I purchased my first crawler last week - a JD 1010 Crawler Loader and I love it! Happy to become part of the club.
Here we are coming home for the first time:
Unfortunately I already have a problem. While I was clearing some dirt I pulled the right steering lever back, felt it give, and no longer had steering on that side. The lever no longer had any resistance when pulling back.
Being a complete newb I assumed something major and expensive was wrong, but as I considered why there was a "give" and sudden failure it seemed less like the clutch or brakes. Sure enough, when I took the seat off and inspected the components I was met with a steering lever that had completely fractured at the steering lever shaft.
It looks like it had broken previously and somebody had welded the lever directly to the shaft.
I had broken the welds and snapped the bolt when I pulled back.
I tried JB Weld first and then an actual metal butt weld but there is high stress on this point when clamping and neither held. (Though it could be my weld was crap since it was my first weld ever.)
Do you know of a strong solution to this or any spare levers I could buy? I guess welding a plate on the side of it would hold, but that seems kind of ugly. Strangely the left lever has a different clamp design.
On the bright side, my brakes were weak or nonexistent and all the reading of the service manual helped me figure out I could make some adjustments in each of the clutch housings/the brake rod yoke to get my brakes back. The manual is amazing!
