New member New old tractor help

[Gandyman64]

Hey. New member and about a month ago I bought what I was told a ready to work l345dt. With allegedly 514 hrs.

Well when I was buying it I noticed a few things with it but they seemed fairly minor. Fel seals weeping a little, tires had some cracking but good tread, needs seat cover and tie rod ends, loader not origonal to tractor but the right model, ect. And pretty sure hours aren't origonal but all in all it was pretty clean and very dry. Minor dents but other than loader seals weeping no leaks.

Fast forward to now. The bad.

It came with no attachments so I wasn't able to fully test PTO and I have since found out the clutch will not disengage the pto at all and I cant really feel the 2nd stage in the pedal. Adjustment is correct at the rod.

The lift cylinders on the fel seem weak and slow. When curling and lifting the bucket will actually drop. Curl seems pretty strong and both will lift tractor at idle and nothing seems to bleed down when engine is off sitting for over an hour. I already replaced the spool valves cuz I'm planning on putting a grapple on this thing once I get the lifting situation in check. so I'm hoping repacking the cylinders will fix it.

I know I gotta check my pressure but dont have the gauge yet. I already changed fluid and cleaned screen. No change but the old fluid was pretty nasty with water contamination. The situation get worse when the hyd are warm. Pump makes no noise and it didnt seem to get hot or anything. This tractor doesn't have the separate fel pump up front, just shares the pump with the 3 pt.

It feel like it has more black smoke than it should but maybe its just the fuel cuz it does seem to be getting better with fresh fuel and injector cleaner.

Biggest problem is where do I find parts for this thing other than the dealer. I have manuals and part numbers but it appears this model wasn't a popular one and parts are not readily available.

The size of this thing is perfect but I'm a little concerned about parts availability. Sorry for the ramble just wanted to give u guys as much info as possible

Thanks for any imput

 

[motionclone]

i have an L345DT also early 80s vintage. Maybe your clutch is just stuck from sitting.

Mine smoked a little until I ran it good and hard for about an hour then things got and stayed better. They dont like to sit for a long time apparently.

Slow loader is because the tractor pump doesnt put out much GPM most likeley. I have an aftermarket Great Bend and mines slow as well.

Love my tractor very reliable so far and very useful. Some parts are availible from Kubota dealer and some are not, have to scour ebay or places like here there are guys who sell used parts

Post up some pics of yours

 

[armylifer]

Hey. New member and about a month ago I bought what I was told a ready to work l345dt. With allegedly 514 hrs.

Well when I was buying it I noticed a few things with it but they seemed fairly minor. Fel seals weeping a little, tires had some cracking but good tread, needs seat cover and tie rod ends, loader not origonal to tractor but the right model, ect. And pretty sure hours aren't origonal but all in all it was pretty clean and very dry. Minor dents but other than loader seals weeping no leaks.

Fast forward to now. The bad.

It came with no attachments so I wasn't able to fully test PTO and I have since found out the clutch will not disengage the pto at all and I cant really feel the 2nd stage in the pedal. Adjustment is correct at the rod.

The lift cylinders on the fel seem weak and slow. When curling and lifting the bucket will actually drop. Curl seems pretty strong and both will lift tractor at idle and nothing seems to bleed down when engine is off sitting for over an hour. I already replaced the spool valves cuz I'm planning on putting a grapple on this thing once I get the lifting situation in check. so I'm hoping repacking the cylinders will fix it.

I know I gotta check my pressure but dont have the gauge yet. I already changed fluid and cleaned screen. No change but the old fluid was pretty nasty with water contamination. The situation get worse when the hyd are warm. Pump makes no noise and it didnt seem to get hot or anything. This tractor doesn't have the separate fel pump up front, just shares the pump with the 3 pt.

It feel like it has more black smoke than it should but maybe its just the fuel cuz it does seem to be getting better with fresh fuel and injector cleaner.

Biggest problem is where do I find parts for this thing other than the dealer. I have manuals and part numbers but it appears this model wasn't a popular one and parts are not readily available.

The size of this thing is perfect but I'm a little concerned about parts availability. Sorry for the ramble just wanted to give u guys as much info as possible

Thanks for any imput

With the water contamination in the Hyd Fluid that you mentioned, I suggest changing that fluid immediately. Water in the fluid would affect all aspects of performance in your tractor including the lift rate for the FEL. The contaminated Hyd Fluid may also be the reason that the bucket is dropping.

