1980 b7100

[Piker]

Just got an unbelievable deal on this tractor - everything works, engine starts easily, no smoke or noises (head rebuilt & injectors serviced 2 years ago). Needs a bunch of TLC - lower lift arms bent, rear hubs loose (already figured out a repair with previous owner, a welder buddy from way back), new paint & decals. My question is concerning the control valve lever used to raise & lower the 3 point. There appears to be no detent at the center or neutral position & it feels sloppy. If I raise the hitch, gravity will pull the handle down & the hitch lowers. If I raise it & hang onto it, it stays up fine. I have a photocopy of the service manual (came with the tractor) but the photos are very dark & I can't see what puts pressure on the arm internally & gives a detent at center.
2nd question - if I raise an implement about 1/2 way, then place lever back in the center position, will the hydraulics hold the hitch in that position, or is there no position control with this system? I also have a '47 Ford 8N that has Draft & Position control of the 3 point & the external quadrant lever has a cork washer that provides some friction to keep the lever where you set it.
3rd question - are the lower lift arms supposed to be far enough apart to accept a standard 26", Cat 1, 11 hole, drawbar?

 

[dusty-t]

Hi Piker, welcome to the forum. There is a procedure for setting the tension on the tph lever. But I can't recall what it is. If no one else responds ( some one will ) I will look at the wsm for my B8200 tomorrow and see what it says. There should be sway adjusters on one side or other of the lower tph arms to set the width. Mine will adjust out till the arms hit the tires. Dusty

 

[Piker]

Hi Dusty, I have the chain/turnbuckle check chains on mine as well, but both lower lift arms have been "tweaked" - left way more than right. I have no idea what the proper drawbar with (Cat 1 = 26") should be. Previous owner did not use one but since he used a 5' snowblower I'm guessing that before "tweaking" the lower lift arms would seperate to accept a 26" drawbar? What do you use on yours? I have seen mention of a 20" drawbar but not sure if it was for a B7100. I have access to a huge hydraulic press but would like to know what I'm shooting for. Some of the aftermarket ones I've seen are nearly straight & have a radical bend just aft of the rear tires to give an increased spread. Mine ( & pics of others on the Internet) appear to have slight bends near the ball joints on each end - similar to my old Ford 8N.

 

[dusty-t]

I will take pics of mine, they should be the same or close to it. I either have the snowblower or tiller on mine. I don't really tow anything with it. I use a Steiner for that. Here is a pic of the lower arm http://www.wengers.com/parts/Farm-T...es/Sub-Component/LOWER-LINK/01-6740165210.htm I will get pics of mine as well. Dusty

 

[Bellinghamster]

26" should fit with a bit of room to spare before rubbing on the tires (how much depends on the rear tire position on the axles).

Lower arms are supposed to be perfectly straight other than a "kick" (~15 degrees?) to the ball mounts welded to the ends.

The 3pt control lever should cause the 3pt to lift when pushed aft of center, lower when moved fwd of center and holds 3pt in position when centered, all regardless of the actual height of the 3pt. The center detent mechanism is internal to the valve body. There should also be a rod extending aft of the lever through a bracket on the right hand lift arm with adjustable stop blocks. It's function is to return the control lever to center when either extreme is reached, or can be set to limit how high or low you can make the 3pt go.

I'm not certain (I haven't taken it apart yet), but from the exploded diagram it looks like the detent spring and ball is behind the hex head bolt just below where the control lever shaft enters the valve housing.

 

[dusty-t]

Told Ya. Thanks Bellinghampster fer keepin me from bein a liar. Dusty

 

[stuart]

To answer the third question, I bought a scraper blade last year, and found that it was a bit too wide for the B7001 rear tires. Easy solution was to move the pins from pointing outward to pointing inward, which gave me an extra 2", which is all I needed.
Other solutions offered in the thread here were to move the tires out on the rear axles, or to switch them left to right and mount reversed (to keep the rice paddy treads facing the right way).
If you have less aggressive treads (ie turf tires) on your rear tires you may not have this problem.

 

[Piker]

Thanks guys, all questions answered for now. Swapped a bottle of Black Velvet for a front snow plow the other day. The frame runs clear to the back & attaches to the hitch under the PTO. I have a 12 volt winch I will mount on the front bumper to raise/lower. If that works OK, I'll see if I can re-work the blade to swing to either side manually. Expenses to date - tractor ($700 & a pair of canoe paddles I made), snow plow (Black Velvet $35), Blemished batt. ($40), diesel fuel ($10). Been running it around the neighbourhood, working great.

 

[dusty-t]

Ya gotta love it when a plan comes together. Dusty

 

[Piker]

Got my lower lift arms straightened out with proper angles at the ball ends. Standard 26", Cat 1 drawbar works fine, with a couple of inches to spare on each side. Snugged my check chains/turnbuckles up so there's no chance of snagging a rear tire tread.

 

[Piker]

Got just about everything done to my tractor that needed doing. Guess I'll wait until warm weather so I can paint it outside. Following is a link to my PhotoBucket page showing some of the repairs, including how I "rednecked" the badly worn original rear hubs. Everything is working great. Thanks to everyone who answered my questions when I first bought it.
http://s572.photobucket.com/albums/ss166/Piker_photos/Kubota B7100/

 

[Dan_R_42]

Piker, talk to me about those awesome looking hubs on your rear wheels. You featured them on photos 2 & 3 in your photo bucket attached to this thread.

Was that something that you built or had built ??? They look very heavy duty and that is always something that I felt was a weak link on my tractor. I would love to have something like that on my B7100D.

