what to do John Deere 8440

[alfa2]

Should I repair or scrap? recently my 8440 had a catastrophic clutch failure it is currently at dealer's in 4 pieces I currently have 5K in disassembly and diagnosis looking at 30-32 to put it back together We use the tractor mainly for pushing and packing silage and for spreading manure. Tractor has a Deere reman select engine w/ 1600 hrs put new tires on back (4)my problem is the investment to make it whole I would have a 35 year old tractor worth about 20 without the blade but to replace it with a newer unit w/ powershift would be cost prohibitive w/$17 milk. My son thinks we should go with a newer unit not necessarily green I am tempted to go with a straight frame using a smaller blade and try to keep the 4960 available to pack also or repair the 8440. I apologize for the length of post thanks in advance for advice,Dick

 

[NY 986]

Is the reman engine a 50 series? I saw a 8630 sell this spring for 9500 that had the original engine, worn tires, and worn general appearance. I am thinking that w/o a 50 series engine that your tractor in running condition is worth 13-15 thousand. More with a 50 series engine. In my opinion a good condition 30 or 40 series 4wd articulate with 50 series engine is preferable for lots of heavy tillage work over a 50 series row crop tractor.

 

[tim s]

I wish you had it here I would cut that labor down to a third and still smile about the job. I don't mind working on these, I have an 8440 coming in next month with a bad engine.

 

[Jeff Leavitt]

How hard would it be for either Alfa2 or you, TimS, to bundle up the "pieces" and bring it to you? For the savings in labor in this job it might be worthwhile for both of you, Alfa2 and TimS. Just my thoughts.

 

[NY 986]

The problem is that Alfa2 is already into the dealer for 5,000 dollars labor. If Alfa2 wanted to take the tractor elsewhere the shop would still bill its normal rate per hour to get the tractor out of that shop which would most likely be several hours or several hundred dollars. Then there would be trucking for that 8440 which would be 4 dollars per loaded mile with that 8440 eating up a good portion of the deck so nothing else can be loaded to help with the cost. I would say at this point Alfa2 is stuck plus unless he does not care or the dealer does not care that bridge will be burned.

 

[NY 986]

I figure Tim S is around 350 miles away from me so to truck my 8430 if I chose would be 2800 dollars round trip at 4 dollars per loaded mile. I would love to have Tim S do my work but for the distance it would have to be small jobs such as rebuilding SCV's and such that could be done via UPS.

 

[tim s]

Yes, that's the Heck of it, you already have the dealer with his teeth into you and the trucking would be too costly. The dealers around here over charge greatly on jobs like this to send a lesson out to others that it's better to buy new...I charge a fair price, do honest repairs and stay busy,,and it still supports my habits of eating daily and sleeping indoors...

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 12:24:41 06/06/15) .I charge a fair price, do honest repairs and stay busy,,and it still supports my habits of eating daily and sleeping indoors...

Tim
You left out the loonnnggg road trips and 60C!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

 

[tim s]

Every one has a few bad habits,,,,

 

[bernieinva]

Hey Tim, Were you going to post some pictures from your trip? Always like the pictures on here that everyone posts. Seems Walt used to post a lot of pictures on here but haven't seen any in awhile.
Bernie

 

[tim s]

I imported them all, but when I went to post them they were too big to post, Darn it,,so now I will have to go through each one and down size it,,I'm still gonna do it, but I'm near as good as Walt is at it,,I'm cooking on my Rantual project now,, I am almost ready to start sharing some build pics of it...

 

[IowaJohn]

I can't wait to see that.

 

[ss55]

"looking at 30-32 to put it back together".

Is that $3000-$3200 or $30K-$32K? It all depends on how much tractor that remaining "30-32" will buy you. If it's $3000 I would finish the repair. You could easily have to put that much into a different used tractor of that size. If it's $30K I probably stop all work on it, sell it to a scrapper "as-is" in pieces off the dealer's lot and replace the tractor. Use the salvage money to pay off some of the bill at the dealer.

 

[alfa2]

(quoted from post at 07:01:51 06/06/15) I wish you had it here I would cut that labor down to a third and still smile about the job. I don't mind working on these, I have an 8440 coming in next month with a bad engine.

Tim I wish you were closer by the way those coupling kits work great

 

[MSM]

You didn't say what was torn up or how bad.Why not put back together with used hard parts, new discs and seals. Should be plenty of 84's in salvage yards. This is assuming your dealer will work with you and not gouge you on labor since you didn't buy all the parts from him, but that doesn't sound like its going to happen. He really took you for dis assembly labor. That works out to 40-45 hrs, about 2-3 times what it should be If you sell it for salvage now in pieces,you may get $6-7500 if the yard feels generous. You are basically selling 4 tires and a good engine and 12000lbs of scrap metal, and I'm sure the dealer won't load it out for free.If you go the new to you tractor route,you should be able to pick up a decent Steiger with a blade for about 1/2 of what the dealer quoted you to fix yours.

 

[Mark-Ia]

Can you replace it for that and know what you have afterwards?

 

[tim s]

I think he spoke of a clutch failure, which is rare in these tractors, with time the square "checks" on the disc will shell of clogging the front sump screen,,and at times it will put a little blueing on a solid disc, which won't hurt anything,, the Hi/Low planetary is the weak link in the power chain. My guess is the Deere shop "trumped' up the failures to this High level,,I see it all the time at the Mega dealer in my area,,this is the same as Stealing in my book..

 

[pete 23]

I would haul it out of that shop and never go back in there. I worked for an outfit like that for four years after my former boss of 33 years retired and sold it to a malfeasance. Actually left a CASEIH shop and went to Deere shop and did some work on those tractors. Yaa, some spendy repairs but nothing even closely related to that. Three thousand dollars hauling fees could end up being a very good deal.

 

[tim s]

I could write a book about these kind of deals,,It makes me mad and sad when I hear about them. A loyal customer goes to a dealer expecting to get honest help with a problem, like in the old days, and end up getting robbed instead... I have a deal like that out back now, a young guy bought a used 4640, the head gasket was a bit wet so he took it to the Mega dealer, they pulled the head, told him it needed a new engine,, then of course a clutch assembly,, and a water pump,,and all the labor, he walked away with a $21,000 bill which he had to refinance the tractor for, now it's setting here with a cracked final drive housing...another guy took a 4960 in to the dealer last fall with transmission issues, 4 weeks latter they called him to tell him it was done, when he got there he found the bill to be $43,000,,he had no clue till then...another re-financing to get the tractor back...the list goes on and on...They are trying to preach that new should be bought instead of repair..this is "Shock Therapy"...