Oil & Fuel DK 55 Injector Pump

[ritcheyvs]

2008 DK 55 with 389hrs.

While brush hogging yesterday (old field) without warning the tractor just shut down with no warning whatsoever. I had been having trouble starting the tractor for the last month or so after I replaced an injector with a broken spring. I attributed it to a small leak somewhere allowing air into the fuel lines. It would be fine for 7 days or so but if I left it any longer It would take a long time to fire up. After it started it ran great. I immediately went after the injectors thinking I had another broken spring, not the case.
Reading through posts here I found the one with the injector gear failure so I disassembled the IP and the gears were all fine :confused2:. After removing the tops all I found were piles of broken springs??? Has anyone had this happen ever? 1 broken spring I could see but all 4???
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I now wonder if the springs seized at both ends and broke by twisting as the delivery valve body was unscrewed? This does not seem likely considering the direction the springs were wound. Also seems unlikely to produce multiple breaks in each spring. This is not supposed to happen but then all four springs aren't supposed to break, either. But if unscrewing the delivery valves might break the springs it's an important caution.

I wonder if the engine could have run well with some broken springs? Have you determined that the rest of the IP is really OK?

 

[Coyote machine]

WOW! $1490 for an replacement FI pump?! That's INSANE!!
Are you saying you're off warranty? IP pumps ARE covered under warranty by Kioti and federal law*, as part of emissions control devices/fuel delivery devices. It's not as widely known as it is with cars/trucks but the same rules apply, albeit for shorter time frames with tractors.
Please give more details about your model, HST or gear, etc., so we can possibly help you more.
Any prior problems with the tractor, are you original owner?

* See other recent IP related threads to reference the federal warranty details and the Kioti warranty that DOES cover IPs for a certain time, which could be superceeded by the federal warranty, which might help with the new pump's costs, since it should be covered by that warranty- see details of duration, etc.

Ritcheyvs,
I'm beginning to think it may be time to shout out to the feds on these pump defects.
Unlike the owner's manuals for cars/trucks I don't recall any documentation in the tractor warrantys that even mentions any federal warranty's existence. This seems remiss on the tractor manufacturer's part, and if folks were properly informed of the existence of a fed warranty they might not be shelling out huge sums of money to replace defective covered parts. JMHO.

 

[ritcheyvs]

WOW! $1490 for an replacement FI pump?! That's INSANE!!

Well, that's the list price for the 4 cylinder version. The Bobcat price for the same IP is less and Wallace has offered Bobcat IPs for hundreds less, delivered.

But the real frustration, IMO, is the inability to repair these things. Most other Diesel IPs can be repaired. Given parts availability and tech data, any good Diesel shop could fix and calibrate these things for a couple hundred bucks. There were some reports of broken gear teeth (but with an intact rack) where simply rotating the gear 180 degrees (so the bad teeth don't engage the rack) fixed the problem. I suspect Daedong never anticipated these things would need repair; after all, the Bosch IPs in 70s and 80s vintage Mercedes Diesel cars (with a very similar upper IP design) ran forever. Sherrym and I have speculated, the new stop-solenoid design, which moves the rack quite violently, may be a contributing factor in these problems; the old Mercedes Diesels used a vacuum-operated shutoff which was quite gradual. As near as I can guess, Zexel bought the IP rights from Bosch (or maybe bought Bosch) and then licensed rights to Doowan with the stipulation that Zexel won't work on Doowan IPs. Maybe this works in Korea but it sucks here.

As an aside, Kioti USA would do well (IMO) to use a little of their advertising budget to communicate with existing owners, even if it's just a quarterly email newsletter or a better support website. The dealer approach is fine for diagnosis and repair but frustrated owners are not good for business, particularly considering their ability to complain online. I did a lot of reading on TBN before I bought my tractor and I expect that's the norm.

 

[Coyote machine]

I get it that that is list price and repairs are virtually impossible, AND my question to you was don't you think if those with DOA IPs were aware of the fed law then they would be able to press Kioti to repair/replace the pumps instead of having to shell out enormous sums?!

 

[stealthf8r]

No it wasn't list price. Lol That is what I paid at the dealer. And to top it off I had a miss in the engine 2 weeks ago that I found out to be an injector failure. The cause...........a broken spring in the injector. Very similiar to the spring in the IP. When will it end???

 

[Coyote machine]

No it wasn't list price. Lol That is what I paid at the dealer. And to top it off I had a miss in the engine 2 weeks ago that I found out to be an injector failure. The cause...........a broken spring in the injector. Very similiar to the spring in the IP. When will it end???

List/retail at the dealer is basically the same thing; you can't buy a pump from anyone other than the dealers whether it is from Kioti or Bobcat.
When will it end? I can't say anytime soon, BUT I have made a commitment to follow these IP and injector issues as far as possible with the actual people responsible for this cluster-....
How? By connecting with the decision makers at Kioti HQ and seeking answers from them as to why these IPs are so faulty, what they plan to do about it, and when. If I can't get answers from them then I will, and might anyway, decide to contact the feds to see what they have to say about the federal laws regulating the fuel components like IPs and injectors, etc. which have a separate and comprehensive warranty that may overlap the manufacturer's. I for one want to know why there is, to my knowledge, no mention of a federal warranty covering these type of fuel components in the manufacturer's literature supplied to the retail customer who buys a particular brand tractor. And furthermore, why the dealers and Kioti are NOT bringing this additional coverage to bear on these cases where the manufacturer's warranty may fall down, for whatever reason.
BTW, I called today to Kioti Corporate HQ and left a message for the Chief Manufacturing Director, who is away at a convention this week.
I fully plan to follow through on this issue, as I did with the DK-40 Squeal issue that was finally resolved to most Kioti owner's satisfaction a while back.

These pump failures are un-necessary, and need to be resolved as a defect in these tractors, not as a band-aid solution to something that is hurting new tractor sales to existing customers, as well as endangering operators when any pump could without any notice lock on full throttle and cause injury or worse.