New member from Dansville,NY

[Velle01]

Well I have been looking at Kubota tractors for a couple of years now. I was never sure on which model I wanted. I always debated between the BX and the B series. Well this past weekend I found a posting selling a BX1860 with a hard sided cab no other attachments. The price was good and the finance committee approved. It was an eight hour round trip to bring her home. She was previously owned by a hospital for snow removal. All of her controls were stuck. With a lil time, brake cleaner and penetrating oil, I got the brake, throttle, three pt, High and low, loader controls, parking brake levers to all work again. I am still working on getting the pto lever and pto selection levers to work. So the bad that I have found so far. The seller switched the side panels and grill form the original pics to one that was pretty broken up. I have also found the the lifting arms that attaches to the mower lift arms are broke off. I have just located the left lift arm and the mower lift arms. The 3pt hitch hardware is all frozen up also.
Here are some pics. I lovingly have named her Krusty.

 

[D2Cat]

Welcome to the forum. Purchase a bottle of this product and spray it on all the exposed rust after getting all the loose stuff brushed off. It'll do wonders to stop the rust, and you can paint right over it.

Amazon.com

 

[Magicman]

Wow, that is a neat looking rig. Welcome and thanks for the pictures.

 

[kenbx1860]

Well I have been looking at Kubota tractors for a couple of years now. I was never sure on which model I wanted. I always debated between the BX and the B series. Well this past weekend I found a posting selling a BX1860 with a hard sided cab no other attachments. The price was good and the finance committee approved. It was an eight hour round trip to bring her home. She was previously owned by a hospital for snow removal. All of her controls were stuck. With a lil time, brake cleaner and penetrating oil, I got the brake, throttle, three pt, High and low, loader controls, parking brake levers to all work again. I am still working on getting the pto lever and pto selection levers to work. So the bad that I have found so far. The seller switched the side panels and grill form the original pics to one that was pretty broken up. I have also found the the lifting arms that attaches to the mower lift arms are broke off. I have just located the left lift arm and the mower lift arms. The 3pt hitch hardware is all frozen up also.
Here are some pics. I lovingly have named her Krusty.

Hope you get everything working correctly, how do you like the cab. I have ordered a tect-tite cab for my bx1860 and am hoping I did the right thing. Am just tired of blowing snow when it’s -25. I get in and off the tractor a lot when using it for cutting and dragging trees digging potatoes with the loader etc. So hopefully it is easy to enter and leave the cab. What are your thoughts about that. I would take the doors off in the summer.

 

[Velle01]

Thank you all for the welcome. I have been working on ”Krusty” since the day I brought her home. I only have two things to free up now. The deck height adjustment knob is still seized up. The flow control for the 3pt hitch is still seized up. everything else works as it should. I have bought some parts that were broken or just not there anymore. I now have Krusty is my basement to continue on with cleaning sanding and then painting.

I also have been working on the cab. The cab had some areas that completely rotted away. I took those parts to a local fab shop for replacement. I have completely taken the remainder of the cab apart. I have sanded and repainted the complete cab frame and two of the front panels. I have decided not to work on the small rust areas on the cab doors.

I believe I am going to sell the cab when I get it all back together. For where I live we don’t get much snow fall. I have lived at my current residence for ten years. I have had several years that I never had to plow the driveway. The snow squalls from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario just don’t hit my area that often. Now I can look out my front window and watch the snow fall on the hill across the valley. Also you travel a couple miles north and to the south of my house and bam snowing like crazy.

A few years ago I found a soft side Curtis cab for my step dad. He has a BX 23. He lives in snow belt country off of Lake Erie. He loves the cab. He leaves the cab on year long. He has thought about getting a heater for his cab but hasn’t as of yet.

Here is a pic of my previous snow fighting setup. The first year I put this set up together I never had to plow

 

[kenbx1860]

Thank you all for the welcome. I have been working on ”Krusty” since the day I brought her home. I only have two things to free up now. The deck height adjustment knob is still seized up. The flow control for the 3pt hitch is still seized up. everything else works as it should. I have bought some parts that were broken or just not there anymore. I now have Krusty is my basement to continue on with cleaning sanding and then painting.

