Kubota G2160 regulator low output ?

FritzII · May 3, 2013

I have a problem with this tractor not starting. It will click when you turn the key and do nothing. (Like a dead battery) I took it to the dealer and they cleaned all the terminals on the tractor that would cause it not to start. Other than that, they told me that they could not find anything wrong with the tractor. (I think they charged the battery while it was there and it worked fine for a while) It wouldn't start again so I stuck a battery charger on it (without checking the battery voltage) and it started right up after an hour. I measured the battery voltage at full throttle (with a meter that only has a 50 vdc analog scale) and it says 11 volts. At idle it's reading 10 volts. Cheap meter could be wrong ? I'll check it with a better meter tonight.

I think this is a little strange. I've never had an alternator with a low output like this before. It was either good or dead. Has anyone ever seen a Kubota do this ? It was dark so I stopped messing with it. Any thoughts are appreciated.

FritzII · May 3, 2013

Turns out I wasted my money at the Kubota dealer. My cheap meter is now in the garbage can. Should have walked to the house and got the digital Fluke. New battery and all is good. I thought is was kind of strange when I walked into the battery shop with the battery in hand and the guy asked me if I needed a new battery for a Kubota. I hadn't even said anything. He told me that they sell a lot of them and he knew what it was for by the size of the battery. Makes you kind of wonder ???

David_Kb7uns · May 4, 2013

Well near as I can tell the 51R is used for alot of Kubotas and Honda cars. I had an incident last week where on my G2160-60s it would click and not start did it about 7 times unyil it finally did start. Now the battery was installed in 2006 so it is getting old but in good shape still. Took of the solenoid and went down to the starter shop thinking it may have a contact going bad but they did not have the small one in stock and was 5 days out to order. Reinstalled and charged battery anyway and has been going ok since then.

There is a thread on the Kubota operating side for the B series not starting with clicking and the fix is a low voltage relay kit. The problem may be that with all the safety switches there is not enough voltage to kick in the starter all the way with the voltage drop through all the switches. If you run a jumper wire from battery directly to the solenoid and it starts or measure low voltage while cranking at the solenoid terminal this may be the problem. John Deere makes a kit for this as the same starter for the G2160 is used on some of their equipment. Kubmech has a thread about the repair and the kit is available on eBay as also a John Deere dealer, kit is AM107421.

Read this thread for info.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kubota-owning-operating/40814-b2400-starter-problem.html

David Kb7uns