Good evening all. New Member here from swampy South Louisiana. First off what a great resource you guys have put together here. I hope to give much as I get. Thanks to all.
In 2016 my wife passed away unexpectedly and because of the memories that haunted me I moved off of our 13 acre homestead while retaining ownership. I had pretty much abandoned the place for nearly 10 years, only visiting occasionally to see how felt.
This year I decided it was time to move back to the home we built together and return it to its splendor in her honor. Its been nearly 10 years since the place has been mowed or maintained in any way. So first things first, 13 acres is going to require a machine. So I started looking around for something when a close friend approached me and told me that he had an "Old Kubota" in the back of his shop that had been there for about 10 years sitting. I asked if it ran to which he gave the normal response "It was running when I parked it there." He's keenly aware of my sense of nostalgia so when I asked him how much he wanted for it, he told me "Man, you want it to keep for yourself to clean up your place?
Tell you what, you bring a trailer and come get it and its yours." So I went to take a look and sure enough it was a mid 1980s G5200 with the mowing deck intact. It looked rough and was covered in dust, but the price was right and I needed a good project to work on since my retirement as an engineer in the oil and gas industry for 25 years. So I took it home.
I immediately found this site and have been lurking here for several weeks reading up on this machine. I bought a new battery, the electric fuel pump was seized, bought a new one. The wiring harness was a little hacked up but I got a schematic and rewired what was necessary to hear it start. The starter was stuck so I gave it a dose of penetrant oil and a tap and it zinged to life. It turned over pretty good, glow plugs were warming but no cigar. I opened the breeders and cracked the fuel lines to the injectors for thr next 2 hours tried to ge it to show some sign of life. And then "put put put put". It sounded like it was running on 1 1/2 cylinders but as I bled the air out it sounded better and better. So now that I knew it didn't have a rod sticking out of the oil pan i jumped on it and pressed the hydro drive pedal down and it pulled me across the driveway. I engaged the PTO and although it sounded like a 7th grade drum rehearsal, it spun up the blades. I spent the next several weeks with a lot of reading this site, cleaning it up, going over it, drained all the juices and replaced all the filters.
Bought new belts, checked the fuel system, electrical was charging, I greased everything, sharpened the blades and started running it through its paces. The first thng it did was began to overheat. I shut it down and serviced the cooling system and found the thermostat housing COMPLETELY stopped up with rust and oxidation. I replaced all the hoses and flushed and flushed and flushed, each time I ran it the little D600 engine ran better and better.
I got the cooling issue resolved pretty painlessly but I noticed a vibration that I knew wasn't good for the machine. I investigated the rotating gear and noticed the propeller shaft had about a 3/16" wobble on the transmission end. I pulled the shaft and found a bastardized coupling type apparatus that someone put on it as a "repair", eliminating the fiber vibration damper disk and leaving the splines only engaged into the engine coupling about 1/8", and beginning to show signs of stripping out. At $130 for the disk, I decided I would fabricate one instead. I am an enginer after all. So I made a mold, used layered fiberglass cloth and JB weld to create a new one.
Precisely machined it out and drilled the holes. I spaced it out so that about 3/4" of splines were ingaged on the engine end, put it all together and BINGO, vibration eliminated. The radiator hoses, especially the lower 3 piece hose was a real PITA until I decied to pull the radiator out to give myself some room. I made the mistake of eliminating the little pipe bolted to the block and when i started it up it leaked oil from that bolt hole like it had been shot with a .44. So out came the radiator once again and did it a second time, putting the little pipe back where it was.
The mower deck works, bearings all pretty good, seals all intact but the deck itself is pretty rough. I understand that I can get a deck from a newer model "G" and with some small mods make it work. Anything anyone can point me to on that subject would be helpful. Its really a tossup as to whether it can be patched or needs replacing. Im going to start searching now, but I know original decks are scarce. After first running it, it seemed a little anemic on power so I took my IR thermometer and tagged each of the exhaust ports, finding the middle one noticeably cooler than the others. I was going to run compression tests on the motor, but the more I ran it, the better it got until its making as much power as it should for 1200 hours. Interesting little project to say the least.
I could never have done it without this resource. Thanks to all who contributed, and I plan on using this site whenever necessary. Whenever I work on it I'll do a writeup to share with the community. Thanks again... I gotta go mow some grass!!
