310-8 Won't move under load

[bluelinehiway 8]

I have a 1986 310-8 that is my all around work tractor. Couple days back, I drove it up the small hill to my barn and the tractor (under load and uphill) stopped moving. Engine was not impacted by the incident, so I towed it up to the garage to look at what may be wrong. I pulled the body work to first check the idler pulley and all seems good. Yesterday, I wanted to see the operation with the bodywork removed so I started the tractor, and backed it out of the garage. Worked fine, so I drove it down the small hill and the tractor operated fine. However, when I tried to turn it around to drive back up to the garage, the tractor wouldn't move and when put into gear, I got a small shudder out of the right rear wheel yet no movement. Unitrac oil seems at level and not burnt. I did notice the rear wheels had migrated to the inner portion of the axles (up against the tranny body). Could the wheel hubs be binding against the trans?

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Tom

[Lagersolut 613]

First I'd pull that loose hub and check the key - if you have an oil seal out on that axle the hub will move doesn't matter how tight you make it .  You may have sheared a key - check the inner hub for wear .

Second, look at your clutch/tension/ idler pulley - on my 310-8 I had an adjustable stop the clutch pulley would hit preventing full tension on the belt - I could run around the yard all day no problems , try to pull a plow or wagon it would stop .

Took mine off,  I want full tension on my belt - I think it was a safety feature to prevent jump starts from accidentally popping the clutch. 

[boovuc 1,090]

I have two of the 310-8's and the newer one has that d@*n adjustable stop. Betting that's the issue because I have to "adjust" mine again from last fall.
(It may just be totally adjusted this time)!

[Lagersolut 613]

I have two of the 310-8's and the newer one has that d@*n adjustable stop. Betting that's the issue because I have to "adjust" mine again from last fall.
(It may just be totally adjusted this time)!

Took my stop completely off so I could plow ....and left it off .

[can whlvr 991]

sure sounds like the hub key,the hubs should not move

[bluelinehiway 8]

Ok...raining outside here in Akron so I decided to re-engage repair diagnosis of the 310-8 after hearing from the above posters and thumbing through the tranny section of the forums. I checked and could not find a idler pulley stop so I removed that solution from my review (and believe me when I say I had hoped this fix was the solution). I saw that in one of the forum topics was a mention of the rear wheel set screws and the woodruff key. Jacked the rear end up and pulled the wheels to find that on the left side axle, the end of the axle had split at the edge of the keyway. The right side found that the woodruff key had fallen out at some time. Apparently, both rear wheels were "free rolling" when a load was put on the tractor and the wheels/hubs were not tightly attached to the axles.

I'm hoping that I can weld the piece back onto the axle and grind it down so the left hub can fit. On the right side, because the hub is cobbed up inside the keyway, I'm probably going to have to replace the hub itself.

Thanks for the responses and the help.

Tom

[Ed Kennell 35,602]

http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/topic/56859-key-way-fix/

Here is the link to an axle repair that I made.  Yours is much worse though, and I would recommend replacing the axles and hubs.

If the hubs only have one set screw on the keyway, I would add the second one @‌ 90 degrees , and use hardened square head bolts with locknuts, not socket head set screws. Edited June 30, 2015 by ekennell

[bluelinehiway 8]

Nice repair to reform the keyway. Did you fix the axle this year and have you tried it out on the tractor.

[bluelinehiway 8]

Just a quick thought...Guy I know has a C-160 tranny (unknown year) with the 8 speed. Is this tranny a bolt in exchange with the one in my 1986 310-8? I have a 1967 1067 that I could swap out the tranny but to me, the 1067 and the 310 trannys don't seem to be "similar".

[Ed Kennell 35,602]

  have you tried it out on the tractor ?
 

Nope, no test on the axle yet. 

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

Both transaxles will bolt up. The 1067 will probably have a different brake drum shaft location and would complicate things by needing extra parts. The 1067 may have a different pulley size arrangement as well as it was the first year for the 6/8 speed.

Also your transmission MAY have 1" axles and the c-160 will have 1.125" so be sure to get the hubs with it. If you arent in a hurry, you could tear down yours and replace any worn gears and bearings too while you are at it. Axles should be easy to get and relatively inexpensive. Replace all the seals on the transmission no matter which way you go and you should be rolling for many years to come!

[bluelinehiway 8]

OK...so to speed things up and get my work tractor back to work, I contacted the Craigslist seller and went out and bought one of his UniDrives. Seller provided new rear hubs to fit the larger axles so I felt pretty good about the sale. Took it home, cleaned it up, changed the gear oil, and replaced all the fasteners that needed replaced. Seller said the trans came out of a working tractor and it seemed to be solid. Installed the C-160 tranny and found out near the end of the install that the drive belt shaft on the tranny was 1" long versus the 1.25" long shaft on my old unit. The 6" pulley was too wide to fit the installed used unit. Seller said that to his knowledge, the unit had not been rebuilt. Anyone hear of a 1" drive pulley on these UniDrives? Is there a pulley that is supposed to fit a 1" long shaft? Seller seemed genuinely surprised and offered to trade another unit for this one but now I'm a little skeptical on flipping out this unit for another from his inventory. Seller seems to be a serious WH collector and a nice guy, but maybe I should rebuild the old unit.
Any suggestions or ideas?