I also have been working on the cab. The cab had some areas that completely rotted away. I took those parts to a local fab shop for replacement. I have completely taken the remainder of the cab apart. I have sanded and repainted the complete cab frame and two of the front panels. I have decided not to work on the small rust areas on the cab doors.

I believe I am going to sell the cab when I get it all back together. For where I live we don’t get much snow fall. I have lived at my current residence for ten years. I have had several years that I never had to plow the driveway. The snow squalls from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario just don’t hit my area that often. Now I can look out my front window and watch the snow fall on the hill across the valley. Also you travel a couple miles north and to the south of my house and bam snowing like crazy.

A few years ago I found a soft side Curtis cab for my step dad. He has a BX 23. He lives in snow belt country off of Lake Erie. He loves the cab. He leaves the cab on year long. He has thought about getting a heater for his cab but hasn’t as of yet.

Here is a pic of my previous snow fighting setup. The first year I put this set up together I never had to plow View attachment 50412

Nice, I have the front mounted snow blower also with the hydraulic chute, the hydraulic is an expensive option but so nice, I guess I will see when I get my cab, I did order it with heat so that should be nice when it’s so cold here in Manitoba

 

[Velle01]

Well it is time for an update. Krusty has made her way into my shop for surgery. She has a ton of rust on her as you can see from the pics. It seem like everything on the rear of the tractor needs sanding and painting. I have been slowly removing parts and repainting them. I have located some parts that were missing as well.

I did a pretty big teardown tonight. I got all of the Rops off, tires, fuel tank, and some of the levers. I have already planned on removing the foot controls and brake linkage. I just not sure where I want to stop.

I read that you have to move the engine forward to install a new HST fan. I am thinking a removing the rearend of the tractor instead. I think that would give me great access to the rusted areas. I am curious as to your guys thoughts.

Enjoy the pics

 

[armylifer]

Wow, that is sure going to be a labor of love. As for the HST fan, I don't know which way to approach it would be easier at this point. It seems to me that if you remove the rear end that you may wind up creating problems with the transmission, but I don't know for sure. I would bet that if you PM North Idaho Wolfman that he could offer some valuable insight. Please be sure to keep updating us on your progress. I am particularly interested because I also own a BX1860. The pictures you post are very valuable too. If you happen to need any information on your tractor, I may be able to help you since I also own the same tractor. In case you do not have the WSM for your tractor here is a link to download manuals for free. The manual for your tractor can be found about halfway down the page on this link.

Index of Kubotabooks/Tractor Owners Manuals/

 

[802Driver]

Wow, I applaud you for taking on this tractor, I feel if you looked up "neglect" in the dictionary, a picture of this tractor would be posted. Most hospitals I would think run a tight ship, what happened to their tractor? I assume you got it for a song?

 

[Velle01]

So I have figured on a place to stop. I will dismantle everything I can up to the steering tower. So much less rust/damage from that point forward.

I have started to back out the rearend bolts. There are 8 on each side. the bolts for some reason aren’t the same size. The four inner bolts seem to be a 16mm and the outer four bolts are 19mm. I got all the 16mm bolts loosened up. I started to work on the 19mm bolts. First bolt I tried snapped the 3/8 brand new breaker bar I had. I was going to use my 1/2 breaker bar and realized I had broken all of my 1/2-3/8 adapters. Grrr. So I have ordered a new 3/8 breaker bar and an adapter. So not too much more has been removed.

there Shouldn’t be any reason that any damage will happen by taking the entire rearend assembly out. I have done that before on my garden tractors. I figure I will put a small cart under the trans so I can move it clean it then repaint it.

i am having a blast taking this apart. The penetrating oil I have sprayed on it seems to help. When that doesn’t work the torch and the grinder work. Only have had a few bolts I had to cut off.

Since it was mentioned I paid $2800 for the tractor and cab. Couple pics

 

[armylifer]

With bolts as difficult to loosen as you describe, maybe trying a pneumatic impact wrench might work better. I have found that to work for me.

 

[wgator]

Sometimes if the head of the bolt is corroded enough you can drive with a hammer the next size smaller socket onto it. If you have a harbor freight nearby get the 1/2 inch drive deep sae and metric 13 piece impact socket sets for $19.99 each, You can use them with a standard socket wrench too.

