Splitting a kubota L3750 tractor and BF900 front loader

Holey Chit!!

It's been almost 3 months...

Let's not waste any more time!!

Two posts ago I wrote about this tractor.

Since then a half day was spent on it

to get the steering working.

We were planning on using it to pull an aerator,

the thing that makes holes in grass fields.

It didn't take long,

one weekend,

before the guys busted it yet again.

I realized at that moment,

my job here at PIR is fixing wounded soldiers,

sending them back on the battlefield 

to fight against hack equipment operators.

My coworkers are an interesting bunch,

good guys just not mechanical.

I've had to show them what a temperature gauge does,

how to read an oil dipstick,

why not to put gas in a diesel mower,

how to drive a stick...

Yes.

These are the guys using our equipment!

It reminded me of an old friend that was a movie set painter.

He'd spend weeks/days/hours building and painting,

they'd shoot the scene(s),

and tear apart the set the next day.

Sadly frustrating.

The carrot on the stick 

is the check every 2 weeks,

and not having to pay for parts.

That's enough to overcome my personal issues!!

That fateful weekend resulted in a burnt out clutch.

It was running so good too.

To replace the clutch,

the front loader needs to be removed,

then the tractor is split in two.

Sounds like fun!!

Before the misplaced manual was found,

I watched videos and read forums on

"How to remove a front loader from a tractor".

Not surprising,

a ton of videos on the newer idiot-proof machinery,

with kick-stands that are permanently hinged.

No info on tinker-toy engineering from the  1980's.

Yes,

this post is for you internet mechanics.

Hopefully you find it on your Google searches!!

This procedure took two of us about an hour,

including not fully reading the manual.

(I just needed the one assembled picture

to steer me in the right direction.)

We had added the two vertical arms too early,

and the wedge pins didn't pop out easily.

Hey I didn't grow up on a farm...

I'm new to this tractor game!!

The next time will maybe take 20 minutes.

I'm hoping pictures are worth a thousand words,

cause I'm not writing a play by play...

But this guy did years ago!

Just one picture woulda been nice!

Thanks J.D.!!

So yea here's the start to hopefully more regular posting.

The race season was so crazy here,

lotsa pic-stories comin up,

and I got a couple more projects...

there's a bunch to write about.

Until next time...

TP

A day in the life... Leaf Battle

In this late fall season there is a battle,

a consistent yet finite barrage of falling leaves.

The ground crew is hindered 

by the suffocated grass they try to protect,

as the ground is too soft for faster but heavier equipment.

Ruts are bad.

Here the tools of choice are backpack blowers,

rakes,

and possibly these gas powered side blowers.

Funny thing is all three were broken.

Bad head gasket on #1,

bad exhaust manifold/muffler on #2,

and a coil on #3.

The coil was easy,

I just swapped one from the bad head gasket donor.

The guys were all over it,

justifying the fix of the other two.

The replacement exhaust manifold had a screw on outlet,

but nothing to screw in.

I raided the scrap pile for tubes and pipe fittings,

and welded up a custom muffler.

All that practice with hot rods, boats,

motorized bikes and scooters...

The new silencer worked perfectly,

quieter than most of our engine tools here.

The first day went well,

other than the mini front roller digging into the soft grass.

No problem.

Some quick brackets and a fat roller wheel...

Zip zip with a welder and voila!

Now get out of here and start blowing leaves...

There are acres of leaves...

To pick them up.

there's a Toro Rake-O-Vac,

basically a trailer vacuum/rake,

that hadn't worked in a couple years.

New battery,

an overpriced coil,

and this was good to go.

It works great on unpiled leaves.

Well...

One of the guys pulled a full load to the compost area,

hit a whoop-de-doo in the road,

that opened up the trap door,

spilling a compacted pile that took 2 hours to clean.

Now nobody wants to use it!

Then they dug up this thing,

a stadium vacuum,

previously attached to a broken buggy.

