Mysterious self-stopping tractor

/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor #1  

Stackwood

Bronze Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
76
Location
Middle Tennessee
Tractor
2006 Kubota MX5000
A couple of times now, the engine of our new (6 hours so far) MX5000 has mysteriously shut itself off. I've been clearing out logging trails, leaving the tractor to idle while I do chainsaw work. The tractor is left in both neutrals (gear model) with the seat in its normal position. It acts as if a (misadjusted?) kill switch were being activated. The tractor restarts easily. Otherwise its been running perfectly.

Any suggestions or similar experiences? Figured I'd ask here first before rooting around.

Stackwood
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor
  • Thread Starter
#2  
Oh yeah, I always set the parking brake too.
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor #3  
You're not sitting on it, so the guess about the cutoff sounds reasonable. What might be getting bumped or is mis-adjusted to make the tractor 'think' you've fallen off? On my HST, pressing the HST pedal or moving the PTO lever will kill it. One time I was driving thru the woods with a pair of loppers behind my seat. They were big enough to tilt my seat forward a bit, apparently enough to make the tractor think the seat was tilted forward for stationary PTO work. Well, you don't want to move when the seat is tilted forward, so the motor would quit. Took a few minutes of head-scratching to figure out what was happening.

-Brian
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor #4  
Just a WAG - could the tractor have a idle time limit on it? I know some tractor trailers will only idle a set number of minutes before shutting down.. by running the rpms up a little higher it deactivated the shutdown..

Just a wild idea..

Brian
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor
  • Thread Starter
#5  
As far as I know, the only cutoff is for the pto, which is activated by its own hydraulic clutch. Unless you put the seat up, the tractor will cut itself off in a minute or so if the pto is running.
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor #6  
Stackwood said:
As far as I know, the only cutoff is for the pto, which is activated by its own hydraulic clutch. Unless you put the seat up, the tractor will cut itself off in a minute or so if the pto is running.


Dont know how your tractor is setup..??...but I had trouble wit my B3030 and that kill switch under the seat. It would come "lose" but not totally disconnect...kinda made a head scratcher for a few times...then when it stopped and I eased up the seat and saw it disconnect...AHA!! Took my needle nose pliers and plugged it back together and crimped it HARD for it to stay connected. Havent had a bit of trouble since.
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Thanks for the tip, Sully. I look into it.
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor #8  
I know I am bringing an old post to life but in case someone is ever searching the archives here goes:

My mx5000 does the same thing quite often. I have come to believe that is actually the Neutral gear sensor which is the issue. It seems that while the tractor is sitting there idling, the gear selector is moving just slightly enough away from the sensor to cause the tractor to shut down.
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor #9  
what have you tried to do to fix it ?
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor #10  
I must apologize in advance, but....Toyota can probably help with that!:laughing:
 
/ Mysterious self-stopping tractor #11  
what have you tried to do to fix it ?

I just make sure that I am putting it into Neutral correctly and it seems to be fine. It still happens when I am in a hurry or dont really pay enough attention, though. Its not really a big deal. I am pretty sure that if I wanted I could move the safety out a bit so it wouldnt happen at all but as of now, it doesnt really bother me because I know why it is happening.
 
 
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