Low power

[Dug]

Have a JD 2510 gasser, runs fine but slows down going up hills. She will come to a stop in third gear on a relatively slight grade, then after a minute start moving again. Was told it is the clutch. If so, the tractor has to be split...what kind of world of hurt am I in for?

 

[Anonymous-0]

If this is a synchro-range tractor, then yes, you're more than likely looking at clutch replacement. Especially if you've let it sit there and slip for a "minute" waiting for it to take off again. Occasionally a slipping clutch can be repaired by adjusting it, but I doubt that's anywhere near possible in your case, if it slips in a low gear like 3rd. The lower the gear, the better the clutch should hold because of the gear ratios involved and the engine's advantage vs. moving the tractor. Usually a clutch will slip in higher gears but hold good enough to get around in the lower gears. What are you looking at? Just what you were told, more than likely. Splitting the tractor, removing the clutch, possibly machining or even replacing the flywheel, since there is a maximum distance they can be machined before being unsalvageable, and trying to cheat with one cut too far is inviting trouble. With everything on hand and barring the need for machine work, a competent mechanic can do a complete clutch job on a New Gen tractor in a good long day, give or take. Items like loaders, cabs and the like add time, obviously. If you need a lot of new parts, it's pretty easy to dump a couple grand in a clutch replacement in a big hurry. What you'll spend depends on what you need for parts, where you buy them, who does the work and what they charge per hour. You're much better off to pay a little more to someone that knows what they're doing than someone that works cheap and ends up redoing the job one or more times. And all of the clutch parts should be checked, don't just replace the disks. Look at the pressure plates, fingers, actuating bearings, release bolts, the screws the PTO fingers push against - all of it. And for sure put a new rear main crankshaft seal and transmission input seal in while you're there. And definitely make sure that the new clutch is proper adjusted. The fingers have to be properly set with a special gauge, and then also make sure to adjust the free travel to specs using the proper procedure when it's running again. Deere usually recommends something like checking free travel with the engine running at 1900 rpm, etc. Clutches do wear out - there's no getting around that. But if you didn't keep it properly adjusted, you contributed to the failure.

 

[Dug]

Thanks for the info, G/MAN.