Seized transmission Rtv900x

Henryoscar

New member

Equipment
Rtv 900x
Jul 13, 2020
2
0
1
Bunyip
Recently the transmission on my Rtv900x appears to have seized. The motor starts and runs fine. As soon as I place into either forward or reverse the rtv stalls. Seems to be a seized transmission. Appreciate any thoughts on this?
 

lugbolt

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ZG127S-54
Oct 15, 2015
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shouldn't seize if simply placing it into gear. The HST should not be turning (or attempting to turn) any of the shafts until you push the go pedal down.
 

GeoHorn

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Stalls? Do you mean it instantly dies? ... or do you mean it becomes “loaded” and dies from resistance perhaps...?
If it instantly dies then it sounds as if your shift-lever is mechanically interfering with your shut-down solenoid or key-switch.
 

GeoHorn

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Maybe you have the parking brake set and it goes into limp mode, then dies?
Some people seem to believe that all diesels are SUPPOSED to idle very slowly. (Maybe they’ve been listening to large diesels too much.). These little RTVs are often re-adjusted by owners to idle at barely-maintainable low-RPM. If so, this one might be dying with the load of an HST that’s also badly adjusted.
The RTV-X900 should idle at 1300-1400 RPM. Any slower is not good for it. (And at 1300 it also quits vibrating .... it’s only a little 3-cyl.... Run the idle up until it smooths out and quits rattling.
 
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lugbolt

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ZG127S-54
Oct 15, 2015
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Some people seem to believe that all diesels are SUPPOSED to idle very slowly. (Maybe they’ve been listening to large diesels too much.). These little RTVs are often re-adjusted by owners to idle at barely-maintainable low-RPM. If so, this one might be dying with the load of an HST that’s also badly adjusted.
The RTV-X900 should idle at 1100 RPM. Any slower is not good for it. (And at 1100 it also quits vibrating .... it’s only a little 3-cyl.... Run the idle up until it smooths out and quits rattling.
they are not supposed to be adjusted. Kubota doesn't even specify the low and high RPM in ANY of the RTV literature, nor will anyone at Kubota even give you that information. So where did you get it? I cant' say whether it's accurate or not because Kubota won't tell anyone, I'm only curious.

I asked about it and it was explained to me that the RPM adjustment both high and low are part of the EPA emissions stuff and that they cannot and will not give you specifications for high or low speed adjustments, and they also went on to explain that the stop screws are wired in a certain position for that reason, so people won't screw with them. Although-some do, and they are on their own from that point. I guess their thinking is that people will go turning up the fast idle speed which would make the engine make more HP, and on the 1100 and 1120/1140 it could potentially put the horsepower above the threshold. Just me thinking out loud, but frankly leave them alone. If the lockwire ain't busted on the stop screws, don't touch.
 

hotnoob

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L3301 + LA525 Loader
Mar 28, 2020
26
9
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Ste Rose, Manitoba, Canaddad
donno anything about transmissions lol.
but... crazy idea...
plop it in gear and then tow it ? probably break something tho :p

don't listen to me :p i'm just passing by.
 

GeoHorn

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they are not supposed to be adjusted. Kubota doesn't even specify the low and high RPM in ANY of the RTV literature, nor will anyone at Kubota even give you that information. So where did you get it? I cant' say whether it's accurate or not because Kubota won't tell anyone, I'm only curious.

I asked about it and it was explained to me that the RPM adjustment both high and low are part of the EPA emissions stuff and that they cannot and will not give you specifications for high or low speed adjustments, and they also went on to explain that the stop screws are wired in a certain position for that reason, so people won't screw with them. Although-some do, and they are on their own from that point. I guess their thinking is that people will go turning up the fast idle speed which would make the engine make more HP, and on the 1100 and 1120/1140 it could potentially put the horsepower above the threshold. Just me thinking out loud, but frankly leave them alone. If the lockwire ain't busted on the stop screws, don't touch.
I apologize for bad memory... the actual idle RPM for the RTV X900 is 1300-1400 and any other Kubota product using the 03 Engine is 700-750. (Sorry about the previous wrong number...I edited that post to correct it.)

Lugbolt I’m puzzled why you would say such a thing and I”m also curious about ”who explained” to you the RPM specs are secret info. It’ s PUBLISHED in the Kubota Workshop Manual for the 03 Series engine on page 7 AND for the RTV series in the Operators Manual on page 3. IF you don’t have a copy feel free to PM me and I’ll email a copy to you.

