JD 310SE Rear Diff Problems

[C.Alford]

I am in the middle of pulling the housing out and appart with much regret... Any slight turn left or right while under power causes snaps and pops and the rear end binds telling me that there is something caught in the spider / side gears in the diff. Pulled the plug and got metal chunks off the bottom.

Any one have any experience gutting one of these monsters or know of any good parts sources other than JD dealers.

Any help would be greatly apriciated.

[Deere John]

If you don't have it, you can buy the Tech Manual from John Deere in about 15 minutes time and less than $100. Their web site sells the manual downloads.

The procedure is completely detailed in there. I have a C series, so I'm of little use here.

Good luck.

[C.Alford]

WOW, Talk about taking it up the poop shoot...


If you have an E model 310 you might want to take some time to check this out.

In spare time drop outriggers, pull rear wheels off and grab the wheel flange of the axle shaft and feel for any in and out play in the shaft. Fix it before you end up like me.

My Problem:

Cause:
1/8 in roll pin either installed improperly upon assembly or sheered off during operation. Roll pin is locking pin to keep the axle nut from backing off, just like on a 4x4 front wheel bearing there is a large slotted lock nut that holds the inner bearing on the shaft. If this tiny roll pin does not do its job the nut will back off and there will be play in the outer axle assembly. Mine had less than ¼ in of play that caused the rest of my problems…

Effect:
This play will transfer then through the planetary stub shaft headed to the center of the of the diff assembly. There is very little clearance between the end of the stub shaft and the cross pins in the carrier, my stub shaft was riding on the cross pin, there by side loading the cross pins. They in turn side loaded the side gear witch over time broke the keyway ears off of the lubricating thrust washer behind the side gear. This is where the fun starts. Any and all side loading is now transferred directly to the carrier housing witch is the softest metal out of all internals. Normal operations then spun out the carrier to the point that the spider gears were so far out of tolerance that they were riding on the edge of themselves and breaking teeth.

Repair:
In my case all spiders and washers were damaged as well as one side gear and the carrier. JD has since reworked the carrier assembly and the new assembly requires that you use all these new parts as well as the new design posi side gear and posi slider. In my case adding an extra $680 to what I already had to spend anyway. Totlal on parts only was over $3000!!!!

However I do still feel lucky that I found this as soon as I did, fortunately the Ring and Pinion are not damaged with all the metal bouncing around, that would have been another $2000 just for the gear set.

Merry Christmas John Deere :(:notworthy

[Countryboy]

Sorry to hear that but like you said there could've been even more damage if you had found it later.

Great follow-up though. :drinkup

[Deere John]

I saw something similar with a Massey model 50 industrial tractor recently. Both the cause and the damage were similar, but most parts were available used: I think the fellow fixed it for under $1,000 himself.

I'll be checking mine tomorrow - thanks for all the detail.

John in North Bay - where forestry feeds my family.