Kubota L3710 Will not Crank

[allen in texas]

Just a thought but may help. look at your battery cables. On the positive side does it have a heavy cable going to the starter and another lighter wire going to the rest of the tractor with a connector in it 6 inches or so from the battery? Mine did. the connector corroded and tractor wouldn't start. cleaned the connector and all is well.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Well, NoTrespassing's sidebar says "HST."

You said you had an HST. You need to be able to filter out the "clutch" information.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I appreciate all the tips. If the rain ever stops, I will be back on this.

 

[bgr]

Glow plug light operation on your machine. Glow plugs are controlled by a relay with a temperature sensor. If the machine is warm or air temp is warm, no glow plug operation or light.

If air temp is below 45 or so, the glow plug light will come on when you turn the ignition to on, and stay on for a short time then go out. Wait till light goes out, turn key to start engine. Colder temps, the light will stay on longer. You can hear the solenoid clicking on and then off when light goes out. Always wait to turn key to start till after glow plug light goes out.

If you have a manual PTO engagement lever, it will have a microswitch by the lever
to sense it is in disengaged position. HST transmissions on Kubota usually have to have the speed range lever in the neutral position to start. There is a microswitch by that lever. Try wiggling the PTO lever and the speed range lever to see if it starts

 

[NoTrespassing]

Well, NoTrespassing's sidebar says "HST."

Yep, mine is a 1999 L3710 HST. It must be in neutral to start. Clutch doesn't matter. As I've said before, I start it from the ground before getting on the tractor most of the time.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

A guy on another forum posted a photo of what he says is the safety switch on his L3710 HST. It's behind and above the springs and lever that run off the HST pedal. It's up against the floor.

I found the switch on my tractor. Everything looks great, but I have not tried taking it out and testing it yet because it looks like they started with a switch and built a tractor around it.

The tractor started once today. That was exciting. Then I had to use the manual shutoff because it kept running. I looked at the shutoff solenoid, and it looks pretty bad, so I ordered a new one. In case anyone else wants to know, it's a Denso part, and if you look for Denso instead of Kubota, you can save a lot of money. Messick's had the Kubota part for $169 plus whatever shipping costs, and I found a new Denso for less than half of that, shipping included.

I am going to try to do two things. Bypass the solenoid and bypass the HST switch. If bypassing either makes the tractor start, I'll know what the problem is.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Removing the solenoid didn't make the tractor crank, and neither did shorting the HST switch. Now I think there must be a break in the switch wires somewhere.

 

[NoTrespassing]

I replaced the ignition switch on mine last year. It would crank but not fire unless I held the key just right. The new switch fixed the problem.

 

[Jstpssng]

Yep, mine is a 1999 L3710 HST. It must be in neutral to start. Clutch doesn't matter. As I've said before, I start it from the ground before getting on the tractor most of the time.

My father's 2008 L2800HST needs to have the clutch depressed to start. My 2015 L3301 does not.
He also had CC... I found out the hard way that also needs to be disengaged for it to start.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I have been traveling and will have to continue, so I have to get at this thing when I have time.

Today I replaced the solenoid because it was messed up. The tractor did start, but only after I rocked the pedal. It does not shut down with the key. I had to pull the manual shutdown.

Will keep working on it.