John Deere X300 Rebuild

I have an X380 I bought new. It has the 54” deck. It is a cutting son of gun machine. I have 260 hours and I’m on my third deck belt, second deck PTO belt, and original drive belt. Blackberries flatted my fronts with about 14 holes each side. Tubes aren’t compatible. Carlisle turfmaster tires are a fortune. I used the fix a flat juice that Les Schwab sells and it worked great. I don’t like the Kawasaki FV741 at all and wish a Kohler Command had won the OEM contract. But the machine cuts great if I continuously check and set the deck leveling to spec. Sharp blades really help keep the rpm’s up. Enjoy.

 

I’ve had good luck with OEM Deere mower parts from this site: GreenPartStore - John Deere Parts and More - Parts for John Deere Lawn Tractors, John Deere Lawn & Garden Tractors, John Deere Mowers, John Deere Attachments, John Deere Accessories

 

Wow that looks like an amazing amount of fun (and work) you got going on there! My blades were almost seized actually because of plastic bags caught up in the shaft. I'll have to take them off and get rid of the junk. Pics below.

Thanks for the link!

 

So there's good news and bad news.

Good news is the Harbor freight Mini tire changer is amazing. I put the first tire on in like 2 minutes and the second in about 30 seconds.

Bad news is two fold.

When I engage the PTO for the mower it stalled the engine. Tried a few times and then it broke free.

Well I should have looked at the mower blades becase both shafts were bound up with plastic bags. Yikes.

The worse news is my original suspicion was that the tranny was leaking oil because it was all over it and it was full of cakes on oily dirt. When I tried to move absolutely nothing happened. No bindings no revs, no nuttin'.

I made sure the freewheeling lever was in the proper all the way pushed in position. When I had out the tires on I spun one side and the other spun the opposite way. Both sides did this and I made sure the keyway was installed properly. With only 128 hours on it I'd be willing to bet it just needs a seal kit and some oil. And it was probably leaking from being neglected and left uncovered for the last 8 years outside.

 

Good to know about the tire changer, I'm ordering one right now!
Something to check, on my Husky I had a similar situation and it turned out the built up grass was keeping the parking brake from fully disengaging. I couldn't tell by the pedal when sitting on it, but that last 1/4" is what engaged the drive belt. I hope its something simple like that.

 

Yeah it would have been handy to remove the tire too. Here's a pic with the handle and the part that pushes down on the sidewall to break the seal on the bead for removals. I ended up using a 10lb small sledge and dinged up the rim both times.

 

Thanks will check that. The other thing I think it could be is the pulley on top of the trans is stripped. The metal on the pulley is way softer than the splined shaft connected to the trans and is designed to strip out if something catches - i.e. plastic bags in the mower blades. But again with the oil on the outside of the trans it's probably low on oil.

The other cool thing about the tire changer is you can just slip it into a vise if you have one....or you can mount it permanently on a bench using the included base if you have the space.

 

Ok I got good news.......no check that GREAT news......and a little bit of bad news.

The great news is.....I pulled the tranny, put the frame on jackstands, dumped the oil......and lo and behold it only had 1/2 a quart in there.

Picked up a new spring washer that goes between the pulley and the fan, and 2 gallons of JD Hy-gard high viscosity. This is a K46BR Tuff Torq tranny and that's the alternative that is listed on the TT website.

Filled it, then spun the spin with my drill. The drill teeth couldn't grip it but if I jammed it in there I was able to spin the shaft and whammo, the wheels moved in forward and reverse.

Plugged it and let it sit and did other things and then I noticed the driver side (hahaha) left side axle seal was leaking hydraulic fluid.

I ordered two axle seals, the fill plug, and the nut with the spindle threads cut into it so I can spin the shaft of the tranny properly plus $9 in shipping for a total of $25.

So far I've spent:

$80 on a battery
$7 on a fuel filter
$130 on new rear tires
$75 on 2 gallons of hygard tranny fluid (I like having extra)
$3 on that spring washer (what a rip off)
$12 on an assorted snap ring set
$25 on the axle seals, fill plug, and nut.
$60 on the mini tire changer.
$5 on a 2-pack of valve stems.

So just under $400 and I think that's gonna cover it. I do need to make sure it's not leaking anywhere else but I think we're good to go.

I think I know what happened here. When the mower blades got clogged up with the plastic bags, it put a lot of strain on the drive belt which in turn led to way lower rpms on the fan resulting in overheating of the tranny. The fluid puked out of the seals and probably the vent......and then the guy just let it sit there and gave up on it.

