What a difference a new set of glow plugs makes

[cmorningstar01]

Tractor...late 1970's Kubota B5100E 2 cyl diesel ...one of my go to vehicles for dragging equipment,trailers,etc around the yard,plowing snow from my drive and yes I even had a 48" finish mower on it. I purchased it back in 2009 and put a new head gasket and glow plugs back then, It has served me well over the last 10-11 years but it was getting harder and harder to start and was puffing lots of white smoke when cranking it to start, I know it is an old machine but it seemed like it still had plenty of power so I decided to go ahead and replace the glow plugs, Ordered a set from Kumar Bro's here in NJ and had them in 3 days, Put them in this morning, I ran the machine yesterday and when I started it yesterday morning I had to hold the key in the preheat glow plug position for over 30 seconds, the glow plug indicator in the dash would barely glow red and the machine would crank for at least 25-30 revolutions before starting and would puff white and black smoke for about 10-15 seconds after starting and it seemed like it was only running on 1 cylinder for the first few seconds after startup.
So...I put the new glow plugs in this morning, turned the key to glow plug preheat, the dash indicator was bright red in less than 10 seconds, I turned the key to crank and that little 2 cylinder Kubota started and was purring like a kitten in less than 5 revolutions.

So...once again a little bit of maintenance makes life a lot easier

I am off to drag my 22 ton log splitter around behind my barn to split some firewood and yes I will be pulling the splitter with the B5100E.


Just for fun I checked the resistance on the new glow plugs, they both tested at around .9-1.0 ohms
I tested the old ones I took out and the front plug tested at 2.3 ohms and the rear plug at 3.4 ohms

 

[Nicfin36]

That had to be a good feeling knowing the new glow plugs did the trick. I have yet to use mine. Maybe, one day.