Kubota engineers really did a number on owners in this
L4600 series (maybe others too?) ... -- first off that sensor is buried under the plastic surrounding the dash. Not too big of a deal -- it's four 12mm bolts to get it backed off -- but then the second engineering-from-hell challenge is that the sensor is mounted directly under the 1 inch U-shaped bar that the hood is mounted to. The screw closest to the front of the tractor is directly under that bar and the clearance is too tight for any kind of wrench I could work with. I ended up drilling a 1/4" hole directly above that screw through the U-bar. Never mind that the screws are cheap pot metal material which quickly strip out with their Philipps style
The final bit of zero forethought to field repairs is that the sensor and the sensor mount is too large to fit around the same U-Bar... it's about an 1/8" too wide in the round disc that is bolted to the top of the gas tank to slide past the U-bar at an angle that then allows the rest of the sensor to make it into the gas tank.
I ended up:
1. grinding the leading edge of the sensor's mounting flange until the flattened edge just touched the hole for the front screw,
2. removing the corrodable housing which sits around the sensor.
I suppose this latter step means I have to be a lot more careful about not letting any swill into the fuel tank when filling. I've always been careful with cleaning fuel filling equipment but now will be doubly so as the mechanism under the housing will be subject to splashing of fuel up directly into that mechanism. I don't think there's any problem with fuel getting on the underside of the sensor as the box was not liquid sealed -- it was more of a protective cover. Maybe it will shorten the life of the sensor and my $150 part will soon be useless.
The fuel gauge immediately read 1/2 full which I'm suspect of. No idea how the gauge sensor was supposed to be calibrated. For now, I'll just use it as a very rough indicator of "not empty" which is the biggest concern. I ran this tractor out of fuel once and the fuel relief valve was of zero assistance in re-priming the fuel.
-- another idea --
The fuel cap on this Kubota (and many others, I assume) sits over top of a shallow part of the fuel tank. The bulk of the fuel sits in a much deeper part of the tank which is about 10 inches behind the fuel cap sitting directly in front of the dash electronics.
I tried contacting a couple of Amazon manufacturers who sell 3rd party fuel caps for this Kubota series about creating a 30 degree or 45 degree angled adapter for the fuel cap. If one could 3d print a coupling (threaded for the existing fuel opening) and then a 30 or 45degree port threaded for a fuel gauge like the one below, it would allow the port to face forward and the probe of such a fuel gauge to sit down into the deep part of the fuel reservoir. No joy with anyone I've talked to.
