John Deere 4x2 Turf Gator Dumb Question

720 Views 25 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Ferretman, 22 d ago

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · 2 mo ago

I'm working on this Gator...it's refusing to go into forward....and one of the things I wanted to check was if it might be low on transmission fluid.

My dumb question is would somebody confirm WHICH of these two yellow caps is which? I think the lower one is transmission/transaxle fluid and the upper one is engine oil....is this correct? The picture is taken from the driver's side with the front upwards.

The manual does mention checking them without making it extremely clear (to me) which is which. I think the surrounding pictures in the manual seem to imply that the lower one is the transaxle fluid (which would make the engine oil the upper one by default).

Thank you........I feel dumb.

Steven from Colorado

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Burbo

· #2 · 2 mo ago

The upper one with the oil can embossed is your motor oil. The lower one(in the pic) is your transaxle.

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #3 · 2 mo ago

Burbo said:
The upper one with the oil can embossed is your motor oil. The lower one(in the pic) is your transaxle.

Thank you! I want to change these both out (they haven't been in a bit) and then figure out what the heck is going on with the Gator gearing.

Appreciate it!

Steven from Colorado

MBDiagMan

· #4 · 2 mo ago

Does it shift into gear without grinding?

will it shift into gear easily with engine off?

The cap at the top of your picture is motor oil. The smaller one at the bottom of the picture is transaxle fluid.

Hope this helps.

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #5 · 2 mo ago

MBDiagMan said:
Does it shift into gear without grinding?

will it shift into gear easily with engine off?

The cap at the top of your picture is motor oil. The smaller one at the bottom of the picture is transaxle fluid.

Hope this helps.

Yes, that helps a lot..thank you! To my mind they're really not denoted all that well; I plan to rectify that (hopefully tomorrow) when I can work on it a bit.

It does shift fine with the engine on; not sure I tested it with the engine off actually. The rod moving it into forward/backward (this thing only has those two gears) moves fine as well. In fact I put it into forward and basically pushed/pulled it up the driveway into my garage. I wouldn't have been able to even more it forward if it wasn't "helping".

Looking at the engine, I see when I put it into reverse the pulley in the rear moves freely, but when I put into forward it would barely move. It moved just enough that (with my pushing/pulling) I was able to get it up the hill.

I got it into the garage a couple of days ago, then we had snow and cold and I couldn't work on it since. I hopefully will know more tomorrow and will post accordingly. Not sure what the heck is going on.

Steven from Colorado

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Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #6 · 2 mo ago

Update:

So I changed out all of the fluids (they needed it anyway) and looked at the Gator. I put the Gator up on tire jacks so I could do some testing.

The wheels move fine in either forward or backwards when I shift gears accordingly.

However, the gas pedal doesn't seem to DO anything. The engine doesn't "rev up" when I push the gas pedal; it seems to do nothing.

I assume there's a linkage that goes from the pedal back into the engine? I can trace the line as far back as the gas tank area/under the seats; I'm going to have to pull off the covers there to see more.

Any thoughts what this might be? Never had an issue with this before so I'm a bit stumped.

Thank you in advance!

Steven from Colorado

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200mph

· #7 · 2 mo ago

Should see linkage at carb or throttle body if you want to track from the opposite end.

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #8 · 2 mo ago

200mph said:
Should see linkage at carb or throttle body if you want to track from the opposite end.

Okay, I fired up the Gator and was able to confirm a couple of things:

When I depress the gas pedal nothing whatsoever happens;
When I manually move the silver lever (on the left side of this pic), the engine revs fine and the wheels turns depending on how far I move it. This shows THAT linkage seems to work properly.
When I manually move the lever (center nut towards the right where the throttle control lines (?) come in) that ALSO moves the silver lever with the results expected...engine revs, wheels turn. That control line (looks like a heavy gauge wire) doesn't move at all.

Given this, I assume there's a disconnect on that control line (not sure what to call that), running back from that second lever to the front of the Gator towards the gas pedal (that looks like it is the same line just by observation).

Is there a spring/connection in there that might have fallen/broken off?

This happened very quickly...the Gator ran up the hill and then all of the fuel pedal stopped doing anything as I was backing up to make a turn.

Much puzzlement.

Steven from Colorado

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200mph

· #9 · 2 mo ago

You can look up part details and gather some info by looking at the illustrations at www.jdparts.com.

while the illustrations lack detail they can help in gaining understanding.

I did not see the referenced picture.

