nils

i have a 1998 john deere 1070 diesel tractor. I use it for snow removal and yesterday i discovered the front wheel drive no longer works. the lever seems to move normally, but the front wheels no longer pull. So consequently, i have gotten it stuck and it is basically useless in snow moving w/o the front wheel drive. What could be the problem?

Thomas

I start at the lever work my to case..check for springs,pins etc. make sure in place.

Jack the front up and spin tires..listen for odd noises both in and out of 4wd.

nils

thanks for the response, will give this a look.

2jdeeres

I have a 4310 that had a bad end on the shaft to drive the front end. It had the same symptom as yours, the dealer I bought it at replaced it. Took less than an hour.

nils

have found out it is the shaft to the front end, $500 part and supposedly 1-2 hrs to replace. This tractor has less than 350 hrs on it, it is used to pull a 5' tiller in the summer for deer plots and sometimes digging rocks out of the ground. In the winter moving snow out of the
driveway (that's mostly where the front wheel drive comes in handy). I asked the shop what caused the shaft to wear out and they had no idea. Any thots out there?

ErnieS

Do you move the snow with a blade or loader? Bashing full tilt into a pile of snow is pretty hard on stuff.

nils

i use the loader and the blade, but i'm going at low speeds not hitting any banks hard. mostly pushing,pulling and dumping the snow. however, digging up rocks and moving does require more power and tension on the front bucket. But most of the time the front end is off the ground when digging rocks. i've heard that jd is a cheap tractor(but expensively priced).

ErnieS

The JD compacts are essentially Yanmars with better marketing and very expensive paint.