Exploded view diagram of a crankcase from a Kubota L3600.

Tools, Knowledge and Part Numbers
As a proud and perhaps frugal Kubota equipment owner, you have decided to take some of the servicing, repair and maintenance of your orange equipment onto your own shoulders. The right tools, some like minded friends and correct part numbers go along way. The tools you can beg, borrow or steal. The advice – that too is freely available if you pop into our forums and ask around. The tricky bit is figuring out those part numbers.

Part numbers for consumables like filters, fluids or clutches are easy to discover but what if you need to rebuild the entire steering box? What if you are not exactly sure what the broken pieces in your hand are but you know you need a new one? This is where a good parts manual comes in.

More Than Part Numbers
Parts manuals are actually not only just for sourcing part numbers. We use them to help diagnose and plan our dis-assembly and reassembly because they feature exploded-view diagrams, essentially giving us “x-ray vision”. They provide peace of mind knowing that the part we have in our hand is the same one on the diagram. We waste less time returning incorrectly ordered parts and save money by not paying restocking fees. Anyone serious about maintaining or servicing their Kubota equipment has a parts manual at hand.

Where to Find a Parts Manual?
Up until now you could either purchase a printed parts manual from your local dealership or try to find a . The trouble with both of these approaches is:

1. you have to wait for your manual to arrive so you might be blocked for a few days or weeks
2. they are not automatically updated with superseded part numbers and
3. you have to pay for them

Kubota’s Online Parts Catalog
For a little while now Kubota has made available on their website a comprehensive illustrated parts list (US) (or click here for the Canadian version). This is essentially an online portal view into Kubota’s EPC (electronic parts catalog) which dealers also use for their parts lookup requirements. The catalog is easy to use, covers models as far back as the Nixon Administration and is free. Gray market models are excluded but that is business as usual for Kubota in North America.

Searching for L3600 returns results for models with and without ROPS and GST (glide shift) transmissions.

Other Handy Features
One feature we like is the ability to see related parts manuals for any given model. Simply click the “Local Options” link to the right of your model in the search results. When we tried this for an L3600DT we see manuals for the optional grill guard, mid-mount mower and rear mount mower to name a few. This is helpful feature because it lists the model numbers of those optional pieces of equipment as well.

Related and optional equipment for an L3600DT.

Another nice feature is the ability to 1-click PDF any of the pages you see online. Print off just the sections you need and bring them over to the workbench. No need to worry about getting dirty fingerprints on them.

It’s About Time…
Although we are very impressed that Kubota is now offering an online parts catalog, something of this nature was long overdue. John Deere has hosted its own online parts catalog for many years now and we had always wondered when Kubota would also begin to leave printed material behind. Keep this up!

Mr. K

After this article was written, Will from Avenue Machinery in Abbotsford BC Canada contacted me. He was reminding me that Kubota Canada and Kubota USA are two different organizations and as such sometimes the parts between the two are different. If you live in Canada you should be referring to Kubota Canada’s online parts catalog instead. Thanks for keeping us honest Will!

Related Articles
Kubota Parts, Service and Operator’s Manuals – Get Them
Kubota Online Illustrated Parts Catalog (US)
Kubota Online Illustrated Parts Catalog (Canada)