B2660 Blower kit assembly problems

[Pks]

Recently I purchased a new front mount snow blower for my B2400. The blower model is a B2660. During the process of putting the kit together, I came across a number of errors/inconsistancies between what the installation manual wanted, what the parts list showed and the parts I actually received.

The kit I received had two parts bags; one with steel brackets and one mostly with fasteners.

1) The parts list for the fasteners did not match the fasteners provided.
2) The installation manual mentioned bolts that were neither in the parts list nor in the fastener bag.
3) The installation manual mentioned a square key and set screw for the driveline attachment to the blower but those two pieces are not listed in the parts list nor were they provided.
4) Only one of the four chute hold-down brackets was provided. No bolts for the additional three brackets were provided. None of those items, bolts or brackets, are listed in the parts list.
5) The two hydraulic quick disconnects are the wrong type. They are for the newer loader valves. But my 4 way valve is smaller and uses a smaller disconnect system. Maybe the newer valves are 3 way?

I am now wondering if other owners have received this same kit, or other kits of any kind, where the owner did the installation and had similar problems? Or does anyone know of difficulties a dealer had to overcome to install the kit? I don't want to limit this question to the B2660 blower. But since the manual didn't match the parts list, nor the parts provided, I now look at this as really more than a simple mistake by the person filling the parts bags. This seems more like tribulations of a series of design changes into which I got caught.

But in fairness to the consumer, I think these kinds of problems should not happen to such an expensive pile of parts (especially when lacking any one of them renders the whole package useless).

I'm in the process of working with my local dealer so I'm not completely out on a limb. I'm sure, when I can explain this to him tomorrow, this will get straightened out.

On a slightly different topic, the manual says my blower kit uses a 3/8-2 1/2 inch grade 5 bolt AND a square key with set screw to connect the PTO drive line to the blower. This seems a bit redundant as far as shear protection is concerned. But it will take a whole lot of shear to split that key. Which makes me think the key is not for overload protection. I am suspecting that the bolt holds the u-joint to the blower shaft and the key supplies the torque. Is this how other blowers are set up?

 

[Junkman]

Can't speak to your particular problem, but I got the same feeling about missing parts and mislabeled parts as being a problem when I inquired about a snow blower from my dealer. He said that they will not sell a snow blower that they don't assemble first because of just this problem. Said that he would rather loose the sale than to deal with the associated problems of missing parts. To me, it seems that they have had similar problems and know how to overcome them, where as the consumer wouldn't know where to start. For this reason, I think it is worth the extra $100 set up fee not to have to deal with problems such as this.

 

[Von]

PKS, I have the same blower on my B2710 (yes you can make it fit this tractor!) As for the drive shaft, the key way and bolt are not meant to shear. The shear bolts are on the augers and fan. I have broken a few this year. Mostly my fault, (I just forgot the wood was under that pile of snow) and that hockey puck sure can fly when you put it through the blower! As for the missing parts, I know that they spec out this blower to fit a whole bunch of different models. So maybe the kit you got was meant for a different model of Kubota. It sounds like you are just missing some small, all thou needed parts that should be know problem for your dealer to get! If you got it from him just have him got the parts overnight for you. (at his cost of course!) You paid good money for this blower to fit on your tractor!

 

[Pks]

Junkman & Von,

Thanks for your replies.

Junkman, I would have paid the extra money, for the reason's you mention, but after paying the price of that blower and mounting kit, I don't have any left. What I do have left is a little bit of time, so I figured I would put the stuff together.

There is one stroke of good fortune though. While under the tractor, I found one of the front axle seals to be leaking. So now as the tractor waits for the blower parts, I'm measuring the amount of oil coming out of the axle. The hard part is figuring out how to take that king pin assembly apart to change the seal. The parts book and repair manual don't describe disassembly very well.

I don't intend to fix it until warmer weather arrives. It's just too cold in my garage to be turning wrenches on a regular basis.

 

[Von]

Peter, How did you make out with your snowblower? Did you get the right parts for it?

 

[Pks]

Hi Von,

Yeah, all the right parts showed up and I put'em in the right place. I checked all the pre-assembled nuts and bolts too, just to make sure. Everything turned out fine.

Later on that night, I ran the blower to clear out some big ice piles and promtly killed one auger and one fan shear pin. They were a grade 5 bolt that had been necked down. After replacing them with normal grade 5 bolts, I went back to work.

The next morning the temperature was rising fast so all the snowbanks became piles of heavy slush. That blower had no trouble eating 4 foot high embankments of heavy wet slop.

... sure is nice looking forward while working. After two hours of clearing 3 driveways, my neck was still intact. Yipee! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

One thing that I discovered while using the blower was the stiffness in the manual chute rotator. After a while, I could hardly rotate the handle even when using two hands. I took the worm drive gear support apart and found a large burr from a gouge in the gray nylon bushing. So after cleaning out the burr and polishing the burrs off the metal worm gear, then adding winter grease on the chute bearing surface, the chute will now rotate by hand. Actually, I can rotate it without using the handle.

I'd like to make the chute rotation electric as you did, but now that it is so easy to spin, I think I'll add a cylinder for the chute deflection first.

Thanks the your help.

 

[sandyc]

Hi PKS:

I am running the same type of blower on my 2200 and my dealer made a point of giving me extra shear bolts and advised against using regular bolts. In the two years I have run the blower I have not had to replace any of the bolts (knock on wood) and I have a 300 foot gravel drive.
Also, the I have looked into the electric chute rotation thing and have been told that they are very slow. There is a thread from last year discussing the mounting of a hydraulic cylinder on the chute rotator. Think BBELL was the author.....

 

[Pks]

Sandyc,

I think the shear bolt issue was my fault. At that time I was conduction a test to see how low an engine speed I could run while pushing into the pile of ice. I made the blower move in too quickly and the ice simply overloaded the fan. Once the fan got full and stopped, the auger housing filled up and the bolts broke.

I cleaned out all the ice, it was more like concrete, replaced the bolts and went back to the pile. With 1750 RPM I motored easily into the pile. It chewed up the ice and slush real well then.

Thanks for the cylinder thread tip. I'll go look for it.