rScotty
Super Member
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2001
- Messages
- 8,258
- Location
- Rural mountains - Colorado
- Tractor
- Kubota M59, JD530, JD310SG. Restoring Yanmar YM165D
I guess it had to happen. After six years of working something finally broke on our M59. This machine is used for a lot of short chore work and has about 600 total hours. These tend to be hard hours but not high RPM hours. We don't idle much, tending to run with the Stall-Gard feature activated but with the Low/High auto shift feature not engaged. This combination works the auto-throttle pretty much constantly.
So I was pushing a load of flood debris - rock and dirt - when the HS foot pedal suddenly felt different and the engine dropped to an idle. Investigation showed that the wire cable running from the engine governor to the auto-throttle lever had broken. Actually I was glad to see that. My fear was that it was going to be something in the transmission or the magical software/electronic controls. A broken cable is something I can deal with....it being a typical control cable about like a motorcycle throttle cable or bicycle gear shift cable.
Luckily - or due to good design - the M-59 auto-throttle cable runs in parallel with the hand throttle cable so the tractor continued to work in manual throttle mode until the part arrived. Not a whole lot of difference really, and none at all as a backhoe.
I called Messick's part dept. and the pre-made cable came UPS about 3 days later. It has a different plating on the metal parts than the original, but otherwise it's the same high quality part. Sporting the proper type of multiple strand cable for a flex application, regular even crimps, good rubber - not vinyl - in the dust protection bellows, wire connection looks right, no extraneous solder creeping up the wire strands....all things that this old mechanic looks for in a pre-made flex cable. Roughly $30 plus postage. Postage was high, so I took the opportunity to buy a couple other cables just in case.
Replacing and readjusting the new cable should have been a one hour job but took twice that long because the cable routing is so difficult to access. Major POA, actually. Other than access, the installation was straightforward for anyone having tiny hands equipped with double jointed steel fingers. And possessing U-joints in place of the more common type of wrist, elbows, and shoulders.
I wanted to get this info out there. We haven't had many posts about Kubota repairs and even less on the M59. This wasn't a case of dirt or adjustment or lack of lube, overuse, or any of the traditional causes of preventable failures. In fact this cable is sealed against dirt. This cable is simply a stranded wire that has to bend to do it's job and it gets to bend a certain number of times before breaking. My guess is it simply reached it's design life and parted. It's working normally now.
rScotty
So I was pushing a load of flood debris - rock and dirt - when the HS foot pedal suddenly felt different and the engine dropped to an idle. Investigation showed that the wire cable running from the engine governor to the auto-throttle lever had broken. Actually I was glad to see that. My fear was that it was going to be something in the transmission or the magical software/electronic controls. A broken cable is something I can deal with....it being a typical control cable about like a motorcycle throttle cable or bicycle gear shift cable.
Luckily - or due to good design - the M-59 auto-throttle cable runs in parallel with the hand throttle cable so the tractor continued to work in manual throttle mode until the part arrived. Not a whole lot of difference really, and none at all as a backhoe.
I called Messick's part dept. and the pre-made cable came UPS about 3 days later. It has a different plating on the metal parts than the original, but otherwise it's the same high quality part. Sporting the proper type of multiple strand cable for a flex application, regular even crimps, good rubber - not vinyl - in the dust protection bellows, wire connection looks right, no extraneous solder creeping up the wire strands....all things that this old mechanic looks for in a pre-made flex cable. Roughly $30 plus postage. Postage was high, so I took the opportunity to buy a couple other cables just in case.
Replacing and readjusting the new cable should have been a one hour job but took twice that long because the cable routing is so difficult to access. Major POA, actually. Other than access, the installation was straightforward for anyone having tiny hands equipped with double jointed steel fingers. And possessing U-joints in place of the more common type of wrist, elbows, and shoulders.
I wanted to get this info out there. We haven't had many posts about Kubota repairs and even less on the M59. This wasn't a case of dirt or adjustment or lack of lube, overuse, or any of the traditional causes of preventable failures. In fact this cable is sealed against dirt. This cable is simply a stranded wire that has to bend to do it's job and it gets to bend a certain number of times before breaking. My guess is it simply reached it's design life and parted. It's working normally now.
rScotty