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NH 555e backhoe with shuttle shift stuck in 3rd gear

DPB

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Joined
Dec 24, 2023
Messages
11
Location
Nashville Tennessee
NH 555e backhoe with shuttle shift stuck in 3rd gear. The backhoe drives without any weird noise. I have searched online, but I can't find anyone else that has had this problem.
 

cosmaar1

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May 14, 2020
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524
Location
Ohio
When you say stuck, can you describe what you mean? Will pulling back the shifter not make it go into neutral, 2nd, or 4th?
 

DPB

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Dec 24, 2023
Messages
11
Location
Nashville Tennessee
The shifter will not move. It doesn't matter if the machine is running or not. I just bought it as is ,so I don't know what happened to cause it
 

DPB

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Joined
Dec 24, 2023
Messages
11
Location
Nashville Tennessee
When you say stuck, can you describe what you mean? Will pulling back the shifter not make it go into neutral, 2nd, or 4th?
The shifter will not move. It doesn't matter if the machine is running or not. I just bought it as is ,so I don't know what happened to cause it
 

Tinkerer

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May 21, 2009
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The shore of the illinois river USA
Remove the gear shift cover. Use a steel bar and try to move the the rail that the gear shift lever. operates.
It it doesn't move you will prolly need to remove the shift rails see what the problem is.
It is common on high hour machines that the shift lever will get bound up on worn shift rails along with a shift lever.
I see that the NH online parts book is useless just like a lot of the Case Construction parts books.
I was able to see the 555E parts book on Messick's website.
Use the DIAGRAM toggle box to navigate between the pages.

 
Last edited:

rumblecloud

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Just curious about any history you may have on the machine: hours, serial number, etc.. Take some pics and post them when you get a chance.
 

DPB

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Joined
Dec 24, 2023
Messages
11
Location
Nashville Tennessee
Remove the gear shift cover. Use a steel bar and try to move the the rail that the gear shift lever. operates.
It it doesn't move you will prolly need to remove the shift rails see what the problem is.
It is common on high hour machines that the shift lever will get bound up on worn shift rails along with a shift lever.
I see that the NH online parts book is useless just like a lot of the Case Construction parts books.
I was able to see the 555E parts book on Messick's website.
Use the DIAGRAM toggle box to navigate between the pages.

I was hoping to hear it could be something simple like that. I ordered a repair manual for it. The machine has 7000 hrs on it. When I open it up I will check it out with a inspection scope,, but I will not be able to work on it until after the first of the year
 

rumblecloud

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Living the dream...:]
Good looking unit. Front forks on the bucket with teeth. Is that a 4-in-1 bucket?
My # is 031003413, circa '97-ish.
Welcome aboard.
r
 

NH575E

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Dec 30, 2015
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Decent looking machine. Hopefully it will work out for you.

Unfortunately it looks like the shift forks and rails are deep inside the trans. I would try to lean on it a little before tearing it down. Here are a few screen shots from the parts and service manual.

power-shuttle-1.jpgpower-shuttle-2.jpgpower-shuttle-3.jpg
 

DPB

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Joined
Dec 24, 2023
Messages
11
Location
Nashville Tennessee
Good looking unit. Front forks on the bucket with teeth. Is that a 4-in-1 bucket?
My # is 031003413, circa '97-ish.
Welcome aboard.
r
Yes ,it is a 4-in-1 bucket,, it also has a manual thumb on the hoe. It's going to quit a few hoses, lost 2 just lifting up the front bucket to load it on a trailer. The 4 front loader cylinders are going to need to be repacked,, and the boom swing cylinders.
 

NH575E

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Might get it unstuck by heating it up good and jerk on it a little while pumping the throttle pedal up and down. Don't try to shift it into gear without putting the forward reverse lever in neutral or pushing the release button if it works. Should be able to come out of gear.
 

Swetz

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Oct 31, 2019
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NJ/PA
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Electric & Gas Company
when you are ready to do they cylinders, do a search here. Most of the NH E-series guys on here have hade a hand at dealing with them.

As NH575E said, try to get it to shift by manhandling it a bit. Alternative is some work. Good news is you dont need to split the machine in order to remove that trans. On the older machines, you had to split the machine to remove the trans.
 

DPB

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2023
Messages
11
Location
Nashville Tennessee
Might get it unstuck by heating it up good and jerk on it a little while pumping the throttle pedal up and down. Don't try to shift it into gear without putting the forward reverse lever in neutral or pushing the release button if it works. Should be able to come out of gear.
I raised the machine and tried but no success. One thing I noticed was, the shifter placement doesn't seem to correlate to the gear it's in IMG_20231225_092052686.jpg
 

Swetz

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See the pics below. When the machine is in neutral, the tip of the shifter should be down in the middle as shown. Because you are saying that the shifter doesnt coincide with the proper location, it is possible that the tip of the shifter somehow got out of place. Once you take the shifter off, you should see the 2 half cutout pieces as shown in the top drawing below. It is possible that these are not like shown. If possible, you could use a screwdriver to pry them back in line with each other. I say id possible, because I am not sure about your access when installed in your machine.
1703524151738.jpeg
 

DPB

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Joined
Dec 24, 2023
Messages
11
Location
Nashville Tennessee
Thank you all for the advice.. I will not be able to do anything else with the backhoe until after the first of the year,, by then my repair manual should be here. I will be sure to post here my findings after I pull the shifter and check it out with a inspection scope.
 

DPB

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Joined
Dec 24, 2023
Messages
11
Location
Nashville Tennessee
Hi everyone,, I cleaned very well and pulled the gearshifter assembly. I used a screwdriver and shifted the gear manually. It shifted like nothing was wrong , smooth and I didn't have to force it. I put it all back together and now it shifts fine. The previous owner said that he took it to the dealership,,, the only thing I can think of is they put the shifter assembly in wrong
 

Check Break

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Jan 21, 2012
Messages
469
Location
USA
The previous owner said that he took it to the dealership,,, the only thing I can think of is they put the shifter assembly in wrong
Impossible. You know their best tech did the work on your machine. We once had a guy in the shop we named Cooter. Took him a while to figure out why we gave him that nickname.
 

Swetz

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Hi everyone,, I cleaned very well and pulled the gearshifter assembly. I used a screwdriver and shifted the gear manually. It shifted like nothing was wrong , smooth and I didn't have to force it. I put it all back together and now it shifts fine. The previous owner said that he took it to the dealership,,, the only thing I can think of is they put the shifter assembly in wrong
I didn't know that a Technician (using the term loosely) was working on it, but when you said that the shifter was not moving in relation to the gear pattern, I was thinking it was out of its normal position. I am really glad that you got it fixed up, and better yet, I love the price...don't get used to it...LOL

BTW...Thanks for the follow up. Many take advise and disappear, and we never know what was actually wrong.
 
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