Newbie 1976 B6000

[KuB6000]

I just purchased a B6000 with rototiller (this will be it's primary use). I know nothing about the tractor, and I'm not certain the prior owner gave me very good instructions. Some maintenance is required:

1) The battery is no good. Voltage at 10.5 after running for quite a while. I am planning to replace it. I found a replacement car battery (450 or 520 cranking amps). Same dimensions as the one in the tractor now. Will this be sufficient? Is there any way to know whether the problem was as a result of the alternator/voltage regulator? Or should I just stick a new one in and hope for the best?

2) I drove the tractor home (about 1.5 miles). Halfway home I discovered a red light on above the key. Is this a low oil pressure light? Does it serve any other function i.e. temperature? I probably should have stopped, but I wasn't certain what it was, I wasn't certain if it was on the whole time, it was getting dark, the road was busy, and I had no means to restart (i.e. battery dead).

3) I just removed the hood so I could get a good look at the coolant level. I added about a gallon, and then spotted a leak in the lower hose. I'm pretty certain the tractor had absolutely no coolant for the 15 to 25 minutes it was running when I drove it home. It seemed to run fine - I noticed a slight surge in RPM's (i.e. it would gain or lose some). I thought it might be a govenor, but I don't even know if the tractor has one. Just before I arrived home, I stalled the tractor going through a gate. I was in too high of a gear. I got the clutch depressed well before the engine died, but it didn't seem to want to recover after I had "lugged" the RPM's down. I then brought the car to boost it, and I got it running about 20 minutes later. It turned over easy i.e. it wasn't seized. No paint burned off cylinders. Do you think I got lucky? Is there anything I can check to see if I did damage? I'm upset because I asked the prior owner if the water was good, and he told me it was. Could this be related to the light coming on?

4) I found the oil dipstick. Well hidden! Found that the prior owner had overfilled it. I doubt he knew there was a dipstick, because it looks like he probably filled it to the top of the fill cap. Oil was 3/4 of the way up the dipstick. Could this create any problems? Could it be related to the light coming on? The tractor was spewing oil through one of the overflow hoses, so I had a suspicion I would find it overfilled.

5) The prior owner showed me how to start the tractor. But I have suspicions I wasn't taught correctly. That is because I discovered you can turn the switch counter clockwise - I suspect this preheats the glow plugs? I asked him how to heat the glow plugs, but he said you just turn the key on, and then crank. When I turn the switch counter clockwise, smoke comes from the dash. I traced the smoke to a little resitor (or coil) I can see through a hole in the dash. I suspect it is getting hot and burning years of grease/dust off it. Does this make sense, or should I be concerned about this smoke? How long do you turn it counterclockwise for? Should that resistor glow red before I try to turn the engine over?

Are there any other maintenance items I should check over? I will check the air filter. I suspect there must be some gear oil and transmission oil to check to. Any good website resources for maintenance on the B6000?

Sorry for all of the silly questions. I have an operating manual, but it doesn't seem to answer any of these basic questions!

Thank you in advance,
Chris

 

[KuB6000]

Sounds like you are aware of this tractor's history?! Probably more aware than I am. I never knew what a B6000 was until I laid eyes on it. I just knew I needed a rototiller and it seemed like a good deal. The more I read about the tractor, the more I realize how good of deal it was.

The battery I was looking at was at Canadian Tire. It is an exact match for the size of the battery currently in the tractor. I don't think I can get anything bigger in that spot. It is one of their higher quality batteries. The question is whether or not I can source a battery from another source that higher cranking amps. I'll take a look.

How far is Arrowood from Calgary?

Thank you,
Chris

 

[Mr. K]

Arrowwood - down the road for 30 minutes and then make a left for another 30 minutes. When you are in the middle of nowhere, stop - you're there.

It's about an hour or so SE of Calgary. Welcome to the forum Chris, lots of good stuff here and people to help you out!

 

[TopGear]

Hi Chris

The B6000 is one tough little tractor, but you will still need to 'feed' it water and oil

Regarding the owners manual I agree its pretty lame. Also check out the B6100 owners manual which is very similar to the B6000. Check out
http://www.kubotabooks.com/AutoIndex/index.php?dir=Tractor%20Owners%20Manuals/&AutoIndex=2e43f0cf29f4cdc565540fc3d664e937

It gives oil types etc to use.

Also part manual here for the B6000 and B6100, which you may also like:
http://www.kubotabooks.com/AutoIndex/index.php?dir=Tractor%20Parts%20Manuals/

I don't think there is a WSM for the B6000? (But I may stand corrected?) I brought a WSM for the B5100, B6100 and B7100 which covers almost everything on the B6000 except the motor, which is 2cyl. not 3cyl.

Regarding changing the air filter and hydraulic filters they are not replacable. You simply just wash/clean them out. The air filter is an oil bath which you just clean and replace with new motor oil - the B6000 is even cheap to maintain

The B6000's usually seem to go pretty cheap. They have a counter clockwise rotating PTO which puts people off (some people think the grass know's which way it is being cut) but really its pretty easy to convert mowers/slashers etc for use on the B6000. The only problem you may have is with post hole diggers etc. They are very tough little tractors and seem to take a lot of abuse. The CCW PTO also has advantages for rotary hoe use.

Anyway have fun Kubotaering with your B6000.

Cheers John

 

[KuB6000]

Thank you for all of the great information. I found a battery. I'm not sure if I need it - there are other charging problems. I started a new thread to discuss.

As for the oil pressure light, it has not come on again. I haven't ran the tractor for more than a couple minutes, so perhaps it will return once I warm it up. Given all of the "gremlins" I'm finding in this tractor, I would like to change the oil before I run it much more.

The tractor sure sounds nice when running. If I overheated it, I don't think I hurt it too bad.

Chris

 

[KuB6000]

P.S. the transmission fluid is also way overfilled I assume the dipstick in front of the seat is the transmission fluid?

Are there any other fluids in this machine to check? So far I've located engine crankcase oil, transmission, oil in air breather, and coolant.

Does the rototiller have a separate oil reservoir? There are a couple red caps that I have noted, but I haven't checked them yet.

 

[KuB6000]

Here's a picture (sorry my ugly mug is in it):

 

[dusty-t]

Welcome to the forum KuB6000. You are going to love that little tractor. I had a B6000 a few years ago. As someone else said on this forum, the B should stand for Beast. Don't sweat the small stuff, if you drove it one and a half miles home the way it was, that poor little tractor was just trying to get to a new home with a good owner. If you do as Vic advises, change fluids belts hoses etc.That tractor will go for another 30 years at least.Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Rich C]

Hi Chris,
Yes the rototiller has several oil resevoirs, as it is realy a piece of seperate equipment from the tractor, and is eaisily removable by releasing the four nuts, and the lifting arms, not forgetting to drop the stand first.
There are no level indicators for the oil resevoirs, so it would be prudent to drain and replace the oil with the correct measured ammount for each point.
If you have a manual, the oiling checklist is on page 36,37

Rich

 

[chiefbuzzbee]

Wow how time passes so fast, I sure would like to hear how you are doing with your B6000. I also have one and as they all have said its a Beast, hard running and just keep on running.