It worked great til the hose broke for the umpteenth time.

The fallback is the good old pitchfork.

Manual labor at its finest.

Scoop by scoop...

the leaves slowly disappear.

Until one of the trucks takes a chit.

A busted starter allowed the fix of a lingering oil leak,

probably the rear main seal.

This meant tearing out the transmission,

fun on a 4x4 with a transfer case.

Years ago work had traded a local junkyard a broken vehicle,

for this ford ranger which had a bad transmission,

along with a replacement.

The previous mechanics got it running,

but cranked every bolt so tight they were barely able to unthread.

The exhaust wouldn't come off without breaking a bolt.

To make room I cut and hammered the welded seam lip,

visible on the top there.

While I did technical stuff 

like cut out a hard to find gasket...

The outside guys laid around.

It wasn't much fun putting this together,

but there was success getting it running.

Time for something fun.

I found a scrap bumper in a metal pile.

It was set aside for this truck,

but nobody could cut and weld here.

Some crude bracketry...

Cut cut Zip zip...

Now we could push gates open,

and move trash cans around.

Didn't take long to get it back to work.

Seriously there are tons of leaves here.

They'll get composted into the mulch pile,

and eventually returned back to the earth.

I still need to get the 3rd blower working,

too late for this season.

At least everything is green again!

TP

Toro 580d - meadow killer - v2

After months of wrenching and welding,

mowing season has begun.

I'd been warned that this was part of the job.

Of the 300 or so acres,

about 100 are basically civilized,

and a lot of that needs mowing.

The main mowers are the Toro 580d's.

There are two.

One is 4wd,

the other is 2wd,

used mainly for the flatter areas.

As the main mech I get first pick.

The wet weather has brewed some soggy ground.

This heavy beast loves eatin mud.

Fortunately we have flip phones to call in the cavalry.

I can understand why they need fixin!

This fuel tank vent was plugged up,

creating a vapor lock situation.

It was tricky to figure out but an easy fix.

I cut the new hose on an angle.

We'll see how that works.

Sometimes the grass is too thick to cut,

especially in soft ground.

It helped following John in the tractor mower.

I got stuck trying to get that last little part,

which is typically the trap to avoid.

Fortunately he had a chain.

Much of the surrounding area is not flat.

There are berms and banks.

Most are outlined by fences,

bogs or ponds.

Fences like to catch the mower guide.

It'll snag and swing ya in.

Tough to get out once it slides down.

Fortunately we've got the winch truck.

Now I know why these ball joints get so worn.

They are the stabilizers for the wing decks.

I had to cut this one out.

It seems like every time I took a picture,

I'd get stuck right after.

This was a too thick-too soft situation.

Now I scout it and make sure its cuttable beforehand.

The other mistake here was starting low,

and not doing half cuts,

basically chippin away slowly.

This was some tall bog grass I shoulda known better.

So far I've gotten stuck 5 times.

Every situation I've learned what not to do,

and why not to do it.

There's a learned reaction controlling the hydraulics,

up/down,

on/off,

letting the deck weights counterbalance on berms.

The sloped parts are like driving a boat in rough water,

kinda like rock crawling-fun!

The flat sections aren't too exciting,

although a spiral pattern,

or repetitive S's are funner than long straight lines.

People looking at satellite pics are gonna wonder 

what the heck was that mower guy doing...

Also gotta watch out for electric cables.

Fortunately this wasn't used any more!

Here's one of my last fence traps.

I couldn't resist trying to get that tuft of grass.

I've gotten better at unhooking out of the chain link,

not over-reacting helps.

The past two days were stuck free.

There were some creek or slough side sections,

good drop offs.

I felt kinda bad cutting down ecosystems.

There's pretty meadows I've buzzed down.

The crows and swallows swoop in

and nab the newly uncovered bugs.

Right when things were going smoothly,

a bypass hose blew.

Conveniently located behind all this muck.

It was nice to have a shop day.

TP