John Deere Gator

Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
1,906
Location
Vermont
An older Gator followed me home last week on my trailer. It's a little on the crusty side and the info tag is missing so I don't even know what year it is but I suspect that it's from the late '90s. It's got a single cylinder air cooled Kawasaki engine that starts and runs great but the transmission pops out of gear unless physically held in place.

I found a thread on a Deere forum where a guy had the same trans issue and the fix involved removing the transmission but it didn't seem too bad. The hour meter shows nearly 2300 hours so I don't need to worry about the break-in procedure. It also has a functioning electric dump bed which is handy.

I plan to use Rotella T6 in the engine and 90 weight gear oil in the trans unless there is a compelling reason not to. I picked this up cheap and I'm not sure if it's a keeper or not and I won't start working on it until it gets a bit warmer here in New England. Here are a couple pics.

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The transmission linkage that attaches to the top of the tranny has a tendency to slip/strip. I had to replace that piece on my workplace unit.

The recommended tranny fluid is John Deere Hygard. 90 wt. gear oil seems to be much too thick. The newer manuals even recommend the low-vis Hygard for winter conditions, but I run the regular Hygard year around. I use 10W30 engine oil year round.

You should be able to determine the year through the engine serial number and John Deere has excellent parts and manuals on their site (a bit difficult to navigate). Contact me if you want OEM direct replacement seats (no logo) at half the dealer cost.
 
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You may only need to adjust the linkage to pull the transmission lever a little farther.
Thanks for the input and that would be an easy fix but it pops out of gear in forward and reverse. With 2300 hours, it's probably been jammed into gear thousands of times and I won't know for sure until I get into it but I think that 14 is the main culprit and maybe 29 & 17 will need to be replaced as well.
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