About two months ago I took delivery of my 2002
B21 with 1,300 hours on it from the local Kubota dealer. The first order of action was to replace the fuel filter, hydraulic filters, air filter, engine oil filter and all the fluids. I had the dealer lubricate all the joints as well. While I was at it, I replaced the rubber on all the pedals and I made my own rubber mat which actually came out better than the new ones. I bought a slightly used box/blade from the same dealer and had the dealer install several missing 3 pt hitch parts as the tractor was used with a backhoe for most of its life. I bought the tractor sans backhoe. Over the next month or so, I spent a couple of hours every evening going over it with a wire brush and cleaning rag. I bought two cans of spray paint (Kubota brand bright orange II) at $12
ea. and one quart of brush-on Kubota brand orange paint (II) at $35/qt. I also bought one quart of Kubota gray paint for around $20. While touching up and painting, I went over every inch of the tractor, looking for leaks, broken, missing parts, etc. Luckily, I didn't find any. I dismantled the dashboard completly and cleaned all connections and the inside of the clear plastic area and then cleaned the built up grease on top of the transmission area behind the dash board assembly.
After driving the tractor for only a couple of hours, the water pump started leaking fluid which really wasn't a bad thing since it gave me the opportunity to tear into the engine compartment and clean things up in there. I had to remove the fan and radiator to change the pump and that was pretty easy. With that stuff out of the way, it was easy to clean out the battery compartment which over the years had quite an accumulation of weeds and dirt, some of it in front of the radiator. While there, I replaced the battery with a new Kubota brand, painted the frame and metal in the battery/radiator area and cleaned the battery terminals and holding bracket, then coated them with grease. While I had the radiator out, I cleaned it separately. I was amazed at how much dirt was lodged in between the fins. It took me quite awhile to blow it all out and I was glad I did because no doubt the engine runs quite a bit cooler now.
Here is a before picture:
Here are the after pictures:
Engine, cleaned with new waterpump. I replaced the cruddy-looking hose segment you see in the picture.
It took some time, a little bit of money but now I have a tractor I can trust for a good many years.
Someone mentioned the hood. This tractor was designed to use in a construction environment and that is why the hood is sloped down at the front, for better FEL visibility. This sloped area is made of very thick metal to help ward off dents from falling construction debris. That is also the reason there is a four post ROP with cross bracing on the top, to save your skin should a brick fall from the sixth story in your direction.
I love the size and maneuverability of this tractor around the home. My wife is a horticulturist and we have many many flower beds with thousands of varieties of plants. I find myself navigating some pretty tight areas and the tractor, while small, is built like a bull dog. It was worth every penny.