Although the idle screw is secured with “witness-wire” it’s not anything that would prevent anyone, including a repairman from adjusting the idle speed to specification, AS THEY SHOULD to avoid erratic operation.
 
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SidecarFlip

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Oct 28, 2018
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I might be in trouble. I cut the safety wire on both my M's and kicked up the idle a little bit. Seems as though the factory idle rpm was causing a vibration so I increased it a tad.
 

whitetiger

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Kubota tech..BX2370, RCK60, B7100HST, RTV900 w plow, Ford 1100 FWA
Nov 20, 2011
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Kansas City, KS
they are not supposed to be adjusted. Kubota doesn't even specify the low and high RPM in ANY of the RTV literature, nor will anyone at Kubota even give you that information. So where did you get it? I cant' say whether it's accurate or not because Kubota won't tell anyone, I'm only curious.

I asked about it and it was explained to me that the RPM adjustment both high and low are part of the EPA emissions stuff and that they cannot and will not give you specifications for high or low speed adjustments, and they also went on to explain that the stop screws are wired in a certain position for that reason, so people won't screw with them. Although-some do, and they are on their own from that point. I guess their thinking is that people will go turning up the fast idle speed which would make the engine make more HP, and on the 1100 and 1120/1140 it could potentially put the horsepower above the threshold. Just me thinking out loud, but frankly leave them alone. If the lockwire ain't busted on the stop screws, don't touch.
The engine RPM specs are in the WSM information section, page # I 10.
 

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whitetiger

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shouldn't seize if simply placing it into gear. The HST should not be turning (or attempting to turn) any of the shafts until you push the go pedal down.
Actually, any time the engine is running, the hydrostat pump is spinning with the swash plate in Neutral. The charge pump is mounted to the rear of the hydro pump so it turns as long as the engine is running also. When the Go pedal is depressed, the hydro pump servo tilts the hydro pump swash plate and the hydrostat motor spins turning the Range transmission input shaft even if the Range lever is in neutral.
Until a Range or Reverse is selected, no power is sent to the Range output shaft or pinion gear in the rear end.
 

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Henryoscar

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Rtv 900x
Jul 13, 2020
2
0
1
Bunyip
Stalls? Do you mean it instantly dies? ... or do you mean it becomes “loaded” and dies from resistance perhaps...?
If it instantly dies then it sounds as if your shift-lever is mechanically interfering with your shut-down solenoid or key-switch.
No it idles ok, when I select gear as soon as I take the foot of the brake pedal and push excellerator it stalls. It’s akin to the hand brake being on but of course it’s not.
 

lugbolt

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ZG127S-54
Oct 15, 2015
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central division service manager gave me that information. I had a G1900 at the time and someone had been fiddling with the stop screws so I asked him. That's when I got the sermon about epa and all that jazz. IOW leave it alone.

As a tractor/mower dealer only we did not have access to any engine manuals other than what kubota published with certain equipment, usually gas. Engine manuals are (or were at the time) accessible to only those dealers that serviced engines, as KEA is a different division of Kubota (tractor dealers are part of KTC). Tractor engines are many times different than other engines as you will see if you keep reading. All the engine information we needed was in the main WSM. In any of the books I saw, there were zero information as to low and high idle rpm. I didn't look at all of them. I don't use "online manuals" as they are many times wrong-regardless of whether they are actual kubota books or not. I've seen entirely too many times where someone will post up a manual which might be european or australian or whatever, which differs from USA models a lot of times. On that note, just because a RTV-X1100 uses a D1105 engine that doesn't mean that a D1105 wsm covers every detail of the RTV engine, and yes I've dealt with that at the dealer where folks bring crap into the shop with this problem or that problem and after much investigating find out that some shade-tree was working on it and using a downloaded D1105 manual which suggested, for instance, a top rpm of 2200. An RTV-X1100 runs more than 2200 but the shade-tree mechanic does not know that because he doesn't use the correct wsm for the equipment. People think that engines are all the same and they ignore all of those insignificant numbers and letters after the main designantion as if they were invisible. They are there for a reason. Good case in point is a certain tractor I was working on that had a V3300 series engine. There are (or were at the time) at least 14 different variants. At the time I was replacing an engine on a tractor and the parts guy ordered the wrong engine for it. Sent it back, got another one. 12 engines later we got the right one. Each one was different. Would they have worked/bolted up? Yes. But they wouldn't have been the correct engine for the equipment. An ignorant tech would have bolted it on and went it out, I'm picky-I want my customers to have the right stuff for the right reasons and not hurry up and shove it out the door to move onto the next one. On that one the parts books were wrong, Kubota was wrong, and we ended up getting the central division service manager involved, who pointed out through his own investigation which engine was supposed to go on the tractor, then he went out in the warehouse and hand-picked one with the correct suffixes, made adjustments to our accounts for shipping costs, and got it to us so I could install it. Then, he had to get with the parts guys (remember this is a worldwide company) and have them re-write the parts books to reflect which tractor got which engine, and on this deal it was a certain M series tractor which had, as said, at the time 14 variants of of engine for the same basic model.....with the only thing designating which tractor got which engine, a simple serial number break. With all the headache behind us, we realized that really there were only 4 basic engines for that tractor and we found that some of the differences were egr vs none, turbo vs none, and a combination of egr and turbo vs none-and they were the exact same HP (with and without the turbo). Someone at the factory screwed up and "we" caught it. One of many examples.

