L3130 died while driving, now cranks but no start

[Dock Rocker]

On my old L3130 moving from one side of the property to the other in the blacktop. Out of nowhere the tractor just died. It didn’t spit or sputter, it just died. When I tried to crank itnon the road it would crank but not start.

I assumed bad fuel since I had just filled it up from a drag tank to make the trip. I swapped in a new filter and pumped the fuel out and replaced it with fuel from the local station that is known good. I opened the bleeder and spun the motor.

I tried to start it and still cranks over and no start. I decided to go to the dark side and hit it with a little either. I pulled the filter and hit it with a shot of starting fluid and it still didn’t say a word. It didn’t even sputter. It seems that nothing is getting to the cylinders.

Any clue what would cause a sudden stop like that and not allow fuel past the injector pump?

I am at a loss. It should at least make a shot at starting with starting fluid but it just turns and nothing else.

 

[D2Cat]

Do you have air in the fuel system somehow?

If you insist on using starting fluid never spray it until the engine is turning over, and spray it at the air intake. This, at least, gets the explosion to all the cylinders not just one overloaded. Best not to use it at all.

 

[Russell King]

What you described sounds like it could be the shut off solenoid (that failed) that is near the injection pump.

I think you can remove it and increase the throttle position and start the tractor. Then you will have to manually shut the tractor down so you need to know how to do that before you start it!

 

[Dock Rocker]

Do you have air in the fuel system somehow?

If you insist on using starting fluid never spray it until the engine is turning over, and spray it at the air intake. This, at least, gets the explosion to all the cylinders not just one overloaded. Best not to use it at all.

I was trying to rule out air in the system.
If you supply fuel through the intake track and it sputters then you probably have air in the system. It didn’t do anything when I added the ether so it seems like nothing is getting to the cylinders.

 

[Dock Rocker]

What you described sounds like it could be the shut off solenoid (that failed) that is near the injection pump.

I think you can remove it and increase the throttle position and start the tractor. Then you will have to manually shut the tractor down so you need to know how to do that before you start it!

I have been digging through drawings to find it and it looks like it’s made into the injection pump. It sounds very strong when you engage the key to the start position. I can feel the thud in the injector pump when the key goes to start as well.
I am not sure how to bypass it for testing.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Throw the ether/ starting fluid in the trash can and I hope you haven't damaged the engine.

Next pull the stop solenoid off the engine (yellow), if it starts you have either a problem with the start solenoid or one of 2 circuits that feeds it.
The stop solenoid has 2 coils in it one is the pull in coil and the other is the hold coil.
If either isn't working it wont start and run.

The other issue would require you to bleed the air out of the injector lines.
You do this by loosening the lines at the injectors not the injector pump.
Also you need to make sure you are actually getting fuel to the injection pump.

 

[Dock Rocker]

Throw the ether/ starting fluid in the trash can and I hope you haven't damaged the engine.

Next pull the stop solenoid off the engine (yellow), if it starts you have either a problem with the start solenoid or one of 2 circuits that feeds it.
The stop solenoid has 2 coils in it one is the pull in coil and the other is the hold coil.
If either isn't working it wont start and run.

View attachment 167501

The other issue would require you to bleed the air out of the injector lines.
You do this by loosening the lines at the injectors not the injector pump.
Also you need to make sure you are actually getting fuel to the injection pump.

View attachment 167502

This is what I was looking for. Thank you so much.

I will go do some testing this afternoon and get back with my answers.

 

[FTG-05]

When this occurred with my L4330, it turned out to be the Operator Presence Control (OPC) timer. +$115 plus shipping from Kubota/Messicks; no aftermarket availability. Hence, I simply bypassed it.

My L4330 WSM also included L3130. It has a procedure to test the OPC. You have to take the dash panel apart to access it.

Good luck.

 

[Dock Rocker]

Sorry for the delay on replying. This one took some time to sort out. What’s worse is I still don’t know what exactly was wrong.

We chased things around with a meter and did not see any broken safety, loops or circuits. We went back to the beginning and started chasing fuel issues. We started and removed. The fuel cut off from the injector pump like instructed above and that did not help the problem. We could see that it was actuating as it should. We then started. At the injector and we were not getting fuel to the injectors. We started at the tank and worked each fuel on all the way to, and then through the injector pump to the fuel line going into the cylinder head.
We confirm flow through each line and make sure that we had good diesel going in the end. We put it all back together and then re-prime the system and it cranked and is running better than it running in years.

The best theory we can come up with as there was some sort of obstruction and we were able to.. We never saw anything visible, but we were flowing fuel through the lines so it would be hard to see and dyed fuel.

I wish I had a clean answer, but I don’t. The good news is the tractor is running again and all is well on the farm.