As for the tires showing cracking, that may not be too important in the immediate term if you are not operating on a highway. However, that cracking means that the rubber has deteriorated to the point of near failure. Without pictures or seeing the tires in person one cannot possibly know how much damage is really done to the tires but you should be aware that tires could fail at any time. You may want to consider replacement at the earliest possible time that you can afford them.

 

[D2Cat]

"007Kubotaguy" on this forum may have parts you need. Send him a PM. He has older Kubotas he parts out.

 

[jetattblue]

007Kubotaguy is awesome to work with! I highly recommend reaching out to him for parts.

 

[Gandyman64]

With the water contamination in the Hyd Fluid that you mentioned, I suggest changing that fluid immediately. Water in the fluid would affect all aspects of performance in your tractor including the lift rate for the FEL. The contaminated Hyd Fluid may also be the reason that the bucket is dropping.

As for the tires showing cracking, that may not be too important in the immediate term if you are not operating on a highway. However, that cracking means that the rubber has deteriorated to the point of near failure. Without pictures or seeing the tires in person one cannot possibly know how much damage is really done to the tires but you should be aware that tires could fail at any time. You may want to consider replacement at the earliest possible time that you can afford them.

I did flush out the hyd system twice. I got a gauge ordered. The other thing is it acts like there's air in those cylinders cuz when u abruptly go up or down they pump like 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I've tried bleeding and sometimes they work properly but most of the time they do not. I got a gage ordered.

Not that worried about the tires. I'll just keep my eyes out for some deals or something.

 

[shootem604]

My tires are pretty cracked too, but the tread is good. Thinking about foam filling them, since right now the sodium chloride is starting to eat my rims and needs to go.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Sounds like your sucking air into the pump, check the hose and all fittings on the suction side of the pump for seeping leaks, they will be wet but not flowing.

Pressure issues are usually the result of a bad relief valve.

I'm sending you a PM for the WSM for that tractor, it will help in troubleshooting.

Another possibility, on loader control and power could be that the FEL control is hooked up wrong, and that's usually the case when I here of these kind of issues.

 

[Russell King]

It came with no attachments so I wasn't able to fully test PTO and I have since found out the clutch will not disengage the pto at all and I cant really feel the 2nd stage in the pedal. Adjustment is correct at the rod.



Thanks for any imput

I don’t think you have a two stage clutch. I know my L185 of similar vintage is single stage so you may be expecting something you don’t have.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[D2Cat]

Russell, my L305 is two stage, and I'm pretty sure his L345 is also. Here's a thread with a little info. http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23009

 

[Gandyman64]

Sounds like your sucking air into the pump, check the hose and all fittings on the suction side of the pump for seeping leaks, they will be wet but not flowing.

Pressure issues are usually the result of a bad relief valve.

I'm sending you a PM for the WSM for that tractor, it will help in troubleshooting.

Another possibility, on loader control and power could be that the FEL control is hooked up wrong, and that's usually the case when I here of these kind of issues.

Thank you for the link.

Time is a bit thin this weekend but hopefully I can find some time to go over the hyd system again. If I find signs of seeping and the fitting is tight what do u suggest for sealer? I hear teflon tape is no good for hyd but I do have ARP teflon paste. Or can pick up something different if a better product.

I tried reversing the fel control lines and that didnt work at all it pretty much was dead heading the system every time u pulled the lever.

 

[Gandyman64]

Good news. I finally got some time working on the tractor tonight.

Checked pressure it was 2000 psi so that's good. Drained the hyd oil again which it was still a little milky and while I was there I took apart the filter housing and realized someone had kinda tweaked it so the filter wasn't sitting right in the housing and semi kinked the bends so I heated it up and bent it back.

Went though and checked all connections which all seemed fine then filled her up with fresh fluid and now it seemes to be working properly. I didnt really get to fully test out its lifting capacity but from what I can tell its acting way better than it's ever been. It no longer drops as I try to lift and curl, it just lifts and curls and no longer acts like there's air in the system.

 

[armylifer]

Good to hear that it is working properly now. You might want to watch that fluid color to make sure it stays clean. You probably washed a lot of rust from where the water conamination did its damage. You also may want to check the seals closely. There may be some damages just waiting to become a full failure. To check the fluid again for contamination use a turkey baster to suck a fluid sample from the fill port. Good luck and happy tractoring.