Another JD Weak Spot

I have had some very poor luck with JDs lately. Now I have a 2030 that a less than honest seller brought to an auction. It wouldn't start and the note said that it needed carb work so nobody could check it out. We rebuilt the carb and ignition and got it going. It had a brake that didn't work and there was oil in the bell housing. None of this disclosed by the seller. We split it and they had ground the gears flat and welded them together. This pretty much wiped out the whole assembly and possibly the casting itself. Salvage yards want so much for the parts that I may have to scrap the tractor. They say these parts sell immediately so apparently this is one more John Deere weak spot. If anyone knows of a parked 2020, 2030 or similar with a bad motor or other issues, I could use a parts tractor to fix this one. Are there any other solutions to delete the two speed?

That engine is common to numerous tractors. Why not repair the high/low ? May as well replace the brake pads and wet pto/brake if so equipped.
Cavet Emptor.

Back then the Hi-Lo shift was optional and fairly expensive, so not very many of those tractors were equipped with that option.

Not sure the hi-lo is so much a weak spot as much as it is easy for a poor operator to ruin via pull starting the tractor and or running wrong hyd. fluid and not keeping it and the filters changed.
I repaired one in a 2840 the owner ruined from pull starting it instead of getting the starter fixed right away. Back then the parts for it were high and it was a close decision whether to part it out or not.

As I have said, when those are good they are great but when they are bad they are very bad. When I worked at the Deere dealership we sold a bunch of 2030/2630's and 40's most had Hi/lows and independent PTO's I learned to not like them from the very beginning,,a lot of weak areas even thou a lot of people on here like them I do not. The sealing area in the housing wear and allow for oil leakage in the hi/lows, along with many other areas which reduce the volume of charge oil, then the hydraulic system fails when they warm up. if it came with a hi/low you can't do away with very easily..It sounds like you have a junker,,and you would be ahead to cut your losses on it now before you pour a lot more money into it..

Thanks for the advice. I am thinking that I will junk it out. I am just afraid that the parts won't be worth much. It has a good gas engine, good rubber, and a canopy. I think they had a lot of oil cooler trouble too so that should be worth something. I just hope I can get my money out. I have no use for the tractor. I picked up a Kubota 6200 with cab and loader that I will be keeping.

Any way to make it work as one speed only, I've got one on 2555. My problem is I like geared trannys, not hydraulic ones.

B&D repairing that Hi-Low can easily cost $4-5K if the housing is worn.

And it will be worn....

Here are some pictures of the mess. Yes the housing is worn.

My 2640 came from a "very honest" fellow. Luckily I paid scrap price for it. One of the pinion gears in the high low unit was wiped out, broke the pin, went out through the drum and the pin had gone through the drum of the unit and was in the bottom of the trans. There was a double handfull of teeth and parts in the bottom when I split it. I ended up beating the drum of the high low unit back into shape and welding the hole up. Put all the "guts" on the shelf and purchased a used input shaft for a non hi-lo tractor. The shaft was the right length but posed an issue with sealing the trans oil in the trans. I put the shaft in the lath and polished it in the area that lines up with the front of the hi=lo drum and plundered Chicago Rawhide for a seal by dimensions and put a seal in the hi-lo drum. This allowed the PTO to continue to run off the drum as originally designed, kept the same charge pump, and totally eliminated all the guts of the hi-lo unit. 8 gears are enough. Occasionally wish hi-lo was there mowing but considering it costs $5K and was basically junk when new i like it setting on the shelf better. The tractor probably has 250 hours on it since the conversion and no issues associated with the trans.

Too nice tractor to junk, IMO. i like how they looked with the rack and pinion axles and the small fenders.
Call North81 tractor salvage in segwick, KS, they have quite a few of those laying around.
Get a bell housing plus the guts from a non-HiLo tractor and you will be good to go again.

If the tractor was in good shape it probably wouldn't have found it's way to the as is or junk auction. My advise would be to shop elsewhere and road test before buying....

Try shopping in Canada for parts. You will find that a lot of what you need is used in the 2120 tractor here. They were not marketed in the US.

Many consignment auctions are where people dump their junk. This auction is different. It is the huge auction in Marion SD. We have bought a lot of equipment there and they are as good as they come. Very, very honest folks who will take very good care of you. The auction was on a day last winter that was -15 deg and we stayed warm in school busses. They didn't start anything because of the extreme cold. The tractor had the owners name and phone number on it which usually means they aren't afraid to represent it. I had no intention of buying it and didn't even look at it in advance. It looked good and sold for $2,900 which I thought was very safe. I can tell you, I will never buy another JD utility without trying it first and probably not even then. This is three in a row with a variety of problems.

Galen - you sound like no longer interested in 2030s, but wanted to share that I have a good 2030 with everything but the motor. I let the motor run hot and now need to do a full rebuild. Would part with for cheap if interested. I recently rebuilt most of the rest of the tractor, and am devastated that let this happen, and am now considering rebuilding motor or selling for parts. In the meantime, have acquired a 4020...so not urgent that I fix this one.

What would you want for your 2030. I could sell you my motor to fix yours. Sounds like the two would make one good tractor.