L2550D Front Axle Seals & Backhoe Question

[wannabe]

Hoping some folks with similar or the same model tractor can shed some light on "Re-sealing" the front axle on my 1985 L2550D tractor. I've been told this is a common problem especially given it's age and low hours (650) so it did a lot of sitting. How difficult is it to pull the axle sides apart to reseal the joints and should I be looking at doing the bearings as well? I have yet to take it apart due to another project being in the garage at the moment but this needs to be fixed since the axle is dry.

Also, I picked up a Woods backhoe attachment for the same tractor which has been fun but needs cylinder repacking. The part that's confusing is determining what cylinders are on the machine, i.e. from Wood's book I have that came with it, Lantex or Energy are the cylinder manufacturers. The Dipperstick cylinder and stabilizers are the leakers but they only have what looks like a part number on the butt end of them. Dipperstick is D-12-QE and one stabilizer is F A 2T, somewhat difficult to read. I need to pull off the other stabilizer which will happen today. Not sure whether the "E" in the Dipperstick number means it's an Energy or not? The backhoe is a BH750-2 with serial number 04462, going by the Wood's description of looking at these cylinders in the book, my best guess is that the Dipperstick is an Energy and the stabilizers are Lantex since they have no E stamped and the the Woods description said the Lantex cylinders can have no stamping. If there's a different spot on the cylinders I should look at, let me know and I'll clean it up but I could only find what's pictured. The left photo is the Dipperstick and the right is the stabilizer.

Can anyone shed any light on these two items? Your help is greatly appreciated and I'll be sure to post pics along the way when I get to the axle repairs.

 

[Cglaza]

I can't speak to the backhoe but the front axle seals was fairly easy. I have an 1999 L2500 that was leaking in the left pivot seal and leaking from the right axle flange seal. I pulled both sides off the axle so that I could work on them from my bench. The hardest part was getting the bearings off the shaft after splitting the portals apart. I replaced the o rings from the portals to the axle and the large o rings for the portal cases. I also ordered new bearings in case I destroyed the bearings getting them apart. Also ordered the new axle seals for both sides and the pivot seals for both sides (since they were coming apart anyway). The bearings we're still good (560 hours) but used the new ones anyway. The new pivot seals were redesigned from the old ones so follow the directions for Installation carefully. The seals were $50 a side so you don't want to screw it up. Replaced everything and put it all back together (keep track of how it all came apart, it's easy to reverse a spacer and locking collar under the portal gear). Refilled it with 80w90 and it's been leak free for three weeks now.

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[wannabe]

Those photos will be helpful for the front axle seal replacement. I'll price out all the parts, including the bearings given the age but won't know until it's all apart. Can't imagine the bearings being worn much but you never know. I'll study it all up and make sure I do it right the first time, $50 per seal is steep but isn't everything Kubota! Nice tractor and barrel setup! That's something I've been trying to figure out how to setup for what I do, the backhoe will likely hang on the back most of the time but there is the wood chipper I also have for it. Again, thanks for the photos, they help clarify what I'll be up against.

Any idea how much time it took you to go through the axle on your tractor?

 

[Cglaza]

A couple days but that was waiting for parts from messicks after I got it apart and found the axle flange seal leaking also. I've never done this before so it took me just for the axles about six hours. I was also doing other service work to it since the fan belt broke so that was when I brought it into the garage for it to be down for about a week. I had to get all it's maintenance done and a thorough cleaning and inspection making sure all the nuts and bolts were tight. There are some good YouTube videos that helped alot. I would suggest you look them up. Pretty much all of the Kubota front axles from the L series up are fairly identical in the way they go together and come apart. I hope you have a good set of snap ring pliers because you will need them and a brass hammer or drift is extremely helpful. The hardest thing for me to get off was the first large bearing on top of the portal gear. In the videos, guys were taking screwdrivers and popping them off no problem. I had some substantial prybars and ended up heating the inner race around the shaft to get it to loosen it's grip. After that, pretty easy. Another trick is make sure you have the breather plugs on the portals out when you fill the axle back up with oil. That aids in filling the axle all the way without the portal axles airlocking.

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