Buying Advice Looking at a Mitsubishi Diesel, need advice

[WNY Tony]

Hello, I am new to the forum, and had a question regarding a potential purchase.

I am looking at buying a Mitsubishi MT180D three cylinder diesel tractor, and went to look at it yesterday. Upon inspecting the motor, I noticed that the wire going to one of the glow plugs had corroded to the point that it was no longer connected. I am new to diesels and don't know enough to understand how big of a problem that is. So here are my questions...

1. If the tractor has been operating with only 2 of 3 glowplugs working, will that have someway damaged the motor? I understand that it would make it harder to start, but my concerns were more if that would cause issues in that third piston? I apologize if this is a dumb beginners question, it just got me worried a little.

2. Generally speaking, will I need to replace the glowplug, or just the wiring connecting it to the next glow plug? If I have to replace the plug, I am assuming it is best to do all three at the same time? If I just have to replace the wiring, is that generic, or is it brand specific?

Thanks in advance for any insights about this.

 

[Don87]

1) just makes it harder to start.

2) only replace the glow plug if it's bad, repair the wire.

 

[WNY Tony]

Thanks for the quick response Don.

I did have one other concern, which was that the tractor does not have live-PTO in the rear. I was surprised to see this in a 1989 tractor. Should this be a major concern for me? Currently, the only thing implement included that would use the PTO is a 4' finish mower.


Thanks.

 

[Tenn_Blue]

I had a Mitsubishi tractor - a Bison - as my first tractor. It did what we needed it to do at the time, but it was getting worn and was cold blooded and hard to start. Eventually replaced with a new Deere.

Non-working glow plugs won't hurt anything - just make the tractor hard to start in the cold. You should be able to replace the non-working ones, splice in a new wire and be ready to go. Note that a plug MAY not work even though it is wired up. They can wear out.

I could be wrong, but I don't think the Mitsubishis were made in the US in 1989. Are you sure this wasn't a REMANUFACTURED or grey market tractor? IF you search the forums, you will see lots of posts on import tractors - they were used in asia and then brought over here by an importer. The importer would "renovate" them (paint, clean up, and possibly repair problems) and sell them, sometimes as "new". Some were well done, others were not.

Be careful, some of the mitsu's had a pto that turned backwards - may or may not be a problem depending on what you plan to do with it.

 

[WNY Tony]

Thanks for the info Tenn Blue. The grey market tractor concerns me a little. I asked the owner to give me the serial number, and he is having a tough time finding in on the tractor. He did read me off some numbers off of the engine (K3C-13MT) which sounds more like an engine model than a serial number. Just for my own understanding, if it were a grey market tractor, would all of the writing would be in Japanese? Everything on this tractor is in english. Any feedback on this would be very much appreciated.

The owner did say he was told it was a 1989 from the original owner, but has no way of confirming, so it is possible it was an 1988 or older.

It also said it was made in Japan. I am assuming both grey market and domestic Mitsubishi tractors were made in Japan?

 

[Tenn_Blue]

Tony, re the grey market stuff - thats part of the problem - there is no "standard" on what gets done to them. They were basically used machines imported from the Asian market - oftem models that were not originally sold here. I don't keep up with those brands anymore - too many other things going on.

Kind of like the chinese tractors (not that I want to open another can of worms...). Most of them come from the same factories, and have similar quality levels when they come into the states. Some vendors evidently just slap a label on and out the door it goes. Others change all fluids, replace some substandard parts, add their own english manuals, supply spare parts, etc.

Part of the "quality" you buy is the prep and setup. Some of the grey market importers would (alledgedly) buy a shipping container of parts/tractors and mix/match to get as many going as they could. Some were "prepped" in third world countries. For some, "prep" consisted of slapping on paint and fresh tires/seat and battery. Some importers DID a good job of quality control and marketed good used products, some did not. Parts for some of the more common models are available, some models are hard to get parts from.

Have you been to the Mitsubishi forum? They may be able to give you more info over there. Also read through the grey market/other forums as well.

That probably doesnt help much.....















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[Tenn_Blue]

Sorry, forgot to answer your questions in my reply :confused2:

Sounds like the numbers you see are the engine model. Yes, all Mitsu's were made in Japan. Finally, won't necessarilly be in japanese - all you are talking about are a few new labels.

IIR, my Bison had a decal type data plate on the frame that gave me the model info, manufacture date, and serial number. That was many years ago though.....