Grey market tractors ARE different

[Gannon]

Hi
I own a Zennoh ZB6000 which is supposed to be identical to the locally delivered Kubota B6000.... well this proves otherwise

I broke a gear a few months ago when I accidentally dropped the clutch with the PTO engaged. orangetractortalks.com/I broke a gear

It smashed 1st speed /PTO low driving gear into 4 pieces so with the help of the parts manual I ordered a replacement only to find it has one less tooth (13 instead of 14) and is 2mm longer... WTF!!!

Back to the dealership we double check the part numbers and its the right part. So whats going on.

I go home and count the number of teeth on the gears in my gearbox and compare them to the parts manual... The other gears are different too. Back at the dealership we come to the realisation that Jap market tractors have different gear ratios to suit the tilling machines they are permanently attached to.
Luckily the 2 gear that this gear meshes with have 29 teeth in both my tractor and the parts manual so theoretically it should work.

So the solution... put the gear on the lathe and take 4mm off it and make a new spacer 2mm longer. The reason for the -4mm +2mm was to make the teeth line up with the meshing gear and allow enough room for neutral
The result

I still havent finished putting it back together but I'll let you know how it goes.

As it sits as of this afternoon

 

[hodge]

Great work- it will be interesting to see if it works, and how the ratios change.

 

[Rob]

Yep, its like i've been saying for a while now from 1st hand experience, externally they look the same or in some cases very similar but internally its can be a whole different ball game.
a lot of the early " B" series do at first glance look to be the same part, and infact a lot of the main castings are, but it is not until you start messing about with differing models and parts that you come across very sutle variations to parts and castings that you may have assumed were the same.

A classic example is the B7100 - v - B7001 , they are said to be the same machine (they ae not) except to look at that is.
a much closer inspection and comparison of the two said machines in the rearaxle & gearbox casings area to start with will clearly show differing castings and also differing PTO output setup and fittings, also certain bolt holes are blank on the 7001 which are threaded and used on the 7100, its a big list to be honest and applies to a lot of machines.

As with most things , sometimes its all trial and error i'm afraid.

good luck with it.