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Crawlers, Dozers, Loaders & Backhoes Discussion Forum

John Deere 350C transmission

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Alaska Jim

06-03-2006 15:24:09




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I recently took off the shifter and cover from the top of the JD350 tranny. The 3rd gear was not engaging properly and so I was hoping that the problem was in the shifter mechanism. Instead I found that there are gears with teeth that are damaged. It doesn't look like any of these gears can be changed without taking the transmission out of the dozer, but I thought I would doublecheck with someone with experience. My plan, as of now, is to try and swap out the trany, steering housing, and final drives as one unit with another trany, steering, final drives unit that I have on another nearly stripped 350 that I have. Does anyone agree with this plan or have a better one?

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jdemaris

06-04-2006 08:10:57




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 Re: John Deere 350C transmission in reply to Alaska Jim, 06-03-2006 15:24:09  
We had to fix many 350 transmissions. They do not shift well on the fly if equipped with a hydraulic reverser. That because they use sliding-gear transmission - not constant mesh collar shift. So, after years of shifing while moving and clashing gears - they get worn down to a point where they will no longer stay in gear. We took a few and, with a grinder, reshaped the remaining gear stubs so they could be used a little more. If you plan on swapping cases - be very careful about the dowels and holes where the trans. case bolts to the reverser. They tend to get egg shaped after years of being run loose - and when that happens - the trans and reverser get out of line and the splines get ruined on the shafts where the coupler goes. The side-frames also crack. If you have a case with worn dowel holes - fix it or don't use it. Othewise you are in for a mess. I suspect the main culprit is the bottom two bolts that hold the reverser to the trans. case. They are near impossible to tighten properly. We were told by Deere engineers - that at the factory - the bolts got tightened with the trans and reverser out of the frame. So, with a complete and assembled machine - there not very accessible. We used special short box-wrenches with a chain hooked to the end. Even with that, we had trouble getting them tight. And - to take the bolts out for the first time with a new machine - again - pretty difficult. We got so, with new machines - we heated them red hot until they stretched and got ruined. They'd then come out easy. I mention all this - because it seems the cause of the many bad transmission and reverser cases in 350s is caused by those two bolts never getting tightened properly. Maybe someone out there has come up with a better way to do it? In our shop - we tried just about everything - and Deere engineers had no good answers (they rarely did). Thus, the short chain-wrench.

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Roy Suomi

06-04-2006 19:38:01




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 Re: John Deere 350C transmission in reply to jdemaris, 06-04-2006 08:10:57  
As far as those elusive lower bolts go , I use a Snap-On " pipe handle wrench"..I'm not sure of the exact name for them..One hollow handle fits several wrench sizes..If you put the wrench head on the bolts you can slide a long pry bar thru the track frame and pry against the recoil spring cover for one direction or the engine frame rail for the other direction..It takes a while but it works..240 lbs on a 6 ft. prybar can loosen or tighten them bolts right up....

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jdemaris

06-05-2006 06:14:02




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 Re: John Deere 350C transmission in reply to Roy Suomi, 06-04-2006 19:38:01  
We had the Snap-On pipe-handle wrenches in the shop. I don't remember if it was 1 1/8" or 15/16". Those are the wrenches we adapted and hooked the chain to. At first, we cut down John Deere wrenches - made by Bonney or Utica Tool Works - because we got them cheap. But, they did not hold up - so we splurged and bought from Snap-On. If we're talking about the same wrench - it had a 12 point box end. On brand-new machines - i.e. those that had never been apart before - it sometimes worked - and sometimes did not and just stripped the bolt-head. If they had offered it in a six-point version - it might have worked better - but - with only six points I'm not sure there would be enough room for movement with the crawler on the ground. If we had had a way of putting the crawlers off the ground by few feet - then things would have been much easier - but we did not have a good way of doing it in the shop. I guess we could have tilted a crawler on it's side - for good access - but never tried it. It was easier just to use the torch and reinstall new bolts. We also worked by ourselves - each mechanic had his own bay and we were all on time clocks. So - we usually avoided two-man operations unless absolutely necessary - the chain-wrench deal often needed two guys. This became an issue with the first 350Cs that came out. We had a pile of brand-new crawlers that we had to pull apart and do a recall/update on the torsional isolators. I remember one winter when the shop-work was slow, Deere came out with the recall, and we had over 30 new 350Cs out in the lot. The boss said we had to pull them ALL apart. I would of quit if a better job was available. That kind of monkey-work gets kind of monotonous and boring. Same sort of thing happened with the first 50 series AG tractors with 4WD. They came with the wrong gears that drove the front-axle and we had to pull the transmissions on all of them - and most had cabs which made things even worse. Back to the 350Cs, we'd use the Snap-On wrench with a chain coming through the track-frame just over the main spring - and then - outside the track - a ten-foot pry-bar hooked to the chain. It gave plenty of leverage - the only weak point was the bolt-heads stripping. When they did, we torched them. I suspect that the standard torque-setting of the bolts was not the only problem. Deere was having a corrosion problem with much of the new yellow equipment. Almost seems that much of the hardware had been dipped in salt or something. We had another recall on the 350Cs involving the fuel-injection pumps. I had to pull many new Stanadyne/Roosamaster pumps off and apart. The three little bolts that hold the pump top-cover on would often be seized (takes a 5/16" wrench). Steel bolts in an aluminum housing - with a little electrolysis from dissimilar metals plus moisture can get pretty bad. Many bolts broke off in the housings - even when heated first. So, on some we had to install new pump housings. For bolts to get that stuck on a new machine - Deere had some kind of problem going on. We were joking and cursing about it at the time - because we could take an old GP or B that had been out in the field for 50 years and the bolts would almost spin out by hand. Yet - this brand new crap had bolts breaking off instead of turning. Who knows? I heard the BS about acid-rain causing it - but the old tractors in the field were getting it just as much as the new stuff but did not suffer the same problems.

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Roy Suomi

06-06-2006 18:44:22




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 Re: John Deere 350C transmission in reply to jdemaris, 06-05-2006 06:14:02  
Hey jdemaris , don't forget about those broken top cover bolts on the 450 shift valve mod. I can't fathom how many bolts I had to drill out.. My first HLR job was on a straight 450 loader..Nobody told me about taking off the tanks or the loader.That was the worst job I think I ever did..I'm fleshy so I didn't fit between the loader and tanks very well....



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Roy Suomi

06-03-2006 19:35:49




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 Re: John Deere 350C transmission in reply to Alaska Jim, 06-03-2006 15:24:09  
To repair you will have to disassemble trans.You can swap out major housings as long as the donor is a C model as well...Most transmission problems arise from the shift quadrant not being centered correctly for the gears to fully engage..This is the plate that denotes the shift pattern in front of the seat..



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