Fastest Way To Break Your Yanmar

Over the past 25 years of selling Yanmar parts we've seen all sorts of things happen to tractors. Below are some of the top most common ways we have seen people break their Yanmar.

Sharing
"Sharing is caring and it can be fun!" is a wonderful lesson for children, a beautiful philosophy for life, and an excellent way to make friends. Go ahead and share a book. Share a board game. Share a frosty beverage. Share your feelings—if your into that sort of thing. But, please, do NOT share your tractor.

Handing over the keys of an expensive & complicated piece of equipment to an untrained amateur is a recipe for disaster. I have lost count of how many phone calls to our parts department begin with the phrase, "So, I let my former friend borrow my tractor..."

My approach to sharing any of my machinery is this:  I'm always happy to share anything I own... but I'm coming along to operate it. 

Run Without Oil
This one seems obvious but keep in mind that there are other places that need oil besides the engine. Your 4wd gearbox, steering gearbox, and transmission also need oil, clean oil,  and of the correct type. Run any of these without clean oil and they won't last long. 

Overheat
Overheating an engine is one of those things that can happen very quickly and often happens to even the best-maintained equipment.  I can't count how many times I have had my eye glued on a temperature gauge and looked away for just a couple of minutes, only to look back and notice the gauge in the red. This can happen for a variety of reasons but grass clogging the front of the radiator is the most common and seems to happen the fastest. 

If your tractor still has only the warning light you have even less advanced notice. Your first indication that there is a problem is usually the light telling you that you are currently overheated and that's too late in my opinion. I strongly recommend replacing your warning light or  as it's often called, "idiot light" with a gauge and even add a loud buzzer or horn wired to the temperature light to get your attention. 

Air Filter
It's easy to overlook the importance of a clean air filter. People often think if the air filter gets clogged you will just lose some horsepower but no real harm will come to the engine. The reality is that once the filter starts to clog, the engine's suction will find the path of least resistance and start to pull dirty air from anywhere it can, including around the filter piping or from any gaps in the seal around the air filter. Dust is incredibly abrasive and, in just a couple of hours of running with a leaking air filter, you can cause catastrophic piston ring and cylinder wall damage. 

4wd When Not Needed
We've all got things to do and no one likes to stop and shift in and out of four-wheel drive all of the time but using the tractor in four-wheel drive on surfaces where four-wheel drive is not required is extremely hard on the drivetrain. When the tractor is in four-wheel drive, the front and rear axle are mechanically locked together. Tractor tires are almost never perfectly matched and, if they aren't, one set of tires will move further for every rotation than the other... which is why sometimes you have to roll the tractor or steer left or right in order to engage or disengage the four-wheel drive. If you are on a surface where four-wheel drive is needed, that's not a problem because the tires can easily slip and transfer that extra distance.  The faster you go and the better traction those tires have, the more load is being put on your four-wheel drive axle and drivetrain. Save your drivetrain and only use four-wheel drive when it's needed and only in slower speeds. 

Diff Lock When One Tire Is Spinning
One of the fastest ways to find the weak link in your drive train is to press down on the differential lock pedal while one tire is spinning.  This typically happens when someone is stuck in the mud with one tire is spinning. They realize, 'Hey let's use the differential lock and get out of here" and they smash down the pedal without letting the tire stop spinning. This puts an incredible shock load on the rear axle shafts, gears, and the brake stub axle shafts and you will quickly find the weak link in the system. 

There are, of course, other ways to break your tractor but these are the most common that we see almost daily. If you have a suggestion for this list, please email us and we will get it added.