CK 20 hood won't open

[natem]

On your tough starting problem --

Put the glow on as normal to pre-heat and wait either til it goes out or until it is about to go out and start cranking the tractor. Once it starts to run (turns over), let the key come back just enough to stop cranking, but don't come back to the normal run position -- keep it half way between run and crank (there will be spring tension on the key). This will keep the yellow glow pre-heat light on and will be using battery power to keep the glow plugs glowing and the tractor will be running at the same time. I've found on extra cold days, this makes the tractor run smoother on the first super cold start of the day and it seems to help get the fuel burnt rather than blowing out unburnt fuel. You can control when you want the yellow glow light to go out in this situation -- just let go of the key and it goes right out.

I can't take credit for the above trick. I believe bearhawk was the original post I saw this on and tried it to see if it would cut down on smoke on the cold starts.

I've never had a hard time starting mine -- i.e. it always turns over, but the trick above seems to make less black smoke and yields less time of running rough on the cold starts.

On another note, I do use powerservice in my fuel for anti-gel and cetane boost. It claims to increase lubricity of the fuel and it may help too. I use about 3.2 ozs of power service per 5 gallons of fuel. That is the maximum recommended amount from the directions on the powerservice bottle. Walmart carries powerservice -- wife just bought me a gallon on her last visit.

It's pretty good when the wife gets tractor supplies to help fund my habits.[/QUOTE



I think that they may have changed that on the new ck20s, so that it will not do that. But I will defiantly try that once i get mine back. Man i miss that thing.

 

[c2020again]

Update:

The service man came by yesterday. Although he brought the wrong light switch (he brought one for a 2006, mine is a 2007) he solved the hood mystery. We took the side panels off where we could get a light up there and see the hinge. It was as simple as loosening one of the hinge bolts! One of them had seized up on its own, no dust, no grease nothing; it just got tight. I recommend everyone back up their bolts a little to let the hinge work freely. My bolts had a cotter pin to keep them from backing out on their own.

On the other issues:

It was 63 degrees when he came, sooo it started fine. He pointed out that the ignition switch does have a position on it where you came hold the key to keep the glow plugs on longer when it is colder. I will try this but still feel that shouldn't be necessary at 50 degrees. I have had several autos that were diesal and they would start at temps way colder than that with one or no cycles of the glow plugs. I will try it though, because I have confidence that the dealer will make it right if this doesn't work.

Jermain agreed that the loader is off! The frame mounts measure the same from the floor to the top of them. The loader arms/bucket is off by almost 1/2 inch. Not a huge amount, but enough to make it nearly impossible to back blade dirt!

The cross bar across the hood is also very unlevel and the frame mounts are unequal distances from the side of the tractor. One is much closer than the other. I will try to get pictures of this posted so everyone can understand what I am trying to describe.

He is going to contact Kioti to see how they want to handle this. He said he had seen it once before on a Woods loader but not on a KL120B.

My dealer is Robertson Equipment of Ahoskie & Colerain NC. They have been excellant to deal with and I highly recommend them!