T2290 Drive Belt Replacement

[Cowboy Joe]

First off, thank you for the reply. Thanks for the advice with the washers. I have taken the two pulleys apart 5 times to see what I might have missed, or did wrong. I measured the washers from the Kubota parts illustration to make sure I have been putting the right washers where they need to be with no luck. There is no torque spec for the long bolt that goes up through the pulley and the idler arm, so it's guessing game. As I mentioned in the other post the factory shop manual is worthless. How could you make a shop manual and NOT show how to replace the drive belt and pulleys? This has been verified by another Kubota dealer. I am in the process of trying to get Kubota to buy back this mower. They are saying I have to reach out to my dealer, and then they would have to get a hold of their service representative to see about buying back the mower. Kubota is saying there is NO known issues with the T2290, or recalls. BULLSHIT!! I am selling this mower as soon as its fixed if they do not buy it back. Going green this time, X390.

As for your mower not starting, I had the same thing happen to me in February. It ended up being the fuel solenoid. Yours could be a different issue. I have no idea what the problem could be with your axle. Thankfully mine is not broken YET. I am pissed off to say the least.

Our family has a large working farm in western Wisconsin. We have a mid-size Kubota (it never runs due to electronics), an absolutely bullet-proof New Holland, and a JD crawler/dozer (along with other vintage pieces). I really need a compact or sub-compact with a bucket and maybe hoe attachment. I reached out to the Kubota dealer (and Kubota) and told them about the T2290 and my plans for more equipment. They did not care in the slightest that I spent two days on my back with a mower that had 60 hours. I was only asking for some guidance...nothing more. Nor did they care that we recently bought the mid-size Kubota (brand new). Nor did they care that I was planning to add a sub-compact. Just looked at JD...0% financing for 60 months.

I wanna like Kubota but they just don't care. So I am done. Who knows what I will do with my T2290. I just want it out of my garage and off my property. I know there are a lot of fans of Kubota on this site and not looking to upset anyone. The dealer and the company have treated me with total indifference and the T2290 is an absolute joke. Biggest POS I have ever purchased. Period.

 

[sivicman]

Our family has a large working farm in western Wisconsin. We have a mid-size Kubota (it never runs due to electronics), an absolutely bullet-proof New Holland, and a JD crawler/dozer (along with other vintage pieces). I really need a compact or sub-compact with a bucket and maybe hoe attachment. I reached out to the Kubota dealer (and Kubota) and told them about the T2290 and my plans for more equipment. They did not care in the slightest that I spent two days on my back with a mower that had 60 hours. I was only asking for some guidance...nothing more. Nor did they care that we recently bought the mid-size Kubota (brand new). Nor did they care that I was planning to add a sub-compact. Just looked at JD...0% financing for 60 months.

I wanna like Kubota but they just don't care. So I am done. Who knows what I will do with my T2290. I just want it out of my garage and off my property. I know there are a lot of fans of Kubota on this site and not looking to upset anyone. The dealer and the company have treated me with total indifference and the T2290 is an absolute joke. Biggest POS I have ever purchased. Period.

I feel the same way about my dealer and Kubota Corporate. They just don't care. Basically , it sucks to be you. I used to own a Kubota B7610 w/loader back in 2015 and loved it. It was a workhorse and never let me down. That's one reason why I went back to Kubota this time around to find a garden mower.

 

[Cowboy Joe]

First off, thank you for the reply. Thanks for the advice with the washers. I have taken the two pulleys apart 5 times to see what I might have missed, or did wrong. I measured the washers from the Kubota parts illustration to make sure I have been putting the right washers where they need to be with no luck. There is no torque spec for the long bolt that goes up through the pulley and the idler arm, so it's guessing game. As I mentioned in the other post the factory shop manual is worthless. How could you make a shop manual and NOT show how to replace the drive belt and pulleys? This has been verified by another Kubota dealer. I am in the process of trying to get Kubota to buy back this mower. They are saying I have to reach out to my dealer, and then they would have to get a hold of their service representative to see about buying back the mower. Kubota is saying there is NO known issues with the T2290, or recalls. BULLSHIT!! I am selling this mower as soon as its fixed if they do not buy it back. Going green this time, X390.

As for your mower not starting, I had the same thing happen to me in February. It ended up being the fuel solenoid. Yours could be a different issue. I have no idea what the problem could be with your axle. Thankfully mine is not broken YET. I am pissed off to say the least.

Very interesting. I cannot see the fuel moving through the now clear fuel filter. I did relace the fuel pump with no difference noted. Didn't even know there was a fuel solenoid (but makes sense).

 

[sivicman]

Final Update:
After trying to find out where the squealing was coming from 6 times, I final gave up and took it to my local Kubota dealer. I picked the mower up and they said the rear idler pulley was bad and the belt bracket needed adjusting. $404 later. I replaced all 3 pulleys when I attempted to do the job myself. So are Kubota parts defective right out of the box? The dealer also said that there has been revisions to the factory workshop manual that has the information in it now how to replace the drive belt that includes torque specs. The copy I have does not. I still have a case pending with Kubota Corporate. I am trying to get them to pay for the service since this is a known problem with this model. Kubota says it would be up to the dealer to reimbursed me for the repairs. The dealer said they have to meet with the factory rep to see if Kubota will pay them for the repairs. Kubota knows this was a design defect and won't admit it. Either way the mower is going up for sale.

