BX1850D tractor bogs and studders

travisH3 · Apr 27, 2014

Hey fellas

my neighbor brought me her Kubota BX1850D kubota tractor. Has 54" belly mower and FEL. 3 cyl diesel with just under 300 hours. She lets it sit outside all winter and all summer so for how little hours are on it, it looks 3 times as old as it should hahaha. Well she brought it to me for some pre-season maintenance. planned to do all the fluids and filters in it, sharpen the blades and grease everything and get it back to her. Well I got everything greased and sharpened the blades and thought id see how it cut. After about 15 minutes of running I noticed the temp gauge was up close to the red but not in the red area and the mower started bogging going up hill. then all of the sudden it really started studdering so i shut off the blades and returned it to idle. still rough idling and when you give it throttle it would bog. so i barely made it up to the house with it bogging down. wasnt smoking just running terrible. I seen the radiator had a lot of grass packed down there so i cleaned it all out really well and blew the radiator out really well and got it unclogged and clean. took it back to the hill driving up and down up and down for prolly 10 min and the temp gauge stayed about in the middle. decided to try cutting again and a couple minutes in started studdering and running rough again. air filter is clean, fuel filters werent dated or anything so im not sure how old they are. I plan to get the filters and change them tomorrow. To me this seems to be a fuel problem. It got very cold for us this winter and the tractor sat with summer diesel in it im sure so it probably gelled up if i had to guess. Do you guys think this is fuel filter problem, or is the fuel bad. also I wonder maybe there is dirt or debris in the tank causing me to only have problems up hill and then it gets clogged and studders like this. I dont know just trying to get some ideas before i go tearing into it tomorrow. thanks for you alls help. Sorry i dont know alot about this machine but just trying to help a neighbor out.

SPYDERLK · Apr 27, 2014

I think it has 2 fuel filters. Changing them should fix it. ... What happens is that the 1st filter in line gradually clogs with micro debris and water. The tractor continues to run normal, but at some point the pressure differential needed the suck [or push] the fuel thru will cause the pleats in the filter element to collapse. This drasticaly reduces flow area and almost stops flow. It will usually show up during hi flow demand - hi load - and reduce the tractor to barely able to idle. Stop it for awhile and the pleats open back up. It runs good for a short time then repeat.

travisH3 · Apr 27, 2014

SPYDERLK said:
I think it has 2 fuel filters. Changing them should fix it.

I seen that when i was looking up the parts diagram of the fuel system. You think the filters are the problem?

SPYDERLK · Apr 27, 2014

Yes. Fits the normal failure pattern I see on my BX1500. Adding some diesel fuel treatment should help to remove any water from the old fuel. Its undoubtedly still good, but probably has some water. It will be on the bottom, Actually most of its probably in the clogged filter.

travisH3 · Apr 27, 2014

SPYDERLK said:
Yes. Fits the normal failure pattern I see on my BX1500.

Thats good to hear then. Im grabbing all the filters and fluid tomorrow and will post back with the results. although we got rain the next 3 days so not sure when i will be able to test it lol. thanks for the quick reply and hopefully i wont be needing to pull the tank. should I drain the rest of the old diesel out? or just run it? it has about a 1/4 tank

SPYDERLK · Apr 27, 2014

travisH3 said:
Thats good to hear then. Im grabbing all the filters and fluid tomorrow and will post back with the results. although we got rain the next 3 days so not sure when i will be able to test it lol. thanks for the quick reply and hopefully i wont be needing to pull the tank. should I drain the rest of the old diesel out? or just run it? it has about a 1/4 tank

If you wish you can drain the tank fairly easily thru the hose feeding the filter. If you dont want to, be prepared with a stopper so you dont lose much while changing the filter. No fuel petcock I think.

rbarker · Apr 27, 2014

SPYDERLK said:
Yes. Fits the normal failure pattern I see on my BX1500. Adding some diesel fuel treatment should help to remove any water from the old fuel. Its undoubtedly still good, but probably has some water. It will be on the bottom, Actually most of its probably in the clogged filter.

I agree with Spyderlk, this comes up fairly regularly here in reference to the BX series and the majority of cases are resolved with fuel filter replacement. Make sure you change both filters. Some folks do drain the tank as well and it probably couldn't hurt since there isn't that much in it. You could always reuse it if it looks clean.

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

travisH3 · Apr 28, 2014

rbarker said:
I agree with Spyderlk, this comes up fairly regularly here in reference to the BX series and the majority of cases are resolved with fuel filter replacement. Make sure you change both filters. Some folks do drain the tank as well and it probably couldn't hurt since there isn't that much in it. You could always reuse it if it looks clean.

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

I did some searching before posting and this seemed pretty common with the kubota diesel engines. Heading to get parts now! thanks fellas!

amigauser · Apr 28, 2014

As to the almost RED temperature, make sure the radiator and screen before it is cleaned of debris. Compressed air works great for cleaning the radiator.