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4WD working or not
I was going to buy a Ford 1700. 2 cylinder dieselwith 4WD. I wanted to be sure the 4WD worked so I ran the bucket into a pile of dirt, lifted the front end off the ground, and spun the rear wheels, expecting to see the front wheels turn. Nothing happened. I don't know if this is an operator problem or a 4WD Problem. Any one out there understand how this thing should work ? Many thanks!
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4WD working or not
You are correct that the fronts should be turning when you do what you described....but the truth is that it is hard to tell by looking if they are turning under power or not when the front end is up. For one thing, when the front end is up in the air then only one tire will be turning, and which one it is will shift back and forth. It can be hard to tell if you are in 4wd. The 4wd engagement levers also have a distressing habit of falling out of engagement without your noticing.
I can always tell if I am in 4wd when I go up my steep dry dirt driveway carrying the FEL bucket full of sand. In 2wd it will go up a ways and then start to spin the rear tires. In 4wd it will walk up without spinning a tire at all.
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The 4wd always is engaged when the tractor is stopped. The clutch is pushed in and the 4wd lever is gently pulled up. The lever travels upward a few inches and there is a definite feeling that something engaged. If the drive won't engage easily, the clutch can be 'tickled' with the TX in gear to realign the differential gear. If engagement is still difficult, the front wheels can be lifted with the loader to release any front axle wind-up. If the 4wd lever travels more than a few inches or if there is no 'clunk' of engagement, then the linkage probably is gone. Otherwise, the drive end probably is the problem.
I suspected the 4wd on my 1710 wasn't working when the tractor wouldn't pull a box scraper doing light ditching touch-up work. I verified it was shot by putting the loader bucket against a big tree and letting the wheels spin a bit in low gear and at low idle rpm. I couldn't see either front wheel spin, and there weren’t any tire marks under the front wheels. Turned out the linkage was broken at the differential end due to DPO abuse. The abuse should have been obvious when I bought the tractor since the 4wh lever had been welded back onto its collar (crappy weld too), but I probably would have bought the tractor even if I noticed.
In my case, the 4wd lever moved almost to a vertical position. There was the feeling of 'parts working' but no engagement 'clunk.' If the lever had entirely 'free-wheeled,' I would have suspected the linkage was disconnected near the top and considered taking off the TX top-cover for a look (a new gasket would have been needed). However, the feel was that most of the linkage was connected and I'm not set up to do major tear-downs, so off it went to the dealer. Assuming the 1700 is similar to my 1710: Most 4wd failures create sizable repair bills. Not much is accessible without a considerable tear-down. The differential assembly has to be removed to access most of the linkage, and the front end has to be removed to access the drive end. It was a sizable repair bill.
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Tom,
Thanks for the quick response. My 4WD lever moves up about 2 to 3 inches. It has a "detent" feeling but no real engagement "clunk". I will now try tickling the clutch a little while in gear and see if I can get an engagement. I figured anything to do with repairing the 4WD would be big $.
Appreciate your help.
Bill
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Roger,
Thanks for the fast response. I had the feeling that my "test" wasn't the best way to check the 4WD. However, I had neither wheel turning. Might have gotten better resjults if I had tried to hold one. A full bucket of sand woulld probably be enough to lift the weight off the back end and it should slip pretty easy. That will be my next attempt.
Appreciate your help.
Bill
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One of my Yanmars has a slight mechanical feeling to the 4wd engagement lever and the other one doesn't. On the one which doesn't, I can throw the lever with one finger and it might as well be connected to a marshmallow for all the "feeling" it has. Certainly it doesn't make any clunk coming in or out of 4wd. Nor is tickling the clutch necessary to make it go either way. In fact on that tractor you can move the lever back and forth pretty much as you wish regardless of what the tractor is doing and the only result is that the front tires begin to drive or not.
On the other tractor I can tell when the 4wd lever is engaged by the "feel" of the lever as it moves the gears. If I am real rough with it I can make it lurch or grind....but if you just let up on the throttle it shifts easily.
On either tractor I usually have to look at the position of the lever to make sure if I'm in 4wd or not....or like I said it is obvious when doing certain types of work.
If I really wanted to find out for sure if 4wd was working or not, I'd put the rear on blocks so that the rear tires were a few inches in the air. Then I'd gingerly see if the fronts would pull the tractor off the blocks.
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Roger,
Blocking the rear wheels up a little sounds like a good test for the FWD.
That will be one the next tries.
Thanks.
Bill
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Put loader flat on ground, lift front-end off ground, back up as if you were leveling gravel, if its in 4wd the front tires will be turning. David
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David,
Thank you. I am getting an education on Ford tractors. Does your method work on all 4WD rigs or just this type? I guess this type is called assisted 4WD.
Either way, this is a simple test and I'll give it a shot.
Thanks again.
Bill
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I just thought of a possible problem with any method that involves lifting the front end and seeing if the front tires are turning. Suppose that there was a broken front drive shaft. The broken ends of the shaft might still be capable of rotating the tires when there wasn't a load on them, but not when they should be pulling the tractor.
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