Anybody on here ever had to do much work to a diesel tractor? I'm considering trying to resolve an issue with my father in laws Kubota 3 cylinder or something like that. I have not looked at it too close yet - just tried to turn it over by hand. It will rotate either way approximately 20 degrees and hits something and stops. I'm thinking drop the oil pan and see what I can find. How much trouble is it to break one down? Noise that it makes when it hits/stops sounds like it is coming from the bell housing area but you know how reliable locating sounds like this can be.

Hard part is going to be getting it from his field to my place to work on it.

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Jim

Doesn't Kobota have a furrowside emergency service number ?
Oil pan sounds like good bet....
Things I have taken apart which would rotate like that had broken rods....

Have you tried turning the engine over with the clutch pedal depressed? This could eliminate the slight possibility that the problem resides within the transmission. Not sure about the Kubota, but my old Ford 2N had an oil pan that was a structural part of the frame, so you'd need to split the tractor for service--though this isn't the case with my Iseki. I'm inclined to think of connecting rod issues as well.

the frame on these tractors is the engine/transmission; so if you remove the engine the tractor is broken in two. the transmission may or may not be the hydraulic reservoir. you might have to deal with 5-20 gallons of hydralic oil.
if it has a forward pto or 4wd, remove its driveshaft before you seperate the engine from the tranny or the shaft will bend. typically the tranny side will weigh much more than the engine half.

don

Engatwork,

You should be able to get the oil pan off for an inspection with out breaking the tractor in half.

P E H

thanks - I'll probably try to get it over here and drop the pan to see what is going on. The tractor is in a field outside of Augusta, GA. Getting it over here is going to be the hard part.

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Jim

If it is a smaller 2 or 4 wheel drive tractor it should have a 3-cyl. Kubota diesel engines are usally very reliable, this one must have had a catastophic failure.

You can find a service / shop manual at most farm stores or ordered online. I & T are the most common. Check out www.tractorsmart.com for parts & a parts book for what you are working on. The parts manual is in PDF format, I have used them for parts and they have very good prices and service.

You should be able to pull the engine in you need to without draining the hyd fluid.

Doug

Try removing the injectors. You might have a hydraulic lock from leaking fuel.

I've tried the injector removal tip without any success.

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Jim

Just wondering what model of Kubota you are looking at?

I have a B6100 with hydrostatic transmission, 2wd. It's been a great tractor so far. There is 2250 hours showing on it at this point. It's a 3 cylinder diesel as well, and is a nice working motor, though mechanically noisy, as many Japanese diesels are. I believe it runs 21:1 compression ratio, just like my Isuzu truck engine.

Repair can be expesive with these, so beware. Similar to Mercedes diesels, you don't fix the engines often, but when you do, it isn't a Chev 350 for parts cost.

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1991 GMC Sonoma Ext Cab w/Isuzu diesel (converted March Mar 2003) - sold
1994 S10 Ext Cab w/Isuzu diesel (converted Mar 2008)
1998 Toyota Sienna XLE
B6100HST Kubota CUT DIESEL

1994 S10 with Isuzu diesel and 5spd
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...S15/SigPic.jpg

I don't know anything specific about the Kubotas but I fully expect that it has a removable pan.

NOW is the time for you to think about something. I have a walking beam in the trusses of my shop and it it plenty strong enough to hold one end of a tractor. Removing the engine or transmission/rear axle is called splitting. With my walking beam I can EASILY split a tractor. I simply support the transmission securely, tie onto the rear of the engine with the chain hoist on the walking beam and then move the front of the tractor forward. Remember the front wheels are still in place, so you are just moving the front of the tractor forward. Then you can remove the engine from front wheels if necessary, although on most tractors that is rarely, if ever necessary because the engines are sleeved and can be rebuilt without hauling the block to the machine shop.

SOOoooo..... If you are going to do any tractor work, make SURE you think this through now and arrange a walking beam in the rafters such that you can get a tractor lengthwise underneath it.

As far as the tractor goes, you've already removed the injectors and I'm sure you are trying to turn the engine with it out of gear, so the only option you have left is exploratory surgery. You will need a four wheel drive truck or another tractor to get it out of the field and in the shop. Hope you've got a 3/8 or larger chain for the job.

Good luck,

Well, If some of you familiar with the term ' Walking Beam' are having trouble visualizing this... I think Larry means something like this :

http://www.betamaxhoist.com/mountOptPages/port_all_mo.html

Because ' Walking Beam ' is typically used to describe the motion of a beam something like a SeeSaw... where one side goes up when the other goes down.. typical usage would include the arrangement on a trailer with two axles.. where the back spring perch of the front axle is hooked to the front spring perch of the rear axle... Or in wood working... and since Larry does wood work... this name may have been on his mind from that... I once saw a walking beam saw in Fine Woodworking magizine which had a huge capacity... and easy to build... but the point of using the Walking Beam mechanism in that case was to make the top beam of the matching horizontal pair about 1/8th inch shorter than the bottom.. this makes the saw cut on the downstroke but pull the blade back slightly on the upstroke... makeing it MUCH more efficient and eaisier on the blades because of reducing the friction in the useless return stroke on the cutting teeth... Walking Beam is also the name of the typical Oil Pump mechanism....

If your tarctor is 2 wheel drive you can drop the pan with out much trouble. If it is a 4wd then you will have to remove the front axle because the drive shaft goes under the pan. The pan actually straddles the shaft. If you can move the tractor in neutral then the chances are good that the problem is in the engine and not the trans.

If the engine did not make horrible noises when it stopped the chances are good that the problem is not in the crack case. I would start by taking the timing cover off. If you can rotate the engine 20 deg. then the rods are not frozen to the crank. It sounds like it might be something like a timing chain or gear that is broken. I suggest going into the timing cover first because there are more moving parts in there that could cause the engine to lock up.

I have split the cases of my 4400 Ford a few times. It is not a difficult job but does take a cement floor (I do mine on a gravel driveway and a sheet of plywood but I don't recommend it), a car jack that rolls, and some 3 ton jackstands. Three ton only because they are more stable than smaller ones.


My Ford is a late '60 and not very complicated. My neighbor's Kubota is new and appears much more sophisticated so what I tell you about splitting mine may not apply to yours. The Japanese are famous for both their good quality and the complixety of their equipement.