Noise when depress forward or reverse - B3200

Ironman

New member
Good day all:

Well, I figured out what was wrong with my B7510 HST some time ago. I live on Vancouver Island and when I went to the dealer to ask about SUDT2, got a blank stare. I was then asked if I planned to take my tractor to the prairies (I grew up in Saskatchewan, I know what cold is). In the end the dealer here doesn't carry it because, as he stated, we don't need it here. So, I went home with new filters and jugs of UDT. I put the tractor in the shop and began draining the old UDT from the various drain plugs. I was very startled when, instead of hydraulic fluid coming out I got what looked like very thin grease. It didn't flow out as much as drip out with a consistency of tomato paste. About two cups of this gunk came out and then, lo and behold, very clean looking UDT. I replaced my filters and then removed the suction screen. I had to soak this for about an hour in solvent as it was totally plugged with this gunk. Sorry forgot to mention at the beginning of this reply that the tractor had started to have performance issues. Basically it seemed as though it was running low on fluid as I was losing power and had erratic operation. Well once I saw the plugged suction screen the performance issues were a no brainer. I reinstalled the screen once it was clean and refilled the tranny with the new UDT. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise, all of a sudden the tractor has noticeably quieted down and I can spin all four wheels when I'm pulling tree stumps again.

I can only guess that somewhere along the lines water was able to find it's way into the system thus creating the sludge. I'm not sure if this has happened since I purchased the tractor as I've had it in a shed the whole time other than when actually using it in the rain, Vancouver Island remember. I've done a couple of test drains on the new fluid and have gotten very small amounts of sludge out again. I'm assuming that this is remnants from before working it's way into the drain wells. I plan to pull the suction screen at 100 hours on the UDT to see if it's building up there again.

So here's the moral of the story, when I bought the tractor I watched all of the videos on what you should do when you get your used Kubota home. Yeah you guessed it, I skipped the part where I was supposed to drop all of the fluids. Chances are I could have avoided this issue if I'd followed this advice.
 

CaveCreekRay

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3800 HST, KingKutter box scraper, KingKutter 66" rake, County Pride Subsoiler
Jul 11, 2014
2,631
100
48
Cave Creek, AZ
Ironman,

Water -or condensation, combined with "whirling gears" is the perfect recipe for making "foam sludge."

I bought a used '96 BMW 525i and when I got it home, I noticed the same gunk you described around the top of the oil cap. Some of it had formed on the inside of the valve cover. My Bro used to own a European car repair shop and suggested, because it had been serviced at the dealer, that I take a long drive in it and see if the sludge goes away. I had wiped most of it away but found no more forming after a thousand miles. Arizona is pretty dry, most of the year. This car was an AZ car but had been driven short distances and never dried out the innards. Just to be sure, I swapped out the oil cap and never had another problem. And, I changed the oil after 1000 mi just to get any more "chunkules" out.

My L3800 had 126 hours on it when I test drove it. I couldn't believe how loud the box screamed when in high range at 2200 RPM with the FWD pedal mashed. Now, I wear an AM/FM headset (Honeywell) that makes that problem go away but, I may swap over to SUDT sooner than scheduled just to quiet the beast down.

Part of the squeal is the high-pressure fluid noise when you transition from STOP to GO, like a water faucet when you first turn it barely on. The other thing the dealer reminded me was the gearbox is built out of straight-cut gears. Bevel gears in cars are nice and quiet but, straight cut are stronger.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, I worked for an airline that used Kubota tractors as baggage tugs. I watched the ramp Gomers abuse the bloody hell out of the poor machines -and they took it. Full throttle FWD from a standing start (wheel spin) to top speed ass-hauling only to throw the pedal in full REV, inducing more rear wheel spin backwards as the poor tug chattered to a stop -all on CONCRETE! These were mid-80's Kubotas and they took the abuse. That is why I bought the HST without a worry. If'n it ain't working, its likely boogered up fluid. You should be way-good to go sir.

Have fun...
 
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