Hello all, I am second owner (since 1994) of an L3350 with BF800 loader. Tractor and loader used mostly for pushing fill dirt, stone and gravel, snow removal. With the hour meter cable broke for a while, I'd estimate about 1000 hrs. on it, maybe a little less.
About 6 years ago, loader started struggling when raising up, whole frame would shake. I shut it down, called the local Kubota dealer. I was told to stop using the tractor immediately, and get it up to their shop. Was also told the problem was likely the pump and I was looking at an expensive repair bill in the thousands of dollars. I changed the filter twice back then, no improvement, didn't see anything obvious related to air leaks in suction hoses.
With not a lot of faith in the phone diagnosis and all nearby dealers owned by same ownership group, I let it sit up until now. Of course, problem hasn't gotten better with age, the other day I changed the fuel filter, topped off the tank, started right up. Loader still shakes going up, doesn't lower all the way down, not even to ground level, and the bucket doesn't roll back, it does roll out. 3 point hitch seems to operate as it should. After operating the loader up and down a few times, shut off and opened the oil fill cap, fluid is foamy. One last note, in order to get any bucket action, I had to remove the cover over the control valve so that the operating lever had more room to move up/down and side to side.
My question here I guess is whether or not all of these symptoms could be pump related as I was originally told by the dealer, or is this more of a loader control valve or other loader related problem? I thought about possibly disconnecting loader hydraulic lines as if I was removing the loader, see if the oil is still foamy after running for a while?
About 6 years ago, loader started struggling when raising up, whole frame would shake. I shut it down, called the local Kubota dealer. I was told to stop using the tractor immediately, and get it up to their shop. Was also told the problem was likely the pump and I was looking at an expensive repair bill in the thousands of dollars. I changed the filter twice back then, no improvement, didn't see anything obvious related to air leaks in suction hoses.
With not a lot of faith in the phone diagnosis and all nearby dealers owned by same ownership group, I let it sit up until now. Of course, problem hasn't gotten better with age, the other day I changed the fuel filter, topped off the tank, started right up. Loader still shakes going up, doesn't lower all the way down, not even to ground level, and the bucket doesn't roll back, it does roll out. 3 point hitch seems to operate as it should. After operating the loader up and down a few times, shut off and opened the oil fill cap, fluid is foamy. One last note, in order to get any bucket action, I had to remove the cover over the control valve so that the operating lever had more room to move up/down and side to side.
My question here I guess is whether or not all of these symptoms could be pump related as I was originally told by the dealer, or is this more of a loader control valve or other loader related problem? I thought about possibly disconnecting loader hydraulic lines as if I was removing the loader, see if the oil is still foamy after running for a while?
