patrickg
Veteran Member
Warning the following post may contain graphic details not suitable for some readers.
I originally thought my new L4610 was house broken as there were no major accidents on the living room floor with the one exception, air conditioner condensate dripping but its only distilled water and it evaporates quickly and I can't back in far enough to get it on the carpeting anyway. For those comming in late: Living in P/U camper in a shop bld. 14x14 roll up doors for picture windows, partially carpeted during winter (I'm a bare foot kinda guy) just left it there in anticipation of moving into a house real soon now (been thinking that for 6 months). Anyway my wife notices a growing puddle under the right rear axle housing and says, "it isn't evaporating, better check it out."
Poor beast is bleeding hydraulic fluid. Not by the quart or even pint, the sight glass still reads good enough but it is a messy situation and if it suddenly got worse could strand me or injure the moving parts. I call my FNKD (Friendly Neighborhood Kubota Dealer) and find out that there has been a lot of that happening lately.
(J U S T G R E A T Misery loves company.)
Seems there may be a variability in O-ring quality/suppliers for the O-rings used to connect the hydraulic hoses to the trippple remote valve installation (located above rt rear axle) for the TNT kit and third remote (hydraulic raise and lower scarifiers on box blade and raise and lower 3ph cement mixer).
As it recently came back from its 50 hr checkup I asked if there were any hydraulic drains on the rt rear axle and there are B U T it was tight and dry. back to the O-ring narrative... "You can tighten them up and get a better seal but if you go too far it will tear the O-ring and leak a lot worse." I ask how to proceed with tightening. "Well just tighten it just a bit." How much an eighth of a turn, a half turn? "Yup." Which? "Well as you tighten it, it will get tighter and then suddenly it will get looser, that's when the O-ring broke." Ok, lets see if I got this. You know when you went too far because it suddenly gets loose and will leak badly? "Yup." How do you know when to stop
B E F O R E the O-ring dies? "Well just tighten it just a bit." (Sounded familiar somehow.) Isn't this a warranty issue? "Sure is" "I can come out and try to fix it or you can bring it in." (50 mile RT) Gotta load it on trailer in high 90 degree heat with high humidity (worst week of te year, so far)
Is it OK to get pretty aggressive with a pressure washer under there to clean it up so I can determine the source of the leak? "OK, but don't use too much pressure." How much is too much? "Don't use 8000lbs." How about 1800? Should be OK. If you clean it up I can put some fluorescent die in the fluid and find the leak with a black light."
I would rather fix it and get on with tractorin' but give myself (history of overtightening things since before starting first grade) no better than a 50-50 chance (I should have gone into destructive testing, I'm a natural.).
Any suggestions? Are there some super O-rings, like nitrile rubber on steroids, soaked in mink oil? It couldn't cost more that a few bucks (he said hopefully) to get the best stuff available, whatever that is. Probably no longer available because the manufacturing waste products threaten the existance of a rare ear mite that infests the California Snail Darter during periods of high electric costs.
OK, the kids can come back into the room now.
Patrick
I originally thought my new L4610 was house broken as there were no major accidents on the living room floor with the one exception, air conditioner condensate dripping but its only distilled water and it evaporates quickly and I can't back in far enough to get it on the carpeting anyway. For those comming in late: Living in P/U camper in a shop bld. 14x14 roll up doors for picture windows, partially carpeted during winter (I'm a bare foot kinda guy) just left it there in anticipation of moving into a house real soon now (been thinking that for 6 months). Anyway my wife notices a growing puddle under the right rear axle housing and says, "it isn't evaporating, better check it out."
Poor beast is bleeding hydraulic fluid. Not by the quart or even pint, the sight glass still reads good enough but it is a messy situation and if it suddenly got worse could strand me or injure the moving parts. I call my FNKD (Friendly Neighborhood Kubota Dealer) and find out that there has been a lot of that happening lately.
(J U S T G R E A T Misery loves company.)
Seems there may be a variability in O-ring quality/suppliers for the O-rings used to connect the hydraulic hoses to the trippple remote valve installation (located above rt rear axle) for the TNT kit and third remote (hydraulic raise and lower scarifiers on box blade and raise and lower 3ph cement mixer).
As it recently came back from its 50 hr checkup I asked if there were any hydraulic drains on the rt rear axle and there are B U T it was tight and dry. back to the O-ring narrative... "You can tighten them up and get a better seal but if you go too far it will tear the O-ring and leak a lot worse." I ask how to proceed with tightening. "Well just tighten it just a bit." How much an eighth of a turn, a half turn? "Yup." Which? "Well as you tighten it, it will get tighter and then suddenly it will get looser, that's when the O-ring broke." Ok, lets see if I got this. You know when you went too far because it suddenly gets loose and will leak badly? "Yup." How do you know when to stop
B E F O R E the O-ring dies? "Well just tighten it just a bit." (Sounded familiar somehow.) Isn't this a warranty issue? "Sure is" "I can come out and try to fix it or you can bring it in." (50 mile RT) Gotta load it on trailer in high 90 degree heat with high humidity (worst week of te year, so far)
Is it OK to get pretty aggressive with a pressure washer under there to clean it up so I can determine the source of the leak? "OK, but don't use too much pressure." How much is too much? "Don't use 8000lbs." How about 1800? Should be OK. If you clean it up I can put some fluorescent die in the fluid and find the leak with a black light."
I would rather fix it and get on with tractorin' but give myself (history of overtightening things since before starting first grade) no better than a 50-50 chance (I should have gone into destructive testing, I'm a natural.).
Any suggestions? Are there some super O-rings, like nitrile rubber on steroids, soaked in mink oil? It couldn't cost more that a few bucks (he said hopefully) to get the best stuff available, whatever that is. Probably no longer available because the manufacturing waste products threaten the existance of a rare ear mite that infests the California Snail Darter during periods of high electric costs.
OK, the kids can come back into the room now.
Patrick
nope just your over imaginative self expecting problems! Not to say there are not problems. But sometimes with Hyd. Fluid is looks alot worse than it is.