Dan

 

[Piker]

'Morning Dan. When I got my tractor the original hubs were completely worn out - the wheels could be rocked in & out at the top & wobbled badly when driven. I did the "redneck" repair myself. First I ground off the welds holding the original Kubota clamp affair, leaving a bare hub, split up the middle back to the wheel flange. I bought a couple of 3/4" barrel (coupling) nuts & cut each in half. I drilled the threads out of (1) half of each pair, then welded the nuts to the hubs - a threaded one on one side of the split & an unthreaded one on the other side of the split with a 3" x 3/4" bolt inserted loosely to keep things aligned, keeping at least 1/4" between the nut halves to give lots of room to tighten up. When I tightened the opposing bolts with my electric impact tool the hubs tightened up like they were welded on! Originally, the hubs were reversed on the axels (have seen them both ways), but I installed my modified ones so the flat side of the hub is just about flush with the end of the axel ( mainly to hide my big, semi-ugly modification!). I ran a 7/16" drill bit through the hub holes & existing axel holes, then used a Grade 8, 7/16" bolt & locking nut to replace the original flimsy pin. I finished up at 7:30 PM Xmas night & got everything back together just before it started snowing!
Plowed wet, heavy snow 3 times last week with lots of wheel spin & they are still tight as all get out. Easy fix if you weld yourself (or have a good buddy who does) but shouldn't cost much to farm it out to a welding shop. Print out my pics for reference to show your welder. Good luck with yours.

 

[Dan_R_42]

Thanks Piker,

You did a great job. I like your idea and the bulk is not that bad, especially when on the inside. Tractors should be bulky and rugged not flimsy. Kubota clamp design on my B7100, no matter how torqued on they are, move around and squeak at times under the plowing load. I have never had the occasion to ever move the wheels in or out on the axle, so having that welded on feeling and still being removable is a super safety mod in my book.

This is something that has bugged me for years. I now see a reasonable solution for me to tackle this spring.

Happy New Year...
Thanks, Dan

 

[Piker]

Happy New Year to all - Just finished plowing another 12" of wet, sticky snow & the old B7100 is working like a top. Quickly finding out that in the "burbs" you run out of room to plow snow in a hurry. Going to continue as long as I can just for the fun of it. Got the lawn tore up & gravel from the back yard spread over the back lawn. Ground is not frozen & the Kubota brings up lots of gravel when it's spinning. I have a perfectly good walk-behind snow blower but no seat on it. Just picked up a complete Kimpex 5' ATV blade for $100! More redneck engineering this week. That will free up my heavy current front blade to be made into a rear 3 point. Wife will be pleased when whole shebang gets moved to the cottage & left there!

 

[Dan_R_42]

Piker, your rear hub repair saved you big bucks... Just read an old post from March 2010 regarding hub repairs. I found this post from Bellinghamster.

The newer cast hub is Kubota P/N H6640-17300 (as far as I can determine), and is touted by many as a significant improvement over the original welded steel strap clamp style (PN 66704-17150). Apparently they're interchangeable - now obvious since your tractor has one of each!

Just checked my local Kubota dealer. Original welded steel strap, part no longer available. Newer P/N -17300 is $183.00 for hub only. Bolt, pin, lug bolts, etc are extra $$

Also, after looking at the new Kubota design yours does not seem to bulky. In fact by having a bolt on each side I feel it is more weight balanced and symetrical, and beefy than the Kubota design.

If I can locate an old usable hub right now, I may start to do a mod this winter (like you did), while still using B7100 this winter for snow with my exisiting hubs.

 

[Kytim]

Piker, talk to me about those awesome looking hubs on your rear wheels. Dan

I LOVE that mod. I'm gonna do it to all three of my "B" tractors. It looks good, it's strong, and fixes a long standing problem that is expensive otherwise to fix. Thanks for the Idea!

 

[SpudHauler]

Piker, when I ran a winch on my ATV for plowing I only used 10' of cable and saved the rest for summer use or whatever. Two things happen, the cable doesn't get all bunched up with just 10' and it's easier on the winch as the winch is at it's strongest on the first couple of wraps of cable.
Great solution and I like the chain limiters for side play.

 

[Piker]

Hey Spudhauler (ya gotta be from PEI !) When I picked up my $100 ATV plow it still has the manual lift lever on it (actually the plow, frame & mounting brackets/mechanism is in awesome shape). I find my winch is really slow now, since leaving only 2' of cable I have reduced the winch spool from 3" dia. to app. 1.5". Sketched up what I need to make some brackets to attach to the bellhousing with 3 bolts (attachment point for front mounted snow blower) to mount the plow using the original quick attach system. Might get at it in a week or so as I have a cabinet to build for a customer. Another thing about my "new" plow - the previous owner had fabbed up a hinged linkage (kind of like a Blue Heron's backwards bending knee !) so that as he reversed the winch, pulling up on this contraption,the linkage tries to straighten out & puts down force on the plow blade. If this all works I'll have to upload some more pics to my Photo Bucket page.

 

[Piker]

Dan R 42 - never saw the replacement hub until I went looking after reading your post. Seems like it is trying to do the same thing as I did but only from (1) side. I'm gonig to show this whole thread to my wife & show her how much money I've saved! She can't count the stick welder I had borrowed from a buddy & bought today (took mine to our cottage last Spring & left it there) or the (2) pairs of greasy old jeans & sweatshirts I had to burn in my wood stove in the shop as they weren't allowed back in the house. A bit of a chilly sprint!