 

[Lil Foot]

For rounded-off bolt heads I have used this type of tool with great results in the past:

Amazon.com

 

[Velle01]

Thanks for all the comments. I have been breaking bolts for many years. I have always loved taking stuff apart and fixing it. I have an air compressor with an impact gun and a air chisel. I the past I had even more air driven stuff.

My dad borrowed my air compressor for a project in 1998. h asked to borrow it to paint the frame rails on now my brothers Bolens 1250 tractor. I just got the compressor back this summer. My dad gave my brother that tractor in 2003 or so. Needless to say I haven’t wired up the compressor yet. On some of the bolts I took a smaller socket or wrench and pounded that onto the bolt.

As of today I have almost completely have the rear half torn down. I have transmission removed and awaiting cleaning. I am thinking a good power washing and some brake clean will work. Then it’s on to sanding and paint.

Here are some pics.

 

[Velle01]

Well it’s time for an update. I have start the cleaning of the parts stage. I had decided to take a few more parts off of the transmission. There are a the lever mounts that needed to be cleaned and repainted. So I drove out the roll pin That holds those mounts on. I then used a bar and a hammed to drive off the mount. I did a few test hits to see if the lever mount will just come off. On the last hit I heard a pop. I thought cool that moved real easy. Well I was wrong. The pop I heard was the aluminum casting cracking.

so after and few choice words and a personal time out I posted a question looking for a welder.I got a great response from my friends on Facebook. I had three people to contact. I then started a text message to a friend about welding it. He informed me that the casting may have magnesium mixed into the aluminum. He then gave me a retired welders name.

I then called Jerry the welder. I told him what I had to get welded. He said bring it on over I’m not scared. Jerry lives about ten minutes away. I dropped the transmission off to him and two days later I had it back and welded up. i had a great time talking with Jerry. He is the go to guy around here for difficult welding projects. In his shop he had an old farm tractor with a broken crank. He was getting ready to weld up the crank. Another guy was dropping off a old log skidder with a damaged flywheel. Jerry said he was going to make new teeth on the flywheel. He said this isn’t the first time he has repaired teeth on a flywheel. So I thank you Jerry for your expertise.

Here are the pics of the crack and the finished weld.

 

[Velle01]

Well it’s time for a progress update. I have made a lot of progress since my last posting. A majority of parts have been wire wheeled, primed, and painted. The biggest issue I had was selecting the proper gray paint. I was going to go with the Kubota gray paint from the dealer. I knew that even if I got the dealer paint it wouldn’t match. I would be trying to match ten year old neglected paint. In addition was the cost of the pint of dealer paint. I even asked several places if they mix paint. The answer was nope. My local hardware store order me a pint of Massey Ferguson gray paint. It was a third of the cost. It matched up really well to that old paint. Ok enough talking here are some pics.

 

[mcmxi]

What a fantastic project! I tend to look after my stuff but it's amazing to see this Kubota being restored. Well done!

 

[Velle01]

Here are some more pics

 

[Velle01]

Here are a couple of picks from the other night. The bolts and retainers stripped out of the fender guides/handles. They are close to $50 a side. If they were broken I could see replacing. So I am filling the holes with epoxy. I will drill and tap the epoxy. I am not sure it will work but I am gonna try it. Also the one pic you guys guess what part it is. Enjoy.

 

[armylifer]

Here are a couple of picks from the other night. The bolts and retainers stripped out of the fender guides/handles. They are close to $50 a side. If they were broken I could see replacing. So I am filling the holes with epoxy. I will drill and tap the epoxy. I am not sure it will work but I am gonna try it. Also the one pic you guys guess what part it is. Enjoy.

I don't think that drilling and tapping epoxy will hold. Have you thought about using anchor bolts instead? They come in several sizes but here is just one example,

Global Industrial™ Anchor Bolt 1/2-13 x 3-3/4" - Pkg Qty 50

Global Industrial™ Anchor Bolt 1/2-13 x 3-3/4" - Pkg Qty 50. Ships in One Business Day. Buy it and Save at GlobalIndustrial.com

www.globalindustrial.com