 

[Chuckinnj]

The T2290 is a nice machine but the belt and pulley replacement job sucks! I had to change the pulleys and belt on mine and it was a three hour job that entailed taking a lot of parts off to do a simple job. I had ONE pulley that was screaming so I replaced all pulleys and main belt since I had everything apart.

TIP! DO NOT wash out debris from around the pulleys system with water because it will cause bearing failure over time. I purchased my T2290 from a guy who got frustrated with the machine and he did not want to pay a shop to change one pulley so he sold it. After I replaced the pulleys and belt everything has been working great for years.

 

[NCL4701]

Drive belt broke on mine a few days ago at 75 hours. Took much longer than I preferred to replace. Mowed with it for about an hour yesterday and all seemed to be good. I do still like the mower, but that belt replacement is crazy; possibly because I’m more familiar with drive belts that are you exposed after the deck is removed, which is a piece of cake compared to this thing.

Remove:

• Deck
• Hood and cowling
• Steering column (no need to remove steering wheel since you have to pull the whole column anyway)
• Unplug all the dash wiring
• Park brake cable
• Throttle cable
• Choke cable
• Dash/console
• Unplug wiring for deck clutch and remove deck clutch
• Rear wheels (to access belt keeper on HST)
• Brackets for brake and treadle rods. Don’t have to remove all linkages, just remove the mount brackets so the rods will drop down a little.
• Bracket that holds the front two idlers.
• Engine sheave belt keeper
• HST sheave belt keeper

Replace drive belt. If any of the idlers need replacing, this would be the time to do it. Reinstall all the stuff you just took off.

 

[Chuckinnj]

Once you do this job, the next time you have to do a replacement it will be quicker!

 

[Bee-Positive]

Drive belt broke on mine a few days ago at 75 hours. Took much longer than I preferred to replace. Mowed with it for about an hour yesterday and all seemed to be good. I do still like the mower, but that belt replacement is crazy; possibly because I’m more familiar with drive belts that are you exposed after the deck is removed, which is a piece of cake compared to this thing.

Remove:

• Deck
• Hood and cowling
• Steering column (no need to remove steering wheel since you have to pull the whole column anyway)
• Unplug all the dash wiring
• Park brake cable
• Throttle cable
• Choke cable
• Dash/console
• Unplug wiring for deck clutch and remove deck clutch
• Rear wheels (to access belt keeper on HST)
• Brackets for brake and treadle rods. Don’t have to remove all linkages, just remove the mount brackets so the rods will drop down a little.
• Bracket that holds the front two idlers.
• Engine sheave belt keeper
• HST sheave belt keeper

Replace drive belt. If any of the idlers need replacing, this would be the time to do it. Reinstall all the stuff you just took off.
View attachment 177444 View attachment 177446 View attachment 177447

OMG!!!!
That's the biggest PITA I've seen in a long time just to replace a belt!

 

[sivicman]

The Kubota factory rep for my region said that he looked up warranty claims for the T2290 drive belt issue, and said there was very little. Then he said drive belts are not covered under warranty because its a wear item. DUH!!! Do you think that's why there are very little claims to Kubota's F'ed up design?

 

[NCL4701]

The Kubota factory rep for my region said that he looked up warranty claims for the T2290 drive belt issue, and said there was very little. Then he said drive belts are not covered under warranty because its a wear item. DUH!!! Do you think that's why there are very little claims to Kubota's F'ed up design?

Gee whiz! Could be!

 

[jdmoody1980]

Chuckinnj, what year did you buy this mower? Did you ever find any tips or shop repair info that explains how to do this job? I bought the same mower in 2018, and last month I had to shell out over $500 to get a $30 drive belt replaced. Why Kubota engineers decided that attaching a steel plate to the bottom of the tractor was a great idea, is beyond me. Another way to soak more money from their customers…. You would think they would at the very least offer customers that bought this model, with the steel plate on the bottom, either a break on the repair charges, or provide some clear instructions in a shop manual for the DIYer on how to perform this repair. Please let me know if you found anything…. Thanks!

I just had to do mine. I've had mine for a few years without issues and then the drive belt went out. Well it just kept throwing it off so I figured it needed to be replaced. I dug into it in realized what a monumental task it was going to be. There is a lot of useful information on here. But what I found out doing mine, was that it was far easier to cut the steering column and sleeve it. I cut mine mine ground off a 16th of an inch and drilled two 1/4 holes on each end of the shafts. So there would be four bolts connecting the sleeve. This exponentially simplified the process. Most of the install was pretty basic except getting around that stupid steering shaft. Once I cut the shaft and sleeved it, it turned into about a 45 minute job now.