Catastrophic Failure

   / Catastrophic Failure #1  

PitbullMidwest

Platinum Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2001
Messages
948
Location
SE Iowa
Tractor
1998 Kubota L2900GST
My son and brother in law were cutting and burning trees last week and were using my L2900GST to push the trees into the burning pile. All was well until they heard a load "bang" and the 3ph dropped and oil began gushing from under the seat :(.

By the time I got home from work they had the front access plate off and it didn't look good. My BIL got his JD3020 and we pulled my tractor up to his machine shed (every JD owners dream)and we pulled the operator station. Long story short, the hydraulic cylinder assembly housing had cracked from one side to the other. Priced new it's a $700 part plus labor and transport. We're going to remove it ourselves to save some money and see if it can be welded.

My dealer says he's never seen this happen before and asked what they were doing at the time of failure. That's whats odd, they weren't "doing" anything. They had been working the tractor all day without any problems. Transmission wasn't slipping, the loader was responsive, everything was "normal" so as far as we know the hydraulic oil level was good. They said they had taken a break and came back and started the tractor and hadn't even put it in gear when "bang' and oil started gushing.

Before anyone suggests that my BIL was abusing the tractor, let me just say that he treats it better than I do and I don't abuse it because I don't like $700 repairs.

Anyway, all theories as to what may have caused the failure will be entertained.
 
   / Catastrophic Failure #2  
I bet a JD owner was jealous and sabotaged it when no one was looking !
 
   / Catastrophic Failure #3  
Can you get a picture of it?
 
   / Catastrophic Failure
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Can you get a picture of it?

Sure, we hope to able to pull it this weekend. His shop is unheated and it's 4 degrees today and high tomorrow is only in the teens. The spirit is willing but... :)
 
   / Catastrophic Failure #6  
My son and brother in law were cutting and burning trees last week and were using my L2900GST to push the trees into the burning pile. All was well until they heard a load "bang" and the 3ph dropped and oil began gushing from under the seat :(.

By the time I got home from work they had the front access plate off and it didn't look good. My BIL got his JD3020 and we pulled my tractor up to his machine shed (every JD owners dream)and we pulled the operator station. Long story short, the hydraulic cylinder assembly housing had cracked from one side to the other. Priced new it's a $700 part plus labor and transport. We're going to remove it ourselves to save some money and see if it can be welded.

My dealer says he's never seen this happen before and asked what they were doing at the time of failure. That's whats odd, they weren't "doing" anything. They had been working the tractor all day without any problems. Transmission wasn't slipping, the loader was responsive, everything was "normal" so as far as we know the hydraulic oil level was good. They said they had taken a break and came back and started the tractor and hadn't even put it in gear when "bang' and oil started gushing.

Before anyone suggests that my BIL was abusing the tractor, let me just say that he treats it better than I do and I don't abuse it because I don't like $700 repairs.

Anyway, all theories as to what may have caused the failure will be entertained.

Here is my shoot from the hip response since nobody has offered anything other than ill informed green vs orange silliness. The safety valve for the 3-pt failed. It is supposed to relieve excess pressure in the 3-pt cylinder when it is overloaded or as I suspect the oil in the cylinder got too hot and had no place to expand so it broke stuff instead.

Brian
 
   / Catastrophic Failure #8  
I bet a JD owner was jealous and sabotaged it when no one was looking !
Anybody seen Carl?



All joking aside, I agree with the relief valve.
 
   / Catastrophic Failure #9  
Nope,just the bucket

Then I also believe a failed relief valve

The reason I asked is by pushing brush and logs piles high with a raised blade on the back you could easlly do something like breaking the rockshaft housing by jamming the lower lift arm links backwards and up into the rocker shaft arms
 
 
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