Then I had a guy bring in an older M7040 once, said it had power issues. We dealt with it and found rpm lower than expected, boost lower than expected, but we found evidence that the engine was replaced at some point.....quizzed the owner and he bought it used so no information. I knew who he bought it from and quizzed that person. Said he overheated it and bought a junkyard engine and had it installed by his neighbor which did a decent job, even painted up the silicone worms sticking out between the bellhousing and block. Good job, looked factory. But what they didn't tell us is that they used an engine from a skid-steer, which is different but the same. We had fun with that one. Cost him a lot of labor time to figure it out.

I had a guy bring me an engine once, 3 cylinder 1305 if I remember right. Said it came from a mower. Ok, so I had to rebuild it. Pulled it down and during disassembly find that the governor was wrong for a mower, along with several other items....so we had to replace the governor parts, springs, it got a pump anyway as it was trashed from some idiot installing it incorrectly, and the rest of the overhaul stuff which is sop for any engine. He got it back and called me a month or two later and asked what I did to it. I put the right crap in it. He told me the engine came from an excavator originally and was installed onto a 331. No wonder. Excavator engine only runs like 2200 RPM where the 331 runs up around 3200 I think. Big difference. Another of many examples. G1800 was another one, someone swapped a D782 from a G2160 onto it. They look the same don't they?? SO they must be the same. RTV900/1100 engines look almost identical but they are not.
 
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GeoHorn

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May 18, 2018
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Thank you for that explanation Lugbolt. This sort of thing occurs across many different industries, but it’s hard to teach shade-trees otherwise.
I once landed a small plane at Lufkin, Tx and the landing gear collapsed causing me to block the runway directly in front of an airliner which had to make a low-level go-around with passengers and circle the area while we got the airplane removed to the ramp. It had what looked identical to the correct part...but in-fact, the landing gear main attach-bolt was a common hardware bolt some idiot had installed previously. ”Looks the same”. But it AIN’T.

(Glad the idiot didn’t install the wings.)
 

whitetiger

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Equipment
Kubota tech..BX2370, RCK60, B7100HST, RTV900 w plow, Ford 1100 FWA
Nov 20, 2011
2,542
1,056
113
Kansas City, KS
they are not supposed to be adjusted. Kubota doesn't even specify the low and high RPM in ANY of the RTV literature, nor will anyone at Kubota even give you that information. So where did you get it? I cant' say whether it's accurate or not because Kubota won't tell anyone, I'm only curious.

I asked about it and it was explained to me that the RPM adjustment both high and low are part of the EPA emissions stuff and that they cannot and will not give you specifications for high or low speed adjustments, and they also went on to explain that the stop screws are wired in a certain position for that reason, so people won't screw with them. Although-some do, and they are on their own from that point. I guess their thinking is that people will go turning up the fast idle speed which would make the engine make more HP, and on the 1100 and 1120/1140 it could potentially put the horsepower above the threshold. Just me thinking out loud, but frankly leave them alone. If the lockwire ain't busted on the stop screws, don't touch.
Kubota has always posted the High and Low RPMs for the RTVs in both the Operators Manual and The RTV Work Shop Manual for all models.

The lock wire on the adjustment screws are for warranty, cut them and lose your warranty. They are also a determent to keep people from fiddling with them.