"