L140 knowledge

[ontheowens]

Hello all, my name is Joe, I am the director of a Boy Scout camp. I have recently purchased a Kubota L140. I of course had no idea that there were tractors in the US that are not supported by Kubota. The motor on the tractor is seized, I am attempting to break it loose with PB blaster in the cylinder and will try Miracle oil after I give this a little time. I understand that there are not many of these tractors in the U.S. As luck would have it I happen to have a sister who is married to a guy who is half Japanese, so if there is a maintenance manual to be had in that language, I can have it translated. If you have worked on one of these please post here, any knowledge you might have. How hard could a rebuild be, its a single cylinder diesel engine.

Thanks in advance for you knowledge, I will post what I discover as I work over the tractor.
Yours in Scouting

 

[ontheowens]

Ok so starting with the simple stuff, the glow plug is located on the right front of the engine, it is removed by using a 15MM socket and removing one wire. Also discovered that the block cooling has a valve on the left side a little just above the middle that can be used to drain the block. This valve is leaking so I had to put a bucket under it to catch it. and put a fence around that to keep out the cat and the dogs. The nut on harmonic balancer appears to be a 1 5/8 size of course I am unable to find a metric equivilent 41 mm size here in Ridgecrest. So today I need to get an adapter for 3/4 inch drive to 1/2 inch so I can use the socket. plan to crank it once or twice a day until it frees.

 

[ontheowens]

Well had a good day today, I managed to get the starter off, which required the removal of the hydraulic pump. It appears that the torque specifications on this tractor are very light. No more than 28 lbs on anything I have removed up to this point. The tractor has an Great Bend Manufacturing bucket which is after market. I will need to replace all of these hoses as they are cracked. Also since the bucket is connected to the front of the Engine I had to remove a bracket. I have removed the bolts on the transmission these were easy to remove as well. At this point I think that I will need to remove a front bracket on the motor and 4 bolts under the motor. The big question will be how the motor will separate from the transmission. Any information on how Kubota does that would be a great help. I am hoping that I don't have to remove and break the tractor in two. We will see. Note that you should watch out for the bolts on the transmission. They appear to be grade 8 but I found one that was cracked almost all the way through. Lucky that it came out without breaking.

 

[ontheowens]

Well I have finally found out what the problem was that caused the motor to seize, it seems that the motor stopped on the exhaust stroke and that left the valve open. Killer bee's found a nice round spot to build a nest inside the cylinder (it was about half way up). I pulled the head and found what was left of the nest, it appears that the last owner tried to start the tractor and it did fire at least once. The wax was down in the sleeve and around the rings. I used heat to melt it out, after I cleaned out the bee hive and what was left of the bees. So I looked at the head and there appears to be a crack in it. Not sure If I can find one to replace it. There appears to be some water leakage but the valve guides are good. I have ordered a head gasket from Copper gaskets unlimited. Lani has my old head gasket and is making a template. From now to forever he can make you a gasket too. Since he had to program it from scratch it cost me an extra $20 but even at $50 the cost is not bad. Oh and the whole bottom end is now functional.

 

[ontheowens]

OK so I have been very busy and just did get back to this tractor over Christmas break. I had the Head reconstructed at Sun Valley Auto in Sun Valley California. They had to cut a v into the head and weld it and pound it. I managed to get it back on the tractor and it sealed well with the gasket that was made by Copper Gaskets unlimited. Of course all the pieces are back together but I could not get the Injector pump to prime. I have fuel down to the pump but no amount of priming is getting me fuel out of the end. I have started to take apart the governor, and tried to pull out the pump but it will not come out further than about 1/4 inch. I also had to remove the what appears to be part of the governor it has a hook that appeared to be connected to the pump.

I wonder if any of you have seen anything like this, and perhaps if you have taken one of these apart? I will try to get some pictures and post them here.

Thanks

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Pictures will help, your working on a tractor that few have seen and we don't have a lot to go on.

 

[ontheowens]

Whooo HOOOOOOOOOOO! this thing sounds like a couple of iron pans clanging in chaotic harmony then a big belch of flame and it runs! I have pictures but am not sure how to get them on here. The issue I was having was that I was not getting fuel at the injector. I took the injector pump out of the engine, (there is a slide valve on it that must be centered). Once I had it out I figured out how the fuel is delivered. I had been told that the spring had broken in the past, the one used to replace the spring was too light and it would not pull the slide valve far enough back to allow the fuel to pump. I purchased a heavier spring and put it in. I then started to get puffs of smoke. Today I charged the battery as it was not strong enough to run the motor. One shot of starting fluid and then the noise was intense. I am not sure if I had too much fuel going to the engine but I backed it off and it still ran like a crazy man. Also a smoking fiend, expect the air quality management district sniffers are now clogged.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

The banging and clacking, was from the Starting fluid!
Wouldn't recommend using it again!
If your still having it run at a high RPM then your spring is too heavy, that spring goes to the governor and that controls the RPMS.

 

[itljcloud]

I also have a 140 and know virtually nothing about it, except that it's been really reliable. Re-priming, or refilling fuel to start again after it's empty is difficult. Same as every other diesel out there. When you do, make sure you have a good battery. Try to get the fuel far as you can down the lines by cracking a fitting here and there to get air out. I had my best luck putting diesel in a squirt bottle and spraying a fine mist in the intake while it was turning over. Once you get it to kick off and stay running you are usually good. Also, I had an issue with the alternator/fan unit and ended up taking it off. No fan means no cooling for the radiator. I bought a cheap little electric fan about the size of the radiator and wired in a switch. There's no charging system now, either, so I just plus a small solar panel in when I am not using it, and it keeps the battery up. Just gotta remember to turn on the cooling fan when I run it. I will eventually put a temp switch in so it comes on automatically, but it works for now. I

 

[Bugs 01]

What type of engine does it have? Horizontal or vertical? I looked for photos of these tractors and particular engines but was unsuccessful
Thanks