Quadrive Drill PDC 18/4 stiff gear selection

[Goboxy]

Hi I am new but have a few Festools but my year old quadrive drill has a very stiff gear change selection, I have sent it back for repair and a new selector appears to be fitted, but only a tiny bit better.  Oh and apart from try to collect from registered address and then delivering it back to the registered address rather than the collection and delivery address despite being on the repair order!!!!

Anyone else experienced stiff gears???

Goboxy

 

[Wuffles]

Same since new, getting into 3 from anywhere else is a lottery.

 

[Doug S]

There was a thread recently about stiff gears on PDC drill, you do have to blip the trigger to help them mesh in. Mine not always happy on speed 1.

Doug

 

[Staniam]

Squeezing the trigger and switching to the gear does it quickly. It's like driving a stick, gotta put the clutch in. Only happens on 3 but it's only a loss of a second or two.

 

[Wuffles]

Squeezing the trigger and switching to the gear does it quickly. It's like driving a stick, gotta put the clutch in. Only happens on 3 but it's only a loss of a second or two.

Not as fun as the game I've made of it.

 

[KolinP]

(I've just found this post ...)

Yes! I'm (ironically) glad mine isn't the only PDC 18 with this glitch, although mine isn't so bad (yet) that I'd want to send it back to Festool.

I've discovered the 'blip on the trigger' trick, which helps, and in the meantime when I've got the drill within reach and I'm otherwise idle, I'm contriving to click between gears a few times, hoping that this will eventually 'smooth off' the (apparent) rough edges on the relevant gearbox parts. (Is that a bit optimistic perhaps ...!)

I'm intrigued that - as far as I can recall - the gear-change wasn't quite as stiff as it is now when the drill was new  ???  So hopefully it won't actually get worse with continued use.

Colin P.

 

[DB10]

Mine has always been a bit of a pain to change gear as well, I've had it over a year now and it hasn't got any worse but it hasn't got any better, just the same.
I would hazard a guess that most PDC's are like this as well, a quick blip of the trigger helps. I don't find it an annoying enough of a problem to have to deal with the inconvenience of sending it back. Others might be worse.

 

[CumminsDiesel]

The gear switch is not stiff,Festool done it right.

Sometimes switching from gear 4 to 3 not always easy (but not stiff),here is some trick:

If you need speed 3:  from 4-3-2 and then to 3,I find it very easy (just a second) to "get" right on speed 3.
From speed 1 to 3 no problem.

Now speed 1,some complains about it,sometimes it makes a sound like "gears is not properly engage",so here is the trick:from any speed to 1-2-1 - Done!

I know sounds weird but its works.

Guys,there is a huge amount of gears,learn how to use it

Staniam right, "It's like driving a stick",and "Squeezing the trigger and switching to the gear" also works and helps sometimes.

[smile]

P.S. I love my PDC 18/4,best drill I ever had!

 

[Wuffles]

The gear switch is not stiff,Festool done it right.

Sometimes switching from gear 4 to 3 not always easy (but not stiff),here is some trick:

If you need speed 3:  from 4-3-2 and then to 3,I find it very easy (just a second) to "get" right on speed 3.
From speed 1 to 3 no problem.

Now speed 1,some complains about it,sometimes it makes a sound like "gears is not properly engage",so here is the trick:from any speed to 1-2-1 - Done!

I know sounds weird but its works.

Guys,there is a huge amount of gears,learn how to use it

Staniam right, "It's like driving a stick",and "Squeezing the trigger and switching to the gear" also works and helps sometimes.

[smile]

P.S. I love my PDC 18/4,best drill I ever had!

Are you some sort of apologist? If enough people are having problems with it, then there's a problem. Nobody's moaning about it particularly but it's a thing.

A Festool employee saw mine do it and suggested I sent it in for repair as "that doesn't seem right", but I haven't because I can workaround it.

So it's a workaround, to a problem.

Your quote of "P.S. I love my PDC 18/4,best drill I ever had!" couldn't be closer to the truth.

 

[Thebesciak]

I am using PDC for couple months already...
and changing gears from 2-3 up or down is very stiff, always needs to be done with the trigger..

but the worst of the all is HOUK... can not use it sorry, it is on ground use drill only...

to bad there is no three position switch with off function, It is hard to carry drill with full hands of other stuff, it is so easy to press the button and the drill starts to rotate...

other than above, this is the strongest drill i ever had...

 

[mrboult]

This may class as tool abuse, but often I just ran the drill at full trigger while slaming right through all the gears and back repeatedly. After a week it two it had loosened right up.

 

[jmac80]

This may class as tool abuse, but often I just ran the drill at full trigger while slaming right through all the gears and back repeatedly. After a week it two it had loosened right up.

You worn out your gears  [big grin] [big grin]

 

[mrboult]

This may class as tool abuse, but often I just ran the drill at full trigger while slaming right through all the gears and back repeatedly. After a week it two it had loosened right up.

You worn out your gears  [big grin] [big grin]

Ha. Maybe. But I found it highly frustrating, and was aware of it being a much wider issue than just my drill, so I tried it.

To be clear, I would do this a few times a day for a matter of seconds, whenever I had the issue. After a couple of weeks the issue pretty much stopped. It's not like I sat there for hours grinding the gears.

Just passing on my experiences. .