Gary, the price Kubota gets for their alternator is obscene. I replaced mine with a new one from DB Electrical….here’s where I posted about it:
https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/threads/alternator-upgrade.48312/#post-423410
Here’s a link where Amazon sells the one for our M4700 (and a few other models), the price is now $80.:
I subsequently found (Ebay) the internal regulator which had failed on my original alternator and replaced it myself. ($18). I’ll keep it as a spare but the DB Electrical alternator is still working fine 3 years later.
(The previous owner of my M4700 was less-than-forthright and when he had mouse-eaten wiring he sold the tractor after hiding the problem by completely jerking-out and tossing into the trash the “low fuel/charging system” warning lamp and fixture. After a week of ownership I found the battery discharged and wouldn’t start so I jumped it and stuck my volt-meter on the battery and found it at 11 volts with the alternator running. That’s when I ordered the DB Electrical alternator, installed it, no further charging problem…. but I also ordered from Kubota the ”Low fuel/charging system” warning lamp fixture and installed it….. AND I installed an Ammeter.
The mouse-eaten wiring was also my temp gauge problem and I replaced that wire and repaired all the other wiring mice had eaten. I guess the previous owner satisfied his own conscience when I asked if he had any operator or maintenance manuals and he replied, “No…all they’re good for is feeding mice.”
I should have thought about that longer…. but all’s well that ends well…. and my M4700DT was/is otherwise in excellent condition. It only had 392 hours on it when I bought it and I’m happy. (I just avoid thinking about the seller…. it’s been over 3 years now.)
Oh, yeah…. you probably don’t need to do anything about this just now…. but while you’re in the instrument panel you might want to know about a starter relay problem I had a few months ago. While the following link takes you directly to the solution… Gary, you might want to start at the beginning of that discussion-thread to see how/why I got there:
https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/threads/alternator-upgrade.48312/#post-423410
Here’s a link where Amazon sells the one for our M4700 (and a few other models), the price is now $80.:
I subsequently found (Ebay) the internal regulator which had failed on my original alternator and replaced it myself. ($18). I’ll keep it as a spare but the DB Electrical alternator is still working fine 3 years later.
(The previous owner of my M4700 was less-than-forthright and when he had mouse-eaten wiring he sold the tractor after hiding the problem by completely jerking-out and tossing into the trash the “low fuel/charging system” warning lamp and fixture. After a week of ownership I found the battery discharged and wouldn’t start so I jumped it and stuck my volt-meter on the battery and found it at 11 volts with the alternator running. That’s when I ordered the DB Electrical alternator, installed it, no further charging problem…. but I also ordered from Kubota the ”Low fuel/charging system” warning lamp fixture and installed it….. AND I installed an Ammeter.
The mouse-eaten wiring was also my temp gauge problem and I replaced that wire and repaired all the other wiring mice had eaten. I guess the previous owner satisfied his own conscience when I asked if he had any operator or maintenance manuals and he replied, “No…all they’re good for is feeding mice.”
I should have thought about that longer…. but all’s well that ends well…. and my M4700DT was/is otherwise in excellent condition. It only had 392 hours on it when I bought it and I’m happy. (I just avoid thinking about the seller…. it’s been over 3 years now.)
Oh, yeah…. you probably don’t need to do anything about this just now…. but while you’re in the instrument panel you might want to know about a starter relay problem I had a few months ago. While the following link takes you directly to the solution… Gary, you might want to start at the beginning of that discussion-thread to see how/why I got there:
Another No starter rotation thread
My M4700 is a pretty simple tractor...or so I thought... Only one safety switch activated by the range-lever (the forward-Reverse-Low-High selection lever) on this DT (manual transmission.). The neutral start safety switch is kind of troublesome to get to... and that was my suspicion because...
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