# Brand new clutch failed after 71 hours



## farmgirl21 (Mar 23, 2021)

I am on my 2nd clutch on my Mahindra 1533 shuttle. First one only got 292 hours and now the second one got 71 hours. Of course Mahindra and the dealer is trying to say operator error. The hubby and I are the only 2 that operate it and I grew up on manual clutches (motorcycles, tractors, lawn mowers, trucks), so I am no stranger to proper usage. I can't help but feel we got a junk part (that we waited 4 months on from India during covid), a bad installation or there is something else out of alignment or wrong that is making the clutch wear down so quick. 

Both times before the clutch failed the tractor wouldn't come out of forward. You would move the shifter to neutral and let of the clutch and it would lunge forward because it never came out of forward. The dealership said it was a linkage adjustment. Could this being out of alignment have caused wear on the clutch? Shouldn't the dealer have made that adjustment after putting the new clutch on? 

Both times the dealer keeps trying to put us in an a new HST, saying for the work we do it would be a better fit. We mow and till in long straight paths! We have maybe done a total of 10 hours of FEL with this tractor since we have owned it. I know they say your tractor is only as good as the dealer and up until the clutch issues the dealer has been good. 

Anyone have any words of advice on things we should look at that could be causing the wear on the clutch outside of operator error? I read on this forum where a cracked linkage was the root problem to another member's multiple failed clutch issues. 

A side note: This tractor has an ECU issue that every time the battery is unhooked the hours reset to zero. Mahindra cannot explain it or fix it. I am starting to feel like we got the factory reject.


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## sixbales (May 18, 2011)

Hello Farmgirl21, welcome to the tractor forum.

It may be a simple matter of adjusting the clutch linkage. Push the clutch pedal down with your hand till you feel the throwout bearing contact the pressure plate fingers. This is called "free play", and should be about 1". Your clutch linkage should have a clevis link in it. Remove the clevis pin and adjust the clevis till you get about one inch free play. 

Both you and your husband should make a conscious effort to keep your foot off of the clutch pedal. I do this all the time.


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## farmgirl21 (Mar 23, 2021)

sixbales said:


> Hello Farmgirl21, welcome to the tractor forum.
> 
> It may be a simple matter of adjusting the clutch linkage. Push the clutch pedal down with your hand till you feel the throwout bearing contact the pressure plate fingers. This is called "free play", and should be about 1". Your clutch linkage should have a clevis link in it. Remove the clevis pin and adjust the clevis till you get about one inch free play.
> 
> Both you and your husband should make a conscious effort to keep your foot off of the clutch pedal. I do this all the time.


Thanks for the reply sixbales. Unfortunately we know all about the adjustments and both times only got 1 adjustment before the clutch went out. The last time we got 1 hour of work after the adjustment before failure. 

Also, after the $1900 repair bill, trust us we made a conscious effort to keep our foot off the clutch. Like I said I am no stranger to a manual clutch so I know it was not operator error. 

We are heading to the dealer now to see the damage, take pictures and talk to the tech so hopefully we will have more answers than questions.


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## farmgirl21 (Mar 23, 2021)

UPDATE: So we are thinking there is a connection between the ECU issue and the clutches burning up. The 1st clutch burnt up within 52 hours of the ECU "failing" and resetting metered hours back to zero. The 2nd clutch burnt up within 71 hours of being replaced. I pressed the dealer about the ECU connection and what does it actually control on our tractor. Come to find out like a car it does control engine temperature and load as well as engine speed (measured at the flywheel and the cam drive gear). Both times before the clutch failed the engine speed would vary on a straight away already in gear and moving. After some digging on the internet I also found that there was a recall on the ECU in 2017 that we were never informed about to reprogram the ECU on all 1533/1538/2538/2540 tractors. 

At the end of the day we can no longer trust this tractor to not burn up clutches and nobody seems interested in figuring out why outside of blaming operator error, which is sad and insulting. We are the same 2 operators who managed to get 292 hours before the clutch burnt up the 1st time. We are the same 2 operators that put on 53 hours on a loaner shuttle from the dealer and didn't burn up the clutch but give us back our tractor that we are used to operating and we burn the clutch up in 71 hours!?


