John Deere 4x2 Turf Gator Dumb Question

wally2q said:

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.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it was WAY messier/dirtier in there than I expected. Grime all over the place. It gets used up and down a dirt/gravel road so it doesn't surprise me overmuch....good idea.

I did a lot of cleaning when I was replacing the clutch seal a couple of years ago, and at that time I put in a replacement air filter.

Once we get good weather again (we have snow right now) I'll move it outside and do a heavy clean of the whole engine compartment, plus take a look at this line that's supposed to connect up between the pedal and the engine. Without taking the assembly behind the pedal off it kinda FEELS like the wire has broken/retracted, as I don't feel anything inside the rubber "gasket" in there. I need to take it off to see for sure though.

Given that I've had this puppy for over a decade, it's probably past time....

Thank you wally2q! I'll post what I find.


Steven from Colorado

Update:

Well, I got that part and put it on and it mostly/kinda works. I can get the Gator up and running again, back and forth up and down the hill to where my solar array is. The power isn't quite there though...it doesn't go as fast as it used to. Fiddling with it I see two things that are probably causing this:

- The fitting where the cable connects to the throttle isn't quite right. The one on my (old) Gator had a small U-shaped fitting where the cable ran thru a cylinder. This cylinder fit through the U-shaped fitting so when the pedal was pushed down it pulled the throttle "back". The new one doesn't have anything like a cylinder fitting at the end of the cable, instead it has a U-shaped fitting that is definitely longer/larger than what the old one had.

Current workaround - I'm making it work but I don't think I've got it quite right yet. I need to study the connectivity a bit more.

- The pedal-side connection has a oval-shaped fitting over the gas pedal mechanism, whereas the old one had a simple circular fitting (you can see it in the picture above as 15A). The parts guy at the JD shop looked for a half hour but couldn't find such a part (the round connection); it's just obsolete.

Current workaround - I think I can snug the fitting up by tweaking the placement of the cable a bit, basically pulling it short (into the front compartment) so the pedal engages more quickly. I haven't done that yet though; we're into several days of rain and hail right now so I've been busy dealing with that.

Bottom line: It works but it's not as fast as it used to be as there's some "slop" in the cable connectivity yet. Getting there!


Steven from Colorado

UPDATE: As I noted from my posting a few days ago the Gator was working but it didn't seem to me like it had nearly as much power as it should. In talking with lovely wyfe I was also reminded about how she felt it had been getting slower "forever" and told me about when she was riding up the road and was "lapped by a butterfly".....

SO I took a closer look at the linkages and the throttle cable, following up on what I noted last post. I tweaked the placement of the throttle cable such that the "oval" was snugged up against the pedal mechanism--the most difficult part there was unscrewing the mount on the Gator enough I that I could move it slightly.

I also then looked the throttle linkage itself, and (after playing with it a bit while the engine was running) decided it wasn't opening up the engine as much as it could. This took me some time, but I was finally able to tweak that a bit by adjusting the "installation nuts" on the cable (not sure what they're called). I also slipped a plastic sleeve across that end of the cable to help protect it a bit in case of wear and tear.

I think fired it up and took it for a drive.

It's fast now!!!!!! Wow.....

Frankly it's almost too fast....it moves with great alacrity. I went up and down the hill and it motored along with only a small slowdown going up this one hill (short but steep). As I said it's almost too fast...I quickly had to re-learn when to start using the brake to slow things down. The fact that it's a gravel road and every bounce is an "adventure" helped my lead foot a bit too.

I do believe I am happy at this point. Many thanks to everybody who helped!


Steven from Colorado