Once upon a time in the land of Me......

[teg]

...or at least an option to add on... ...I wonder where on earth can I get one of those plates?

These were an option if you were getting a 3ph backhoe (back in the day before sub-frames). Have no clue what item number it was or if they have any on an old storage shelf somewhere (I doubt it...).

I'm going up to the farm this w/e and will take more photos of it. What you can not see, at the 90* bends by the hydraulic fluid filler hole, there's support metal to stiffen the 90* angle. It was pretty darn heavy and don't know what steel plate it was made from. It was about $140 iirc.

 

[Oldpath05]

Thanks for the help, looks like I'll need all the dimensions that you have so I can make one, spent a hour last night Googling it, trying to find that top link plate with no luck, it's probably made from high grade steel. Next time I go down to the kubota dealer where I bought my tractor, I'll take the picture of it with me, if there's a way to put it on paper, set it on his desk and go WHY...............................................................

 

[Oldpath05]

Sooooooooooooooooo, come to find out, looks like I'm not the only one that broke a transmission housing, all because of this TOP secret>> Top Link Reinforcement Plate not being offered and or sold anymore. >>>> http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...7d1186264505-l2800-cracked-rear-end-crack-jpg ,,,, and the serch continues..............

 

[TimberHole]

I'm in the steel business. I think if you measure the transmission or better yet take the tractor to a local fabricator and let them measure it (and show them these pictures) they could easily make that plate. The other option would be to find someone locally that can cut to size and bend. You could drill the holes. The holes could easily be drilled in a modest drill press with either a twist drill bit or a hole saw. Where there is a will there is a way.

Most plate these days has a 50 ksi yield strength which is probably more than enough to distribute the load. If there is any doubt, make the plate 1/8" thicker than the original.

 

[teg]

The photo came from this thread:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kubota-owning-operating/105425-l2800-cracked-rear-end.html

When I was looking at the Zipped photos, they looked like mine :shocked: but they were not.

This is the "extra" metal that I talked about above:

View attachment 516721

Funny since I did the same thing with washers to raise the seat up a bit. I welded my 3ph brackets on so that it basically became part of the heavy duty top link.

 

[NC419N]

My Kioti could use that as well. I broke the center housing on mine in a freak box blade crash

 

[teg]

....Top Link Reinforcement Plate not being offered and or sold anymore...

kubota heads decided it was easier (and more profitable) to NOT recommend any 3 point hitch backhoes (even with this plate) and sell you a new 4 point sub-frame mounted one. Heading down for photos but it's still raining pretty hard... (which is a good thing, not complaining about rain).

 

[teg]

So if you don't know this trick, Press and hold down the control key {Ctrl} and use the left mouse button to click on each photo once. They open in a new tab.

View attachment 516759 View attachment 516767 View attachment 516766 View attachment 516765 View attachment 516764 View attachment 516763 View attachment 516762 View attachment 516761 View attachment 516760 View attachment 516768

Also, I wanted to mount my seat back an inche (and up 1") so I cut the support metal at the 90* bend to allow me to do that. Figured it's stronger than it was by a long shot.

 

[Oldpath05]

My Kioti could use that as well. I broke the center housing on mine in a freak box blade crash

I feel your pain, you have it fixed yet? post a picture if you get the time, I'd like to see the housing break you know the old saying, "misery loves company"

 

[Oldpath05]

I would worry about how much "reshaping" the heating, cooling, and contraction of the metal is doing to the case. Are you certain the case is cast steel? From the instant crack, it sounds more like cast iron; the cast steel I've welded did so without any issues. I've only used pure nickel rod on cast iron (unless it could be brazed, in which case it was!)

It's weld jobs like this where strip heaters or something like would really help so a 2-300 degree temp can be maintained for sloooow cool down. All I know is the sparks were bright yellow, probably nickle rod would've worked better, problem is on a weld job like this you only get one shot when you want two. Maybe this thread will help someone else out if something like this happens to them.