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

My only comment is off it and buy yourself a good used pre 4 unit. I won't touch any Post 4 tractor. If you take good care of them like I do, a pre 4 unit will outlast you whereas a post 4 unit you never know when it will expire. I have a 2004 M900 I bought new and a 2002 M9000 I bought used and both units not only look new, they run like new too.


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## Lawrence Luther (Oct 3, 2021)

farmgirl21 said:


> I am on my 2nd clutch on my Mahindra 1533 shuttle. First one only got 292 hours and now the second one got 71 hours. Of course Mahindra and the dealer is trying to say operator error. The hubby and I are the only 2 that operate it and I grew up on manual clutches (motorcycles, tractors, lawn mowers, trucks), so I am no stranger to proper usage. I can't help but feel we got a junk part (that we waited 4 months on from India during covid), a bad installation or there is something else out of alignment or wrong that is making the clutch wear down so quick.
> 
> Both times before the clutch failed the tractor wouldn't come out of forward. You would move the shifter to neutral and let of the clutch and it would lunge forward because it never came out of forward. The dealership said it was a linkage adjustment. Could this being out of alignment have caused wear on the clutch? Shouldn't the dealer have made that adjustment after putting the new clutch on?
> 
> ...


I bought a Mahindra 6010 HST cab and the clutch has burned out on just under 400 hours. My previous smaller Japanese tractor had over 2,000 hours and never a clutch problem. Something is definitely wrong with the way Mahi dra does clutches. I'm going to try to sell it back to the dealer and take a terrible hit, and then go buy another brand.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

I won't have ANY tractor with a dry clutch, no exceptions and for what I do with mine an HST won't work either so my only choice is a wet pack transmission. Both my M9's have a wet pack as a clutch for the travelling gears. Pretty much bulletproof and my one has just over 6000 hours on it and I've never even had to adjust the lockup pressure. For me, it's the only way to fly Kubota Hydraulic Shuttle. Great for loader work too. Instant forward and reverse and though it has a clutch pedal, the pedal only controls the pack lockup and unlock. Only time I really use the clutch is when upshifting or downshifting the main transmission.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

Quite a few Kubota Hydraulic Shuttle tractors on Tractor House this week in all power ranges I might add. While I prefer the older pre 4 units, Kubota still offers the hydraulic shuttle option in new ones as well. The hydraulic shuttle is as close as you can get to a dry clutch gear transmission minus the parasitic loss of an HST and the what I consider the wonky pedal of the HST units.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

Don't need to worry about riding the clutch pedal either as the clutch pedal on a hydraulic shuttle transmission only connects to the fluid proportioning valve so 'riding the clutch' really has no physical impact at all, unlike a dry clutch where riding the pedal causes premature wear of the throwout bearing. There isn't one.

The only thing in the bellhousing of a hydraulic shuttle tractor is a damper plate (which is essentially a clutch disc with no clutch facings and all it does is reduce the shock load of directional changes to the crankshaft because directional changes under load (as in loader work) causes the proportioning valve to apply lockup pressure quicker. The valve 'senses' the load imposed on the gearbox and modulates the wet pack accordingly.

Pretty neat system that really only requires clean hydraulic fluid (as in recommended changes) and no physical input from you. The wet pack can be slipped (partial engagement) with no adversarial impact what so ever, just like wet brakes. Once the plates are initially broken in when new, there is almost no wear taking place.

I won't run anything else.


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## unsquidly (Jul 13, 2021)

Lawrence Luther said:


> I bought a Mahindra 6010 HST cab and the clutch has burned out on just under 400 hours. My previous smaller Japanese tractor had over 2,000 hours and never a clutch problem. Something is definitely wrong with the way Mahi dra does clutches. I'm going to try to sell it back to the dealer and take a terrible hit, and then go buy another brand.



The more I hear about Mahindra and their dealers the more I am glad that I passed them up when I bought my last two tractors........Sounds like they are big on advertising but nothing else.....


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

Said a thousand times or more, it's not the brand of tractor that is important. It's the DEALER, lest with new units. Old pre owned units, the dealer isn't important. Getting parts to repair them is.


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