JD 544......need schooling

Hey guys, I need some education here. I've been tasked with sorting out a problem 544E (I think E). My understanding is that for a couple of years JD put a German ZF transmission in these machines, and they are rather troublesome. I have one coming in that is supposed to have a bad ZF. The owner has the idea that since JD went to the ZF, then after a couple of bad years, went back to Allison, the natural question (ha!) is, what, if any, transmission swap can be done to get a ZF machine back to an Allison? And if this is possible, I'll be looking for sources for a proper swap-in.

Or is this a fool's errand?

t

Got another odd swap question, but it's on a Volvo excavator engine. New thread coming. Several more projects popping up. I may never get to that Kobelco....until it gets cold and rainy (for Texas anyway).

I've got 25k hour 544G machines (3 of them) with ZF transmissions, that have never been touched, save for a seal or two.

heymccall, so in general, your experience and opinion is that ZF's are not problematic? I don't have the experience to have an opinion. Just going from the owner's thoughts. If they are well supported, I might be able to persuade him to just rebuild/repair this one. Don't know.

ZF in my Deere 544GTC have been pretty awesome.
ZF in my Terex TA40 is a real piece of work.

As for your "ZF back to Allison", I dunno. I think even my 544K has a ZF. It was Terex that went Allison, ZF, Allison.

The ZF transmissions I have been around have been really good! The biggest issue is most don’t know how to troubleshoot problems with them. It takes some special tooling and good information and knowledge to rebuild them properly. If you have no experience with them, I would send it out. There is a company that I have used for years in Butler, Missouri called Centranz. They have done excellent work and are knowledgeable with the ZF trannys. They can also provide you with troubleshooting information that is priceless.

What he ^^^^^said. Deere has and still uses ZF since the "E" series. Another company to try and I have had good luck with them is OEM Replacement Parts. They specialize in Deere transmissions (ZF) and they are out of Texas. See link:

https://oemreplaceme.com/

So the consensus here is that if this machine has a ZF, it should be fixed rather than some attempt made at a retrofit? Even if that were possible.

I'll get the machine number and confirm the facts. I'm just going off of verbal at this point. Haven't laid eyes on it.

OK....this machine is missing ID tags, so I can't tell much about it. Dealer says only option was ZF on the E. Finally got complaint from owner. Other than overloading (moving houses???) and slipping/burned clutch, just won't move after warmup. It is a manual trans.
Plans at this point are to pull the trans, take care of clutch, flywheel, etc. and at least open up trans for a peek, but probably send for rebuild/exchange. Otherwise, reports are the machine ran fine. Guess we will see in a few days. Have to transport it to the shop.

Thanks all who chimed in so far, and I'll keep this running until I get to the real problem.

90% of my 544 doesn't move well complaints are due to low oil level in the transmission. The hoses for the cooler harden over time and leech oil at the hose clamp connection.

heymccall, it's hard to say on this one. Since it has been overloaded while using it in too high a gear range, it doesn't seem like it would be oil level related. But it's easy enough to check. And if they tell me it moves ok until it warms up, yes I could see it being low oil level. Low oil gets hot, thin, and won't perform. This I'm basing on a torque converter system as well as a hydrostatic. Leak check is easy enough. But I plan on letting the transport guys move it to the shop (yes, another broke down machine sitting out in the weather), and going from there. We have a man who does all the washdowns, so at least there's a chance I'll get a clean look at it.

Before pulling tranny customer should perform a few pressure tests. Could share an operators Manual per email. Guess, it is a 4 WG 120 or 150. Please confirm.
Oil level needs to be set with engine idling.
A clearer description of failure behaviour would help.

BigBert, I appreciate that. I'll try tomorrow to determine exactly which trans it is. The machine tags have been removed, so if there is a way to tell by external features I'd like to know what to look for. And I'll get more details on failure mode if I can. That operator is long gone.
I've got no tech lit on this machine at all. Sort of working blind here. The battery has been removed so I can't crank it to see any symptoms for myself without hustling up a battery from another machine. Could be done, but got a pretty full schedule this week, what's left of it.

Well, had an awful day, just made it in 1900 hr. Flat on FR. Easy change on truck, equipped BUT, spare was shot. Not looked at it ages. Soft and rotten. So it went about a mile then shredded. Managed to reset bead the old fashioned way on the first flat, but the leak was too fast so it wouldn't make it. All this happened about 3 miles from the shop. Ended up on a wrecker, but have towing. More aggravating than anything, but it was time to be home and cooled off.

But I do have the labels from the machine. Not sure why I couldn't see them first time around. Thought they were removed, but I was just staring at the wrong places I guess kind of like a Monday. It was late in the day, I was hot and tired.....probably mood had something to do with it.

Anyway, the Engine SN is T06059T380673 Model 6059TDW02 (not entirely sure of last digit "2". painted over and I didn't have anything to scrape with. I can post a picture if anyone wants to take a look at it.
Trans numbers are: 4WG-150 8176
PARTS LIST: 4642 054 019 TOTAL RATIO: 3.897-0.629
OP-PRESSURE (bar):15+2
T-CONVERTER TYPE: 4168 030 081

Again, can post pics of the plates if something isn't clear or doesn't look right. Thanks for any help on this one.
t

Hi Tony,
Yep, the ZF 4 WG 150 is wellknown product.
Usually very reliable and robust. Again, could get you an operators manual by email.

For your records, based on your engine serial number, your machine serial number is DW544ED538074.

BigBert, I sent you a private msg with email address. Many thanks for the kind offer.

mg2361, thanks for that. I'll add it to my notes on this machine and if I have a chance, I'll try to locate it again and if not I'll stamp it or make up a tag. I'm sure I won't be the last guy to work on it.

On these transmissions, is it common to have just the torque converter fail (from abuse), or is there an underlying cause that would kill the torque converter?