2012 XUV 550 front drive shaft.

Hello everyone. i am having a problem with my gator. The front drive line keeps ripping out the carrier bearing that is below the seat. the first one happened with 80 hours on the machine. the second 3 hour later. I'am on shaft 3 witch has just torn out the seal. JD has looked at it and is trying to find a solution . Has anyone else had this problem ? Also I have had an issue with being hard to shift . i mean to the point of that you must shut it off to shift from fwd to reverse is that adjustable?

The difficulty shifting is well known. It's a problem with the drive clutch sticking and not fully releasing. JD has a revised clutch to help address the problem. I mentioned it to my dealer and they had me bring it in. A couple days later I had my Gator back with a new drive/primary clutch for no charge.

The front drive shaft and bearing is a new one on me. Mine has always had a noticeable bearing and shaft noise but I'm only up to about 60 hours. How is your bearing "ripping out"? Is the bearing housing breaking or is the frame where it mounts cracking?

From what I have seen it tears out the seal in the bearing then dirt/mud does the rest to destroy the ball bearingsJohn Deere jas done a lot of photos and even had some one come down to take a look. We think it is an alignment problem but not quite sure yet.I hope we find a solution I really love my gator. ... thanks I will ask about the clutch fix.

How old is your machine? If it's pretty new you may already have the upgraded primary clutch. Mine was assembled in the summer of 2012 so it had the older style.

I also had my primary clutch along with secondary replaced and so far so good! My 550 S4 wouldn't come out of 4WD but a few feet then it came out with a clunk. This is the reason they replaced the secondary. Everything is now working great. I love my 550 S4 it does everything I ask it to but I'm not too hard to please :Seya: