Kubota L3430 RPM issues.

RealCodyO · Feb 14, 2014

At work we have a L3430 Kubota tractor. A few months back the tractor was struggling with RPM, the RPM would be steady to wherever I would set them then they would drop to almost zero then recover. Occasionally the tractor would stall all the way out. This occurred in L, M, and H. We sent the tractor off to the Kubota dealership and they replaced all fluids and said everything was fine except the clutch was looking rough and my headlight display was busted. It's been about a month since and the tractor has run perfectly but last week the RPM issue started over. Also when the RPM messes up the tractor almost smells like it's burning something, more so than the usual diesel smell. Any idea guys?

dstig1 · Feb 14, 2014

Loss of power comes down to one of 3 things: fuel, air or spark (and in diesels there is no spark..). If the air filters are good and there are no air leaks in the intake system, I would look at fuel delivery. Sorry I can't be more specific, but that is the gist of engine troubleshooting... Try checking for air leaks first.

DT86 · Feb 14, 2014

The last tractor I dealt with that had these symptoms ended up having a bunch of junk in the bottom of the fuel tank. It would idle down to about half it's normal idle speed regardless of throttle setting for a while then slowly recover, run fine for 5-10 minutes and repeat.

Ended up using a short piece of water hose duct taped to a shop vac to suck the bottom of the tank clean. There was grass, dirt and who knows what else in there. How that much crud ever entered the tank is beyond me, my guess is someone ran it without the fuel cap.

Good luck.

RealCodyO · Feb 15, 2014

Thanks all. Guess my best option is to drain my fuel tank.

RealCodyO · Feb 17, 2014

UPDATE: Drained the tank and inside I found a flex nozzle that you would find on the end of a 5gallon gas can. Someone must have dropped it in there and decided to not worry about it. Now time to figure out how to get it out without removing the fuel tank.

ritschner · Feb 17, 2014

One of the claw extractors should be able to grab it. Here is an example. They can be found at auto parts stores.

Sears.com

RealCodyO · Feb 17, 2014

Beautiful, I like that plan. Will post update Wednesday.

skyhook · Feb 18, 2014

RealCodyO said:
Beautiful, I like that plan. Will post update Wednesday.

Please do, happened to me last year, (spout fell in), no issues yet,
but would like to get it out.

RealCodyO · Feb 22, 2014

UPDATE: Sorry for the late reply, work has been a rainy mess. I bought one of the claw extractors from ACE for around $4 and removed the old flex hose. I then put in 5 gallons of fresh diesel and the tractor is running like a dream. Thanks all for the tips, glad it was an easy fix.