I just bought a Kubota B1750D 6 speed geared transmission with 1260+ hours off a guy who buys/sells tractors, mowers, etc. The engine seems to purr with hardly any smoke and very little blow-by that I could feel. The clutch grabs a little faster than my L2600, but didn’t seem horrible. Here is the issue. If I put the tractor in any gear hi or low range, 2wd or 4wd, and drive it, it will whine with a sound very similar to what a hydrostat sounds like when operating. It makes the noise on level ground and it sounds louder going uphill. The noise decreases drastically or even subsides when going downhill. If it is sitting still in neutral there is no noise or will immediately stop if in gear and the clutch gets disengaged (pedal pushed). If it’s in neutral and the pto is engaged the whine will start again, but it may not be as bad as when in gear. Higher rpm’s seem to make the whine louder.
I changed the trans fluid (used Cam2 which is supposed to be equivalent to UDT) and cleaned the strainer. There was a small amount of metal particles, but the strainer had a thin mud-like layer on it. The air filter on it was filthy so I just figured the tractor had been run in real dusty conditions without good maintenance. At any rate, that had no affect on the whine and I didn’t really expect it to.
The only work I’ve done with it, is climbing a very sizable hill with a 42” bush hog on back and then taking down shoulder high weeds in a field for over an hour in low range 3rd gear 4wd. It whined the whole time but didn’t affect operation.
I stopped at the local (30 minutes away) Kubota dealer and a service guy came out and drove it. He thought the sound resembled a turbo, which obviously it does not have. He climbed all around it while having me depress the clutch to kill the whine. He said he couldn’t pinpoint it, but figured it was probably a transmission bearing as opposed to the clutch. He suggested that if I could live with the noise I should use the tractor until it breaks. His thoughts were that it may not be worth the money of cracking the tractor to try and find and fix it as it may run as is for years. I told him that I’ll probably run the tractor 25-50 hours a year. I do smell a little clutch burn as I use it, but I catch that on L2600 occasionally, too.
Long post, but I wasn’t sure what to do. What are your guy’s thoughts?
I changed the trans fluid (used Cam2 which is supposed to be equivalent to UDT) and cleaned the strainer. There was a small amount of metal particles, but the strainer had a thin mud-like layer on it. The air filter on it was filthy so I just figured the tractor had been run in real dusty conditions without good maintenance. At any rate, that had no affect on the whine and I didn’t really expect it to.
The only work I’ve done with it, is climbing a very sizable hill with a 42” bush hog on back and then taking down shoulder high weeds in a field for over an hour in low range 3rd gear 4wd. It whined the whole time but didn’t affect operation.
I stopped at the local (30 minutes away) Kubota dealer and a service guy came out and drove it. He thought the sound resembled a turbo, which obviously it does not have. He climbed all around it while having me depress the clutch to kill the whine. He said he couldn’t pinpoint it, but figured it was probably a transmission bearing as opposed to the clutch. He suggested that if I could live with the noise I should use the tractor until it breaks. His thoughts were that it may not be worth the money of cracking the tractor to try and find and fix it as it may run as is for years. I told him that I’ll probably run the tractor 25-50 hours a year. I do smell a little clutch burn as I use it, but I catch that on L2600 occasionally, too.
Long post, but I wasn’t sure what to do. What are your guy’s thoughts?