I took apart the front fascia too - the hood is cracked all over the place in terms of the mounting bolts. I'll try JB weld. A friend suggested CA glue and baking soda. I don't know which will work better.

Btw Naptha is an amazing solvent for removing gorilla tape glue residue. That's what the PO used to hold the headlight fascia in place.

Jackstands. Safety first!



Rolled the tranny right out. Used a long screwdriver to hold it level heh heh.



This thing was filthy!



Here's the crap I pulled out of the mower blade shafts.



Super low fluid!



The stuff that came out was half dirty and half clean while it was coming out.





Today's work area.



Plastic scraper + naptha + rag + elbow grease worked out really well.



Broken clips.



Left side axle leaking fluid.



Looking good after getting all that glue off!



I took some video footage too but am too tired to edit tonight.

 

So far so good! That's going to a be a nice lawn tractor for that price. Hard to believe that plastic bag could cause so much damage, I'll have to look out for that.

 

Great work and thanks for the insight on the tire changer. I’ve been thinking of getting one of those.

 

The tire changer does work great but is it in fact fair to add it to your total cost?
Your other tools that you used aren't factored in.
Just saying.....

 

Yeah I should have been more diligent and checked the mower deck but I initially thought it would be a terrible hassle to remove the deck....but it turns out it is quite easy and no tools needed except a flat head screwdriver to pop out the front support from the bracket after you remove the clip. Just a could of spring clips in the back and the whole thing slides right out.

It literally stalled the engine the minute I engaged the PTO and I was like "Uh oh......." but luckily it worked out. Now I have to look up a video on how to sharpen a mower blade on the deck because my 18v Makita impact hammer doesn't have enough oomph to spin the nut off. I did soak it in PB blaster though so maybe it will break free.

It definitely got the job done. While it isn't a high quality tool it seems solid enough for the task at hand and it certainly saved me some time and aggravation. It also made it easy to repair the dings I put in the lip of the rim and I wouldn't have even had dings had I had the tool in the first place as it has a handle that you push the tire down to pop it off the bead.

Well you could argue it both ways...but I bought specifically for this purpose.....and while I had been thinking about it.....I hadn't purchased it until I needed it..... But it has basically paid for itself. Although I will say that the last time my tire went flat on the snowblower from just sitting around I brought it to the tire shop and they just removed the schrader valve and blasted it with air and then the tire just reseated itself (I was uninformed back then) and didn't charge me anything. But that wasn't mounting of a tire on a rim. They would have charged me at least $20 per tire now. So I would have had to pay one way or another and why not just pay for a tool that can be used multiple times in the future!

 

Thanks! Yeah well some people with $$$ just don't care. It's sad. They can just go and buy another one.

It didn't move at all because there wasn't enough oil in there. The oil that came out was not filled with any visible chunks of metal which is a good sign. It did have signs of minute metal but overall I'd say I was surprised it looked as good as it did. The magnet at the fill plug was clean too.

According to the Taryl video I think I can just replace the axle seal from the outside using a small pick or screwdriver. I was considering a rebuild but I wanted to check the oil level first....and since the wheels now turn when I spin the shaft of the tranny I'm going to put it all back together (tranny really wasn't hard to remove) and see what's what. Check for leaks, perhaps change the engine oil as well after a short while to flush all the old oil out, and then try and decide what to do with it. If I can find a snowblower, plow attachment, and/or garden cart for cheap I may just keep it for a long, long time.

 

What is typical on a hydro trans is that you can replace the dust seals from the outside...but these don't hold the oil in...and the high pressure oil seals are installed internally.

 

Here's the only other pic I have of the oil. Also dealing with the crappy hood plastic. Serious design flaw....or perhaps they designed it to fail on purpose so you'd have to buy new hoods.

The fluid is leaking but I would not say it's pouring out. Only happens when the axle is rotated.



The plastic tabs are all broken - green and black - so now I'm considering just using the fiberglass reinforced bondo and shoving it where the green meets the black. The angles are all wrong here for my original idea of using a rivet. There isn't enough meat or contact between the two pieces. Horrible, horrible design. I thought I still had a can of the aforementioned bondo but unfortunately I only have the gold version which is for the final layer.

The other option I thought of was to use Premium PL polyurethane glue. That's a bit more liquidy and while it will get into the nooks and crannies a bit easier it might make a helluva mess.

 

Yeah I did order a two axle seals and the fill plug.

According to the parts diagram and the videos I watched, it is only the external seal part #72 below.