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #10 · 2 mo ago

200mph said:
You can look up part details and gather some info by looking at the illustrations at www.jdparts.com.

while the illustrations lack detail they can help in gaining understanding.

I did not see the referenced picture.

Yep, I'm an idiot...I didn't realize I hadn't attached it.

Here ya go.....

Steven

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200mph

· #11 · 2 mo ago

John Deere Parts Catalog

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #12 · 2 mo ago

Update:

Did a bit more work this afternoon.

I partially took off the cover that is under the seats, so I could (hopefully) get better access to the cable. As near as I can tell something between the cable and the carb (I assume that's a carb) isn't doing anything when I depress the pedal, hence not giving the Gator fuel.

I ran a can of engine cleaner over some of the motor just so I could see better.

When I manually manipulate that cable I can hear "something" chunking/moving more or less under the driver's side seat. I couldn't tell you if it was doing that before or if it's indicative of the problem.

I'm also checking to see if something broke or snapped there around the gas pedal line....that would certainly account for what happened (worked fine until I had to do a 3-point turn, then gas pedal stopped working). That's part of why I ran the engine cleaner over it.

Steven from Colorado

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Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #13 · 2 mo ago

Ferretman said:
Update:

I'm also checking to see if something broke or snapped there around the gas pedal line....that would certainly account for what happened (worked fine until I had to do a 3-point turn, then gas pedal stopped working). That's part of why I ran the engine cleaner over it.

Steven from Colorado

After spending some time looking at the choke cable (which works fine BTW), I think I located the pedal ultimately connected to the gas pedal.

The control cable seems to be near the upper center of this pic. When I manipulate that lever (silver short lever near the center of the pic) it revs and such just fine. IF I'm not messed up somewhere, that control line should depress when the gas pedal is opened up, and nothing is working. One presumes that it would "pull" the short lever since that's the direction to rev the engine, so that cable has to connect to something to make this work?

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I looked the jdparts catalog (referenced above) and found this:

Font Line Parallel Schematic Triangle

IF I'm reading this correctly, the cable labled 14C might be the issue? Maybe it's got a break inside somewhere; there's no sign of corrosion on any of the parts of the cable I can see though but I guess it's possible.

Quite annoying.

Steven from Colorado

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200mph

· #14 · 2 mo ago

I had given the OP links to the drawings and it seems like the effort was in vane.

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #15 · 2 mo ago

200mph said:
I had given the OP links to the drawings and it seems like the effort was in vane.

No, I used that site several times today, walking thru the connectivity. It's hard to tell exactly what the issue is though. The site is very handy though if a bit light on some of the details.

Steven from Colorado

200mph

· #16 · 2 mo ago

I understand your description of issue as:

Depressing gas pedal generates no response from engine.

Moving cable from under dash side cause engine to respond.

If so cable is OK and issue is at gas pedal assembly. Get a good visual while depressing gas pedal and cable end and issue should be self evident.

Might want to purchase copy of technical manual as it contains a lot of valuable info within that might help your understanding of basic components.

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #17 · 2 mo ago

200mph said:
I understand your description of issue as:

Depressing gas pedal generates no response from engine.

Moving cable from under dash side cause engine to respond.

If so cable is OK and issue is at gas pedal assembly. Get a good visual while depressing gas pedal and cable end and issue should be self evident.

Might want to purchase copy of technical manual as it contains a lot of valuable info within that might help your understanding of basic components.

Your summation is close, but moving the cable under the dash didn't seem to cause a response...moving the cable back on the engine is what causes that. I'll double check at the dash side though; I suppose I might have missed something. Good thinking.

I agree I think I need a tech manual....the basic "how to care for your Gator" book really doesn't have enough detail here.

I'll also take a look at the gas pedal end assembly...there's a clamp/ring on the pedal under a rubber covering; maybe that broke?

Thank you!

Steven from Colorado

200mph

· #18 · 2 mo ago

Disconnect cable from either end and pull on inner metal cable. If it comes out you know it is broken.

Ferretman

Discussion Starter · #19 · 2 mo ago

200mph said:
Disconnect cable from either end and pull on inner metal cable. If it comes out you know it is broken.

Good thinking! As it happens I'm getting ready to do exactly that; just checking to see how it's attached at the pedal side.

Steven from Colorado

wally2q

· #20 · 2 mo ago

I would also say - hose off the whole thing - engine bay, cables, brackets... get all the dust and grime off of it, so you can see better, keep your hands clean as you work on it, and keep things from binding up with dust and grime.

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