Yes, You Can Service Your John Deere L-Series Transmission
If you own an L-Series John Deere (I own an L-2048 while my dad owns an L-130) you might have noticed that the manual says the transmission is “sealed” and that it is “not user serviceable.” I took that to mean that if anything went wrong with the transmission, you had to replace it because it couldn’t be fixed.
Well, that’s not entirely true. Since last summer my L-2048 had great difficulty going up hills after it warmed up. In searching about the problem online it was definitely related to the transmission and not something cheap and relatively simple like the drive belt. (More on that in a bit.) So I started pricing a new transmission. They’re about $600, not including the installation. Ouch!
However, I came across these instructions on changing the oil in the transmission. Those that have tried it solved their “can’t climb hills” problem. So I decided to give it a try and it worked.
It took me about two+ hours mostly because I was by myself (it would have been awesome to have someone help me drop down and lift up the transmission into the tractor) and because I didn’t really know what I was doing. Now that I’ve done it once, I’d guess the entire job could be done in about an hour. In fact, I’d guess it would be easier than changing the drive belt. Mostly because to change the drive belt you have to disconnect and remove the steering column.
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