L2501 - 50 Hour Service

crashz · Apr 23, 2018

Performed the 50 hour service on my L2501 yesterday at 38.2 hours. It was very easy. One thing I wanted to share with the group was that my dealer suggested I replace the hydraulic filter too. The manual states to replace the HST filter, but states that the removal of the hydraulic filter will dump all of the fluid. The parts guys said that it will pour out, but if you have the new filter in hand and quickly swap, you won't lose a lot.

He was right, and it only took a half gallon to bring it up in the site glass. But one thing I will mention is that the Kubota replacement filter comes with a replacement magnet. You could not clean and re-use the original if you are going to swap filters and not drain the transmission. All of my filters also had plastic covering the open portion too. I highly doubt I will ever use anything other than Kubota filters due to those two features.

There was a fair amount of fine metal shavings on the magnet (as expected), so I'm glad I did the full set of filters. I think I'll do the same service around 100 hrs too. As it turns out, I'll be averaging about 50-60 hrs on the machine per year anyway.

dan8152 · Apr 23, 2018

If you put your finger over the breather hose you don’t spill much at all

crashz · Apr 23, 2018

Thanks Dan! Next time I will. It wasn't a deluge, but I definitely splashed a little on my garage floor. Drain pans are only so big.

Blondie70 · Apr 23, 2018

Hey Dan....where is this breather hose located ?
Thanks, Pete

Fallon · Apr 23, 2018

Breather is under the seat. A rubber upside down question mark.

If you put a shop vac over the fill port it works better than covering the vent. That trick worked great on my old L3200 (same machine as your L2501). I was able to leave the filters off for a while & not spill a drop.

Coarse but fun language...

DON'T GET SOAKED IN DIESEL! | BRILLIANT Hands-On Hack - YouTube

Blondie70 · Apr 24, 2018

Thanks Fallon. I appreciate the info.
Pete

dan8152 · Apr 30, 2018

Thanks fallon! Sorry Pete for not responding.
I致e been slacking online, been too nice outside finally

crashz · May 1, 2023

I figured I'd dredge up an old thread, as I'm now performing my 400hr service. Nearly done. Nothing noteworthy except for the metal shavings/chips still in the trans/hydraulic fluid.

Some history. I have serviced the tractor annually,as I don't hit the hour limit on oil changes. Conservatively and because it makes my life easier, I simply replace all filters at each service. Also, I've been keeping an eye on the metal fragments in the hydraulic filters. The filters have been changed three times since the 50 hr service, and USDT2 changed once at 200 hrs. I've changed it again yesterday for the required 400hr service.

At each hydraulic filter change, the magnet has had some metal chips. Mostly flat, shiny, and approximately the size of a small nail head. Maybe 1/8" by 1/8". A minority of metal shavings are curly-ques like a drill cutting. No longer than 1/2". If I were to scrape the magnet clean, I'd have enough to cover an area of the size of a nickel or so. Been consistently getting cleaner. Except for the one I removed yesterday.

Yesterday I removed the hydraulic filter and it looked similar to the first two changes (described above). I should have taken pictures. Additionally I let the majority of the fluid drain fromt he filter location into a clean 5 gallon pail and when it was done draining, there were small chips in the bottom of that, approximately half the quantity that was collected on the magnet.

Draining the lower ports on the rear axle yielded just clean fluid, not chips, water or junk.

Operationally, the tractor runs perfect. I've never had any issues with performance in anyway. Most of the work it has done is easy mowing, but the hard stuff has been really hard. Steep hills, thick grass and full throttle for long summer days. But I try to keep it clean and well serviced.

Anyway, I've heard of these issues before, and frankly, there has not been any hint of degradation of performance, so I thought I would just share this with the group.

2manyrocks · May 1, 2023

Thank you for posting this. I was unnerved by the amount of metal shavings I saw at my 50 hour service on my L2501 HST as well. I haven't seen any performance issues at roughly 150 hours yet.

I also wish I had made pictures, but I didn't.

crashz · May 1, 2023

Thinking about it more, the chips at the bottom of the oil drain pail might have actually washed off of the old filter as I unscrewed it or as I dumped the oil from the filter canister. It would make more sense that if they drained from the filter adapter.