B7100 with a slight mechanical issue.

OK guys, I'm not at all upset about what was said here by anyone. Something happened and I was not having a very good day when I last posted here. Just so everyone following this thread understands, it had nothing to do with this forum or anyone who has replied to my thread.

Thanks everyone for the kind words and I do appreciate the support.

I will continue to post about my progress and I will start again where I left off last week.

For now I just need a break from working on anything Kubota.

Apogee said:

Steve,

Project is coming along nicely!

You know, you might consider making patterns of your alternator brackets. I for one would be interested in buying a conversion kit if it was ever offered.

Food for thought.

Sorry I haven't been around much. Hands have been full dealing with my dad.

Project is looking awesome man!

Steve

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Thanks Steve, no worries as I know what you've been having to deal with.

It would have been nice to have had a bolt on conversion kit for this swap that included the brackets, bushings, correct belts, pulleys, spacers and all of the other hardware I had to make.

I reckon what I've done with my conversion is a little bit of an overkill but I had to be sure it was going to withstand the abuse that I was going to put my tractor through.

I'd consider making a few conversion kits if it weren't so expensive and time consuming.

Picking up where I left off last week. I was trying to figure out a better way to fit the water pump pulley so that there was more room between the fan and radiator without having to space out the pulley itself.

What I decided to do was take the 2 water pump pulleys and cut the nose off of one, machine the inside lip to fit over the other so that the pulleys set side by side. Once the pulleys were fit snuggly together they were mig welded in place.

The back half of the original fan pulley was cut off and milled since there was no use for it. I put the belts back on and everything lined up perfectly.

The original Kubota 2" fan pulley spacer was cut in half and one half was milled down to 3/8 and was used to space the cooling fan right to the front of the waterpump pulley. End result was just over 1/2 clearance between fan and radiator.

The only easy part I installed that didn't require modification was the extended oil fill spout on the valve cover.

I went a little further and made a brace that goes from the rear alternator adjustment bolt to the rear of the intake manifold. You can see in one of the pics how my alternator sits from the rear. There's 2-1/2 inches of clearance from the side panel and hood when closed.

Next in line to work on is the stop solenoid. I bought some solenoid mounting brackets from a F2100 only to discover that they would not let the solenoid clear the engine side panel. What I really needed for my conversion was the solenoid brackets from a B1550E and I have those on the way now.

Well, I'm done with the alternator install and there was really no need to have the engine at work anymore so I loaded it up and brought it back home today.

I found some very nice engine side panels from a B6100 and bought them. My panels are not that great and one was cut up beyond any kind of repair that I could have done.

Most of my parts should be here by the end of the week. I'll post more about that later on because I want to get the engine fired up sometime over the weekend.

Alright, I had a very interesting day working on the B7100. I installed the new pilot bearing and the flywheel after I found the correct bolt pattern, what a pain that was. Next I installed the new pressure plate and new clutch disc.

I tilted the rear half of the tractor up so the bell housing was up high, I was being lazy and wanted to sit down while I removed the clutch rod and throw out bearing assembly. It took me longer to clean the parts than it took me to remove and install the new bearing itself.

Next I installed the oil pick up tube and the oil pan that was on the old D750 but much cleaner than they were when I removed them. 4.1 quarts of Rotella T 15W-40 went into the crank case.

By 11am I had the new engine perfectly mated up to the bell housing and all bolts in place, this is where my day went from good directly to chit.

Moving on around 1pm after a short break and a much needed bite to eat I decided it was about time to try and see if this puppy would fire up. There were a few more things I needed to do first though.

I started off with the installation of my tachometer/hour meter drive gear plate. I cleaned up the starter the best I could and installed it. I put the exhaust manifold on using the old gaskets because its coming right back off.

So, all I needed now was some diesel and a good strong battery. I made a couple of jumper wires for the starter and glow plugs. I turned the engine over for about 15 seconds and stopped. I did this several times to let the oil pump prime the engine as its been a long time since it was last run.

Next I hooked up the fuel lines and opened the bleeder valve on the injection pump. It didn't take long to get fuel coming out of the return line and I closed the valve. I loosened all 3 injector lines at the injectors and turned the engine over until I could see fuel coming out, needless to say I had no joy there nor did I see any fuel come out, not one drop.

I proceeded to remove the stop lever plate thinking I didn't have something put back together right. Well everything looked OK so I found my old injection pump from the D750 and noticed the stop control lever on the D950 was stuck in the stop position, ahh easy fix so I thought it would be smart to force the stop lever to the right. Well it stayed there as I didn't realize at that time it was suppose to move freely.

With that done I turned the engine over and within a few seconds I had excellent fuel flow at each injector. I tightened all 3 injector lines and got everything ready.

Here we go, cycled the glow plugs for about 20 seconds and hit the starter and bam, engine fires right off and instantly starts to run away on me. I panicked for a second or two but I was able to shut it down quickly.

After that episode I spent some time soaking the stop lever inside the injection pump with PB blaster and eventually had all of the mechanisms in there moving freely again.

All is good now and the engine runs fantasticly. The only other thing that ruined my day was a rear main oil seal leak, that's going to take me most of tomorrow to replace. If not for that leak I would have loaded the tractor on a trailer and on its way to get painted.

I'll have to think about my next move after I get the rear oil seal replaced. I've got my replacement engine side panels but my stop solenoid bracket didn't show up and I really need that mounted to see what else needs to be done in that area.

Since I'm going to have a tachometer, temp, fuel, volt, hour meter and an oil pressure gauge I'll need to figure out a good place for them to go without it looking like a hack job and being visible at the same time.

Apogee said:

Steve,

Two other things:

As insurance and since you're delayed anyway, if you haven't already, I'd suggest replacing the front trans seal while its back apart. (Yeah, I know you really didn't want to hear that) It's just that it's right there and very easy while you have it back apart. Perhaps you already replaced it (fingers crossed). In that case, it would have been an excellent move and please disregard the above. Food for thought...

Finally, you might also check the clutch travel and adjustment before you disassemble things just to be sure that everything with the new pressure plate and throwout bearing is correct. Sometimes the machining on these aftermarket parts isn't up to snuff. Also, I have read of some guys assembling with the throwout bearing in backwards and not being able to properly adjust the clutch. It's worth checking now so you know everything is right before you take it apart and put it back together just in case something isn't right.

Just think, you're going to be like the karate kid - wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off...

Steve

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Hey Steve thanks for the suggestions, yes the front trans seal is done along with the brake shoes in the rear, i just didnt post about that part. I see you got a kick out of my wheelie in the garage huh, so did my neighbor when he came over.

Jim L. said:

Steve, your saga just inspires me. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

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Thanks Jim L, glad you enjoy what I'm doing here.

Changed out the rear main seal but that did not resolve the oil leak. I'm going to tear it apart again tomorrow. Tearing it apart 3 times today was enough.

My luck its going to be the oil galley plug that's leaking, hope its an easy fix.