L175 - Can't Shift Into Gear (when running)

[Digityman]

Hello Orange World -
I'm rather new to everything orange but learning and enjoying. Thank you for this site and all of the information/videos. Nice to be part of a community.

I purchased my first Kubota L175 (1972ish?) back in March from a gentlemen that had 3 of them up north. He hated to let it go but I think the wife made him. I promised I would take good care of it. In the 5 months I've owned it, I've fixed a frozen fuel line and some other little stuff but now have another (bigger) issue.

Was moving logs with my forks/bucket and parked it after finishing for the day. Everything was working fine. 24 hours later I came out to move some logs. Started the tractor and it won't shift into gear. With clutch depressed, it just grinds. I tried switching between high/low and it makes no difference. I checked the pedal linkage and it's adjusted all the way out (previous owner?) so I can't adjust there.

I haven't checked the transmission fluid level (doing that tonight hopefully) but as I was reading other posts, I had a thought it could be broken clutch arm? Does that sound right? Anything else that anybody can think of before I send it off to be fixed? I don't have $1200 for some to split it, don't have the time do it myself with a new little one and winter is coming fast. If I have to send it out, does $1200 sound right?

Any help or even suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers
Digity for Freeport, ME

 

[Curbster]

Hello there, I also have an older 185DT that I recently had to change the clutch in. There is an inspection plate on the right side that allows you to see inside the clutch housing. Assuming you have one of these, take it off and have a long look see inside with a good light. Have someone step on the clutch and you can see first hand if it is working like it is supposed to, or not. In my case you could easily see all the broken parts of the clutch plate on the bottom of the housing so we knew it was "new clutch" time. If you can see that every thing is sliding back and forth on the shaft when you press the clutch pedal, I would bet on a fried clutch disk or similar problem.
As for the price of someone else taking it apart for you, I couldn't say with any certainty if that is a good deal or not. Different prices here in Canada. Also, I'm sure that all of the "wise" ones on this site can give you a much better method of determining exactly what the problem is, but hopefully this might give you a start.
There are many articles archived on this site regarding clutch problems, so you might want to do a search on this site for clutch information.
Good Luck
PS - I did my own clutch with a little help from a friend so it can't be too hard

 

[small&mighty99]

Did you try shifting it into gear while not running? or lower to an idle while trying to shift into gear? I experience similar issue, while Bushhoging for 3 straight hours, the clutch got hot and started slipping a little,
so I put it into nuetural shut-r-down to rest for a while, went back about 4 hour later to put the tractor up and after starting it and attempt to put into gear I heard as you stated the grinding of gears, I figured the clutch disc had heated up so and froze itself to the plate, kinda like a disc brake would to a rotor, so I simply put it into gear and try to starting it over and sure enough
the starter rolled the tractor just enough to free up the clutch plate, this was the first and last time it had ever done this,..... Note:... I was sitting on the tractor while starting it over, one should never try starting in gear without being seated on the tractor first,
Not to say this is your problem, but only very similar circumstances,
could be in fact in need of new clutch disc & plate, after all is 38'sh year old tractor,