Hour Meter

MDNick · May 2, 2001

A comment about that electric fuel shut-off soleniod. The L2850 I ran at the golf course had the electric soleniod shut-off. Normally the solenoid is not engaged and has the fuel on, when you shut down via the key, the solenoid gets pulled in long enough to kill the engine, then releases and turns the fuel back on. After replacing 3 solenoids we discovered that every time we washed it, water would get in somewhere and short out the circuit, pulling in the solenoid. That solenoid has a relatively short duty cycle, it cooked itself after a short time of being locked on. We had to unhook the solenoid from the linkage and use the mechanical system until we replaced the solenoid. 3 times. Ok, we were slow. After discovering the problem, we just pulled the fuse, washed it, and let her dry out. Guess we could have fixed it right but we found a workable solution that didn't require hunting down a short somewhere. The course super was incredible on patches to keep equipment up, but not much on long term fixes, oh, and we never had any money to fix it right.

After years of running Leroy (David BROWN 990) at home on the farm with a manual lever you had to pull out and lock to turn on the fuel and release to shut down, I thought the key shut-off was just the coolest thing.

Nick

Farmer kid usetabe, Farmer Wannabe

GlueGuy · May 2, 2001

<font color=blue>How can I confirm that the generator is working?</font color=blue>

You can put a voltmeter on the battery terminals. When the engine is not running, it should read a little over 12 volts. With the motor running (and the ignition switch on) it should read in the 14-15 volt range.

Oh, and my ignition switch has four positions:
1 - off
2 - run
3 - glow plugs
4 - start

The GlueGuy

Bird · May 3, 2001

WVBill, I guess GlueGuy has already pretty well answered your questions. A voltmeter at the battery terminals should read about 12.6 volts on a fully charged "12 volt" battery with everything turned off. With the engine running, it needs to register 14.2 to 14.4 volts. And to check to see if you have any battery drainage when it's not in use, I'd just use a clamp meter on the positive cable to see whether any amperage is being drawn. Of course, you can also use a clamp meter (turned the other direction) to see what amperage is being charged into the battery with the engine running, but in my opinion that really doesn't tell you a lot since you expect the amperage to fall as the battery approaches full charge.

Bird

WVBill · May 3, 2001

Thanks GlueGuy and Bird,

I tested the generator ("dynamo", according to Kubota) last night and the bad news is that the voltage was the same with the engine off as it was with it running.

So I got out my Kubota WorkShop Manual to see what it would take to replace the dynamo. ...Ulp...it looks like a pretty big job. The follwoing need to be removed to get to the dynamo: Air Filter, Muffler, Hood, Side Covers, Radiator, Cyninder Head Cover, Injection Pipes, Rocker Arm, Push Rods, Cylinder Head, Fan... and then the Dynamo.

I think I'm going to try to avoid that by:
1) Checking out the wiring and the rectifier in hopes that they have failed not the Dynamo.
2) Testing the Dynamo at the dynamo (The WSM says I should get 43V and 30.8V across the two pairs of leads - at "4,250 RPM". I didn't think that little engine could run that fast!!

If the Dynamo is, in fact failed, I may rig up one of those battery minder trickle chargers and just "plug the tractor in" whenever I put her away (fortunately I have electricity at the barn).

skent · May 3, 2001

I think thats supposed to be 4250 RPM on the dynamo. . . . (PLEEEEASE dont try to get 4250 out-a-the engine. . . . the only thing I've seen go bad on them is the bearings. Usually a charging problem is the regulator/rectifier, or corroded connections.

Let us know what you find. . . . . . good luck!

Steve

Anonymous Poster · Jun 5, 2001

Has anyone ever replaced their manual fuel cutoff lever with an electric solenoid powered from the key switch "Run" position?

I have a broken linkage for the kill lever that forces me to turn off the fuel at the cutoff valve under the hood. I was thinking it would be nice to replace the assembly with a solenoid so when I shut off the electricity, it turns off the engine as well.

I am hoping to find a low current draw solenoid that can be powered contunuously while the tractor is in operation so that the energized solenoid allows the fuel to flow and removing the power to the solenoid cuts off the fuel (opposite to the type of solenoid MDNick had on the L2850).

-Mike