# Never ending battle with the farm pro 2425



## tcptyler (Dec 10, 2021)

To start off, if you buy used, you are buying other people’s problems. But, you can sometimes get things super cheap and by the grace of God, you get something good. We bought a used farm pro 2425 tractor with a koyker 160 loader. Everything worked great until we started to actually use it on a weekly basis for the starting homestead. Of course, the first issue we had ran into was the hydraulic hoses dry rotting. Not a big deal, easy fix. But, now we are starting to run into some issues.

First things first, the most important and concerning issue is the steering column. We recently had to get the steering box rebuilt since it was catching and clicking at center position. It’s repaired and steering well, however, now the steering column lifts out of place. And I’m meaning, you can lift the full length of the steering column up to the corkscrew gear that goes into the steering box. There has got to be something missing like a clip of some sort. I have looked it over, my dad, and my grandfather. Neither of us can find a way to fix it. It never had this issue until we took off the steering column. I feel that there may be something simple that we are missing, but you never know with these cheap Asian tractors.

Second, there are electrical issues. There’s nothing wrong with the plugs and what not, but none of the gauges work, which includes the fuel, battery, tachometer, temperature, and oil pressure. Also, none of the accessories work, which includes the front headlights (low and high beam), rear light, rear turn signals, and horn. This all happened all of a sudden. There has not been any electrical work done to the tractor, nothing changed or modified, and still factory. The weird thing is when you turn the key to crank the engine, if the clutch is not pushed in, the horn will sound. Not a clue how or why, but it does. All of the fuses are good, I don’t need any signs of corrosion nor evidence of rodents nesting or chewing. Really, the fuel and temperature gauges are the most important. Sometimes it’s hard to find a clean stick or rod to dip the tank and the temperature is kind of obvious.

Lastly, which is the least important but would be great to have working, is the positive traction. Since day one, the lever for positive traction has not worked. It is like it is seized. It is stuck disengaged. The lever that goes to it is bent from trying to engage it. We have tried out of gear, in gear, 2x4, 4x4, low and high in between gear selection, engine off, but to no prevail. It would be nice to have for pulling or pushing something heavy but not a huge necessity since we have an excavator.

One last thing, it is stuck in 4x4. I don’t remember when then happened, but it’s stuck. I mean, we need it all the time anyways since the ground is soft or muddy, but it is stuck. You can push it down as hard as you can where it feels like the lever will break. Of course, we have tried out of gear, in gear, low and high in between gear selection, engine off, but still, to no prevail. Not the end of the world on that.

Summary, has anyone experienced this or know a way to repair this? The electrical, I am tempted to redo all the gauges as a custom cluster and run custom electrical but it would be nice to not do that so things remain factory. Positive traction would be great, but not 100% a major issue that needs fixed immediately. Also, could that possibly be linked to the 4x4 being stuck engaged? Most and foremost, the steering column needs fixed. You have to be careful not to bump the steering wheel when getting on or off the tractor so it doesn’t come out of the steering box. If it does, you just have to keep spinning and working it until it falls into place. Please let me know if you have any solutions or ideas. Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated!


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## FredM (Nov 18, 2015)

tcptyler said:


> To start off, if you buy used, you are buying other people’s problems. But, you can sometimes get things super cheap and by the grace of God, you get something good. We bought a used farm pro 2425 tractor with a koyker 160 loader. Everything worked great until we started to actually use it on a weekly basis for the starting homestead. Of course, the first issue we had ran into was the hydraulic hoses dry rotting. Not a big deal, easy fix. But, now we are starting to run into some issues.
> 
> First things first, the most important and concerning issue is the steering column. We recently had to get the steering box rebuilt since it was catching and clicking at center position. It’s repaired and steering well, however, now the steering column lifts out of place. And I’m meaning, you can lift the full length of the steering column up to the corkscrew gear that goes into the steering box. There has got to be something missing like a clip of some sort. I have looked it over, my dad, and my grandfather. Neither of us can find a way to fix it. It never had this issue until we took off the steering column. I feel that there may be something simple that we are missing, but you never know with these cheap Asian tractors.
> 
> ...



tcptyler, Welcome to the forum,

First up, how about a couple of photos of where the steering column goes into the steering box ??, might help to be able to see the problem, the fact that the gauges are not working points to an open in the wiring circuit, be it fuses that you haven't picked up on or a main power feed wire has gone open and this will effect the lights too, you will have to poke around a bit and look, do a clean of all wiring connections from battery to connections and chassis, even the connections under the dash.

You mention positive traction, would this be the diff lock by chance??, have you tried to lube the shafts and connections and the same for the 4WD lever, have you tried reversing a little to see if the 4WD lever will dis-engage??, does sound like the tractor needs some TLC, does it sit out in the weather at all times??.

If you don't have a shop manual for your machine, then you need one with the wiring schematics to be able to fault trace and to also see what the electrical circuits entail.

Do you own a multimeter, something you need when fault finding electrical problems, even the ignition switch could be your problem, so many ifs and buts, you will have to check each circuit seperately.


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## tcptyler (Dec 10, 2021)

Hi there. Thank you for the quick response! I rarely get this on forums.

Anyhow, I’ll try to get some pictures in the morning. I’m not sure how difficult that will be since there is a column that the steering column sits in and the steering box is pretty much enclosed except to expose the hydraulic connections.

I honestly did not even think about the ignition switch. I completely forgot that it had issues a while back. I have an extra one I’ll swap it out with before really digging around into the electrical. Pretty much everything is covered under the dash which is made of thin fiberglass. I’ve checked with my multimeter to see if there is any voltage going to the fuses, and there is. I haven’t tried the continuity setting yet to see if there are any open circuits, but that will require unbolting and removing the dash which I am weary of.

The positive traction would indeed be the rear diff lock. I do not believe there is a front diff lock on this model. Looking at the rear underneath, I do not need any leaks and the seals/gaskets seem to be completely in tact. It makes me wonder if something may have broke inside where the diff lock is. Same with the 4WD. I wonder if we (my father, grandfather, or I) ran drove the tractor as certain way causing something to tighten up and prevent the 4WD from disengaging (I.e. the front wheels spinning but the rear wheels digging in the ground) if that makes any sense. Dad does often take advantage of the split brake system since he does not have the strength to depress both brake petals at the same time. It makes me wonder if that could cause an issue such as binding?

The tractor definitely needs some TLC. We try to keep it out of the direct weather as much as possible. Unfortunately, the barn is not finished to store the tractor in, but the shed (without walls) that we have been using did protect it a lot from some of the harsher elements. There are several components starting to show their age. Not saying that the previous owner didn’t take care of it, but it could have been taken better care of. I’ll have to check with Jinma for a shop manual.


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## FredM (Nov 18, 2015)

Have a look at this schematic to see if it matches your machine, if it does, then your electrical's are of the simple kind and shouldn't take much to straighten out, save this to desktop on either a laptop or desktop computer so you can enlarge the graphics, bearing in mind that the description at the bottom will distort a bit, but it is better than nothing.

It sometimes helps to backup the tractor to release either the diff lock or 4WD lever engagements.

When the 4WD is engaged, it might seem like the front wheel is spinning different to the rear wheel, next time you drive the machine and you get wheel slip, notice that if a front lets go, then a rear must also let go too, it is all tied up in the gearing and front drive shaft.

I wasn't being facetious about the TLC bit, I was trying to find out if the machine sat out in the open or under a roof, what you explained is quite ok, being out in the weather would create rust in the pivot points for the 4WD and diff lock shafts, gotta ask questions to try and help.

Later, I will attach a steering box drawing for you to have a look at, see if it is the same as yours.


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