neilbedwell
New member
I started planning and buying the necessary items for my 50 hour service on my L2800 a few months ago. I bought my tractor from Barlow's but, unfortunately, I never make it down to Somerset so I had to go to another dealer to get what I needed. So, I stopped in and told the parts guy to give me "everything I needed for my 50 hour service of my L2800". It took him about 20 minutes to track down everything and he finally put a big box of stuff on the counter and said to me "there you go" and told me the price. I looked at him and said, where's the hydraulic oil? He tells me that I don't need to change it, just the filters, and is very adamant about it. So, OK, I took his word for it (even though I had already read some comments from folks on here to the contrary but also knew that Kubota had changed their recommendation). I paid the man and left with my giant box. So, I get home and start feeling guilty about it. I re-read my manual and, sure enough, it says to change the hydraulic oil, not just the filter. I guess I've got an older manual. So, it eats at me to the point I just decide to go ahead and change the oil. I've got too much money in this thing to not take care of it. So, back to that same dealer I go. I go in and tell a different parts guy this time that I need 7.5 gallons of "SUPER UDT2". He goes over to the shelf and grabs a 2.5 gallon jug of Super UDT2 and then gets a box that has two more 2.5 gallon jugs in it. The box is just plain, so I ask him "is this the same stuff". He says "yep, that's it". I didn't open the box because it was taped really well and I had a long ride home with it in the rain and I didn't want it to fall apart and those jugs to bounce around. Hence, STUPID MISTAKE #1. I paid the man and left. This past Saturday I decided I was going to allot the entire day to servicing my tractor. So, I went out and warmed it up and pulled the two drain plugs for the engine oil and let it all drain out. I pulled off the old oil filter and went over to my big box o' stuff to get the new one. Uh-oh, there's no filter in there that looks like it. Of course, the factory filters on the tractor had the part numbers painted over so you can't see them. So, I laid them all out and compared them to the other filters on the tractor and, sure enough, he gave me the wrong oil filter. Dang it! The local dealers were all closed, so I called a dealer several hours west of me to confirm and they told me I had the wrong filter. Double dang it!!! So, I put the old filter back on and put the plugs back in and pulled off the battery terminal so nobody could start it and proceeded to finish the other tasks. I'll just order the right filter and have it shipped to me Monday morning and put the new oil in it when the new filter comes. Next step, I drained the hydraulic oil - all 6.2 gallons of it. Wasn't nearly as messy as I anticipated. Went pretty well. Buttoned everything back up after it was all drained really well and then I grabbed the 2.5 gallon jug of SUDT2 and poured it in. Easy enough. I opened the box to get another jug and DANGIT!@#!@#, the jugs in the box were Super UDT, not Super UDT2. At this point, my frustration level was starting to peak. The jug of SUDT2 said it was "100% compatible with SUDT and UDT". I made an executive decision to pour it in and go on. I read later on another thread that the same thing had happened to someone else and they had contacted Kubota and were told that it was OK to mix it. Good, bad or ugly, I mixed it. So, Monday morning I called another dealer (not the one I bought this stuff from) and ordered the correct engine oil filter. It cost me $8.50 shipping. Cheaper than driving, but it's money spent by me due to that parts guy's mistake that I shouldn't have had to spend. I'll take the incorrect filter back later. Tuesday afternoon, the big brown truck drops off the correct filter. Woo Hoo! So, yesterday evening I go out to the shop and put on the new filter and, after checking my manual (and remembering what parts guy #1 told me as well) pour in 6 quarts of Kubota 15W40. I start the tractor, let it run a second and cut it off. I topped off the hydraulic oil checked everything for leaks and then pulled the dipstick on the engine oil. DANG IT, it's way above the full hole. I go back to my manual and it says 6 quarts. I looked at the empty jugs and, sure enough, six empty quarts. Hence, my post last night. So, I guess tonight I get to drain out some oil. Then, I did another check for leaks. The big hydraulic filter had a little bit of oil on it. I tried to tighten it some more by hand, wouldn't budge. So, I get a strap wrench and try to just put a little pressure on it and see if it'll move. POP! STUPID MISTAKE #2. Now, there's a dent. !@#!$@!!! It's about the size of my index finger on the very back of the filter inside the flats where a filter wrench goes. It's not bad, just a little indention. I'm going to run it that way and I don't think it'll hurt anything but it'll eat away at me until I change it. I swear, if I weren't already bald I would be after this! I've wrenched on stuff all my life and my dad was a repair man in the coal mines for 34 years. This stuff usually NEVER happens to me. So, this evening I get to see how precise I can be draining off just the right amount of oil to get the level on the dipstick where I want it. FUN!! LOL, might as well laugh! Have a great day everyone!
Neil
Neil