M59 Question

   / M59 Question #1  

buck1974

New member
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
19
Location
Smiths, ALabama
I have posted on my hydraulics being extremely weak after it gets warm. How hot should the hydraulic cylinder be to the touch? I worked the hoe for about 30 minutes and the cylinder was so hot to the touch I could barely hold my hand on the cylinder. Is this normal?
 
   / M59 Question #3  
I have posted on my hydraulics being extremely weak after it gets warm. How hot should the hydraulic cylinder be to the touch? I worked the hoe for about 30 minutes and the cylinder was so hot to the touch I could barely hold my hand on the cylinder. Is this normal?

It's probably not normal. In their M59 workshop manual Kubota specs the oil temperature at full RPM and load. To be exact, the temperature should stay between 104F & 140F (40C to 60C) at 2700 RPM and at 2780 to 2910 psi. See page 8-S5 and the following pages in the M59 workshop manual where these and other specs are is repeated many times and never with a temperature above 140F.... loaded.

High hydraulic oil temperature combined with your previous posting on low swing power are signs your system needs attention. I'm just guessing right along with Kubota when I say it is most probably a relief valve or line blockage (see pg 8-S1 for their guesses)

The workshop manual has wonderfully detailed instructions for hooking up the Kubota flow&pressure meter and relief pressure gauges and how to use them to progressively load test and diagnose the various hydraulic systems. The M59 hydraulic system is incredibly complex with three hydraulic pumps feeding multiple systems. There are proportioning valves and a ton of sophisticated relief valves. But everything shares a common sump and a common oil cooler.

BTW, this combination Kubota hydraulic diagnostic meter and also the relief pressure gauges plus all the necessary adapters if taken all together make for an expensive set of tools, but in a shop servicing modern hydraulic and hydrostatic tractors that's just part of the price of doing business these day. I'd expect them to pay for themselves quickly.

All this is just my opinion, but it is based on being a mechanic for 30 years and then an engineer for 20 more. 50 years now that I've followed and worked in the industry. And I maintain it is just flat impossible for a mechanic to check out a modern tractor's hydraulic system without it. The systems are just too interrelated. All he can do is guess. Some guess better than others, but still a guess. If I were you I'd find out if your shop has the real equipment and knows how to use it. And if your mechanic doesn't have access then IMHO you would be wise to figure out how to get it into his hands. You might have to buy or rent it for them. Our local Kubota shop helped their mechanic to buy the recommended test equipment from Kubota. He was so excited he called me up to tell me about it.

Without the proper test equipment then all the mechanic can do is guess and replace parts. I'd not be surprised to find that Kubota's own warranty department refuses to support that approach.

good luck, rScotty
 
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   / M59 Question #4  
Hi Buck1974

I have found on my B21, B26 and now my L45 that after about an hour of using either the hoe or the loader, the appropriate cylinders are all too warm to hold your hand on. I think this is just normal if you are working the machine as I have a buddy with a full size Cat TLB and the cylinders on it get too hot to handle after an hour or so of hard work too.

I just had a problem with the swing on my L45 and took it back to the dealer as it only had a little over 60 hours and was due for its 50 hour service anyways. I don't know if the M59 is the same but since there is a single Owner's manual for the M59 and L45 I presume it is. When the backhoe is removed, there are two rods that you are supposed to pull out to I guess redirect the flow from the backhoe ports to the three point hitch.

My machine had worked fine for several days and then I noticed one Sunday morning that the swing was very slow. By the next day it was still slow but now it was also so weak that if I picked up the back end of the L45 with the hoe even on level ground I could not swing the rear of the machine as I should be able to.

When I dropped the L45 off the mechanic said he had never seen the problem but would look into it while doing the servicing the next day. It turned out that one of those two rods under where your feet go when you are operating the hoe controls the swing pump flow and the other one controls the main hoe pump flow. I guess in about 50 hours of digging and loader work, the swing pump rod had wiggled out about a 1/4" and that was my problem. I got on the machine to try the swing in the shop and after trying it the mechanic pulled the rod out about a 1/4" and the slow swing was back. I now make sure both of those rods are pushed in as part of my daily machine check before starting work.

Regards,

Lauren
 
   / M59 Question #5  
Hi Buck1974


I just had a problem with the swing on my L45 and took it back to the dealer as it only had a little over 60 hours and was due for its 50 hour service anyways. I don't know if the M59 is the same but since there is a single Owner's manual for the M59 and L45 I presume it is. When the backhoe is removed, there are two rods that you are supposed to pull out to I guess redirect the flow from the backhoe ports to the three point hitch.

I got on the machine to try the swing in the shop and after trying it the mechanic pulled the rod out about a 1/4" and the slow swing was back. I now make sure both of those rods are pushed in as part of my daily machine check before starting work.

Regards,Lauren

You know Lauren, that's a good tip. I knew about those two rods and even looked at them when my swing quit working on one side...., but since they seemed to be in the right position and I assumed that they were somehow locked into position I confess that I didn't even lay a hand on them to check. Dumb Oversight....I'll certainly do that in the future.

I didn't know about the L45 and M59 having the same operator's manual. Are you sure? At the time we bought the M59, the "other model" was the L48 and I was surprised at how close the operating specs were. I'd be curious to compare the L45. How does it differ?
rScotty
 
   / M59 Question #6  
Hi rScotty

Nice to talk to you again.

The two rods (Kubota calls them levers) do not seem to have a detent on them. On page 62 of my manual the section on these rods is titled "Directional Valve Lever and Swing Lever". However, in the picture they are both labelled "Directional Valve Lever". In a "Note" at the end of this section, it states that "When the hydraulic couplers at the right of the tractor are utilized as a hydraulic outlet, swing lever is switched to "with backhoe" position." It is not clear to me from this which rod is the swing one but I believe it was the left one that was moved when I was in my dealers shop.

The dealer could not find my factory manual but I have a PDF copy of the manual which I prefer anyway. If is dated 2008 on the back and on the front it indicates it is for the L45TL and M59TL.

The two biggest differences between the L45 and M59 are that the M59 loader is rated at 1,350 kg vs. 1,000 kg for the L45 and the M59 can dig 12' deep vs. only 10' for the L45. The M59 also has Cat 1 & 2 three point hitch vs. only Cat 1 on the L45.

From an operations standpoint, there are very few differences pointed out in the manual as both machines have HST+. With all of the loader work I have been doing since I received the L45 I can't tell you how much I love HST+. I have a hilly area on my property that I have been going up and down on and the auto down shift saves a lot of manual shifting. Most of the differences between the tractors noted in the manual concern servicing and lubricating maintenance. There are very few operational differences.

As you know I looked long and hard at a used M59 with the Laurin cab already on it, but in the end the arrogance of the Kubota dealer in terms of what he thought his machine was worth and what my B26 was not worth resulted in me in abandoning that path. The M59 was also a 2008 and after reading about the hydraulic pump issues some users experienced with the early M59's I was nervous about purchasing a used machine with no warranty anyway. The final straw was also the weight of the M59 as I did not want to have to purchase another trailer to float it around. The L45 fits comfortably in my 14' dumper and although I don't have the cab on yet I think it will still come in under the 14,000 pound rating of the trailer with the 4-in-1, my forks and my spare hoe buckets loaded.

I have put almost 100 hours on the L45 in the last seven weeks and am really pleased I upgraded from the B26. I just need to stop using it long enough to get the cab and then the A/C installed!

Regards,

Lauren
 

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