Pic of T-stat housing...
.
In 2016 my wife passed away unexpectedly and because of the memories that haunted me I moved off of our 13 acre homestead while retaining ownership. I had pretty much abandoned the place for nearly 10 years, only visiting occasionally to see how felt.
This year I decided it was time to move back to the home we built together and return it to its splendor in her honor. Its been nearly 10 years since the place has been mowed or maintained in any way. So first things first, 13 acres is going to require a machine. So I started looking around for something when a close friend approached me and told me that he had an "Old Kubota" in the back of his shop that had been there for about 10 years sitting. I asked if it ran to which he gave the normal response "It was running when I parked it there." He's keenly aware of my sense of nostalgia so when I asked him how much he wanted for it, he told me "Man, you want it to keep for yourself to clean up your place?
Tell you what, you bring a trailer and come get it and its yours." So I went to take a look and sure enough it was a mid 1980s G5200 with the mowing deck intact. It looked rough and was covered in dust, but the price was right and I needed a good project to work on since my retirement as an engineer in the oil and gas industry for 25 years. So I took it home.
I immediately found this site and have been lurking here for several weeks reading up on this machine. I bought a new battery, the electric fuel pump was seized, bought a new one. The wiring harness was a little hacked up but I got a schematic and rewired what was necessary to hear it start. The starter was stuck so I gave it a dose of penetrant oil and a tap and it zinged to life. It turned over pretty good, glow plugs were warming but no cigar. I opened the breeders and cracked the fuel lines to the injectors for thr next 2 hours tried to ge it to show some sign of life. And then "put put put put". It sounded like it was running on 1 1/2 cylinders but as I bled the air out it sounded better and better. So now that I knew it didn't have a rod sticking out of the oil pan i jumped on it and pressed the hydro drive pedal down and it pulled me across the driveway. I engaged the PTO and although it sounded like a 7th grade drum rehearsal, it spun up the blades. I spent the next several weeks with a lot of reading this site, cleaning it up, going over it, drained all the juices and replaced all the filters.
Bought new belts, checked the fuel system, electrical was charging, I greased everything, sharpened the blades and started running it through its paces. The first thng it did was began to overheat. I shut it down and serviced the cooling system and found the thermostat housing COMPLETELY stopped up with rust and oxidation. I replaced all the hoses and flushed and flushed and flushed, each time I ran it the little D600 engine ran better and better.
I got the cooling issue resolved pretty painlessly but I noticed a vibration that I knew wasn't good for the machine. I investigated the rotating gear and noticed the propeller shaft had about a 3/16" wobble on the transmission end. I pulled the shaft and found a bastardized coupling type apparatus that someone put on it as a "repair", eliminating the fiber vibration damper disk and leaving the splines only engaged into the engine coupling about 1/8", and beginning to show signs of stripping out. At $130 for the disk, I decided I would fabricate one instead. I am an enginer after all. So I made a mold, used layered fiberglass cloth and JB weld to create a new one.
Precisely machined it out and drilled the holes. I spaced it out so that about 3/4" of splines were ingaged on the engine end, put it all together and BINGO, vibration eliminated. The radiator hoses, especially the lower 3 piece hose was a real PITA until I decied to pull the radiator out to give myself some room. I made the mistake of eliminating the little pipe bolted to the block and when i started it up it leaked oil from that bolt hole like it had been shot with a .44. So out came the radiator once again and did it a second time, putting the little pipe back where it was.
The mower deck works, bearings all pretty good, seals all intact but the deck itself is pretty rough. I understand that I can get a deck from a newer model "G" and with some small mods make it work. Anything anyone can point me to on that subject would be helpful. Its really a tossup as to whether it can be patched or needs replacing. Im going to start searching now, but I know original decks are scarce. After first running it, it seemed a little anemic on power so I took my IR thermometer and tagged each of the exhaust ports, finding the middle one noticeably cooler than the others. I was going to run compression tests on the motor, but the more I ran it, the better it got until its making as much power as it should for 1200 hours. Interesting little project to say the least.
I could never have done it without this resource. Thanks to all who contributed, and I plan on using this site whenever necessary. Whenever I work on it I'll do a writeup to share with the community. Thanks again... I gotta go mow some grass!!
Pic of T-stat housing...
.
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