L3010 Front Axle Seal / Bearing replacement

[L3010Ken]

Not sure if this is the right place for this question . . . I have been a long time lurker but not much of a poster.

I have noticed a very slight amount of UDT fluid leaking from somewhere on my left front axle and have kept my eye on the fluid level over the last 20 hours of operation (about the last 3 months as it didn't get much use this winter) and the fluid was full at all times. Last weekend I brushhogged about 5 acres and when I pulled the tractor up to the shed I noticed quite a lot of oil on the tire -

YIKES!!!

I cleaned everything up and let it sit until today so I could find definitively where the oil was coming from. When I looked at it this morning, it was pretty clear that it was the hub seal. I bought a seal and bearings from the local Kubota dealer and started the teardown.

A LOT of metal came out which was kind of a surprise. . .

The inner bearing and gear came off with a small pair of pry bars (aka screwdrivers) with little effort - a tight slip fit.

The outer bearing was toast - I am sure I have overloaded the front axle hundreds of times with the Woods Loader - this doesn't look good.

Getting the seal out was pretty straight forward - just pry up around the perimeter.

The bearing came right out with a couple of taps with a drift around the perimeter of the outer race. I wasn't too concerned about damaging it.

The inner bearing appears fine, no brinneling / it turns smoothly. I also inspected the ring gear and there are no marks / indents from shrapnel on any of the gear teeth.

I am concerned about the lower pinion gear / bearing as this is where gravity would send the fine bits of metal that spalled off of the bearing race and whatever chunks of the race that might have made there way down into the lower drive shaft support bearing (part # 130 in the photo below) . . . if I pull the lower cap (part # 110 which is not leaking now) - can I reinstall it and still get a good seal?

I am thinking that I should just go ahead and replace the lower bearing while I have it this far apart. I own a good set of snap ring pliers - and this lower bearing appears to be the same part # as the inner bearing that I already purchased but didn't use . . . Any thoughts on this?

Lastly - the dealer said that I could replace the UDT in the front axle housing with 80/90 WT gear lube. I have a 5 gallon bucket of SAE 80W90 Chevron Multigear EP-5 that I bought for my dozer . . . I know there are concerns for using this in transmissions with bronze / synchro parts but would it be ok to use this in the front axle?

Thanks for any reply.

 

[rbargeron]

The plastic plug 110 is easy to take out and put back (or replace). Good idea to flush out any metal fragments - take out snap ring 150 and slide the bearing and gear off for good cleaning access. If the big 060 seal isn't leaking there's no need to get into the 100 ring or anything further. 80w-90w gear oil is fine for the front axle - it's separate from the transmission. Great pictures and post - exactly what makes TBN a valuable resource for readers. Take care, Dick B

 

[repete]

Having the front wheel problem was a rather frequent event for me until I put the wheels back into the "narrow" position. When the wheels are "wide" or reversed, the load is placed on the outer bearing. In the narrow position it is centered over both wheel bearings. Some would argue that it makes no difference but having 5500 hours on my L2550DT, and having issues regularly until I put them back into the narrow position, was good enough for me.

Brings back the 1960's and the chrome reversed rims on our cars. If you wanted to trash a set of outer wheel bearings, just put on wide chrome reverse rims.

 

[rjkobbeman]

Gear lube is fine in the front axle. That is even what my M8540 calls for in the manual. Pretty much the same design axle... just bigger everything.

If it were me, I would replace all the parts you are concerned about (what you listed). The extra $$ for a few bearings are nothing compared to a breakdown, which usually occurs when you are doing something and need the tractor. Plus, if something is damaged (whether you see it or not) and you don't fix it now... you could have greater damage later. Plug you could re-damage the parts you are replacing this time. Once it is apart, fix it good!

I do have a question though. Is there not much downward thrust on bevel gear 120? It sure seems like it would take more than circlip 150 to hold the bearing in there.

I would fill it up with thinner UDT and flush it... to get as much parts out as you can. Then fill it with gear lube.

The good news is gravity probably kept all the busted pieces in that hub. Also, this isn't real high speed or anything.

Glad to see this is easily serviceable. I have raised my rear end off of the ground, with a ballast box on, while digging trees out more times than I care to count. I always cringe, thinking how much weight is on the front (entire tractor weight with FEL and ballast box).

When you jacked up your front end and before you removed the hub, were you able to feel anything loose or grinding? I will probably "inspect" mine in this manner one of these days.

 

[MHarryE]

II didn't find much space for crud on the bottom on my L5740 when the same failure happened to me this winter. Incidentally the retainer failure like shown in your picture is most frequently a misalignment problem but I can't figure out how these machined parts can have significant misalignment as easy as things went together with mine. Overload should result in ball and raced palling and mine showed none of that. I am running mine with straight 80W-90 and will change to synthetic this week with everything stirred up. If you look through the history on TBN you will find this is a not infrequent failure on Kubotas.

 

[L3010Ken]

At $3.00 a gallon, I'll use diesel to flush it out. I have a new 130 bearing ready to install. These are standard 6208 and 6207 bearings. Like some have mentioned, I have had both rear tires off the ground with a backhoe hanging off the back more times than I can remember. It is a 1999 tractor with only ~800 hours on it and this is the first real repair I have had to make other than cutting tires on sharp rocks. (And two loader cylinders after getting a little too cocky backing up at high speed dragging a pile of dirt)

No noticeable grinding but a bit of play up and down and side to side, almost like a bad kingpin feel to it. I'll finish up with it this coming weekend and see how it goes.

 

[waycoolmarine]

I would pull the plug on the bottom on both sides , you will probably find metal there also.wash with diesel , and put new seals in, they are cheap that # 60 seal is a common leak and easy to fix while your this far. just a suggestion