range of possibilities - 674 high range issues

tipper

Member
I didn't really want to start a new thread, but the last thread sort of took a slant toward the PTO issue--which has been fully resolved.

Now...range!

Low and reverse work just fine. There isn't too much to that. A gear slides into position and you either have forward or reverse. Easy enough. High, for the life of me, is not working right.

First, a little background: When I bought the tractor the guy told me it didn't have high, and he removed the linkage because it would jump out of high range while moving along. I looked at him a little funny because there was no mention of this before I drove the 2 hours to look at the tractor. He said he thought high worked when he got it, but then it didn't after he had the motor done. Or something like that. Well, I bought the tractor anyway.

Somewhere along the way, someone cut the quadrant where high range would be. The slot ended up about an inch lower than the low range forward slot--which is about 2 inches lower than it should be. Having no linkage, I couldn't really do too much to see what was going on. I did once try to put it in high with my hand, and it would work for a while until it would magically pop out of high. Having just my hand on the lever, I couldn't do too much to hold it, and I thought, perhaps, that the leverage of the actual shift mechanism might do something to hold it. Well, getting tired of waiting on the linkage to arrive in the mail, I found a salvage quadrant and rod for the high range. When they showed up, the rod was the other (low range) rod, and the quadrant looked about right. I removed the jam nut from the rod, and screwed the clevis on until I could line everything up and seemingly engage all the gears in the range transmission. All excited, I jumped on the tractor for a spin around the yard, and shortly after departing, the range shifter shot up out of high. I can't hold it in high with my hand, and honestly, I don't want to. It should stay itself.

When I had the MCV removed, I took a look inside the housing where the collar slides onto the main shaft. Nothing really looked weird. Then again, this is my first 674. The collar would move forward, and I could not rock the tractor. That is about the extent of my testing while looking at it.

So, anyone ever run into this? I have not read of anyone else having any range issues. I've heard the shifters on these tractors can get lose, but I would not expect a worn bushing to cause the collar to be shot off the main shaft. I could see this being caused by a loose/worn bearing on the mainshaft, but I wouldn't expect low, rev, and the entire speed transmission to be so trouble free if that were the case. The only missing piece I see on the shifter is the spring on the range lever, but again, I can't see how that could be a problem.

Any thoughts/suggestions/tests I could do would be appreciated, and thanks in advance.
 

Let's hope. I played around with the tractor some today. It was rainy and in the 40s, but I couldn't resist. I hooked up my dad's CY60 and killed some small trees to test out the newly functioning PTO. It was good to actually use the tractor for something, and now I need to hunt up a good 6 foot mower for it. Most of my mowing is around trees/in brush, and a 72" would fit this tractor perfectly. Anything bigger would probably get beat to hell in short order with me running it into a tree or something.

The other thing I noticed I need to do is build a skid plate to protect the steering cylinder and lines. I had not looked at it, but the hydraulic line (at least on my tractor) just kind of hangs right there waiting to get caught in something. I think I have some steel that would work, and I might even have a little plan for how to do it. If the rain lets up tomorrow, something may happen. Perhaps.
 
Detail about how high seems to act--

I was able to drive about 4 miles down the road in 4 high just a bit ago. The road isn't perfectly smooth (I am out in deep east texas), but there were no major bumps. I kept my hand on the shifter when I realized it just might not pop out. When I turned on to a less well maintained road with holes, it would pop out. With some pressure on the lever, it would usually go back in as fast as it came out. There was a reasonably loud pop as the collar engaged and disengaged, and as soon as I noticed it doing this, I went ahead and put it in low. I am going to try and replace all the pins and the single bushing on the high range linkage. Hopefully the wear and general sloppiness is letting the collar move just enough to get thrown off the main shaft.
 

I have the same problem with my 674. It started popping out of high range....now it will not go in high range. What was the solution?
 

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