Maybe we should have gotten a crankcase heater in the L3940!

[leonz]

Thats the biggest reason I own a salamander as nothing I own has a pre start motor oil circulating pump.

 

[Grateful11]

So you never have never changed the air filters and threw the old ones out????????!!!!!!!!

When you get a minute you should remove the inner and outer filters and see if it fires. The inner and outer elements are not ment to be cleaned and reused!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and if your dealer says they are I will personally tell him to S&*t in his Kubota hat.

Is any of the exhaust smoke black?

you can have a plugged air filters in any location so thats not an issue.

Does this tractor have a precleaner stack or only the dual elelement system?

IS the screen in the filler neck still there?


The injection pump is a fuel pump and does not require a second pump.

If the fuel line was bad it would still try to fire even though it was collapsed as some fuel would get there.

You definitely need Racor fuel filter water separator with a fuel heating element in the sediment bowl for that Kubota after the tractors fuel tank.

I'm confused, where did I say I threw the air filters out? We have 6 tractors
all well maintained, our air filters are cleaned and put back on a reg. basis.
It has the large primary air filter and the secondary smaller inner filter that
everything I've heard said do not try to clean the secondary filter.

Here's what I said ;-)
>"the primary air filter has been pulled twice and cleaned and the secondary has been inspected and put back in."

>"You definitely need Racor fuel filter water separator with a fuel heating element in the sediment bowl for that Kubota after the tractors fuel tank."

Why would I need a different setup than what came with the tractor?

 

[Johnbro]

It's not air filters, and you don't NEED a Racor on your tractor. It should start fine. A Racor is a nice addition, probably extend your service life, but the lack of same shouldn't prevent your diesel from starting right up. I agree with the fuel system as the likely culprit. I would bleed it and make sure all the fittings are tight and not leaking down between uses.

 

[Grateful11]

Well I'm glad I got the dealer involved. He left with the tractor about an hour ago.
He tried to start it and immediately knew something wasn't right. He took a jumper
wire and put it on the glow plugs somewhere and it fired up instantly. I wasn't able to
be there when he, the head mechanic and the the guy that started the dealership
came over. My wife said please tell me it's something you can fix here and he
said no I've got to take the dash off. So onto the rollback it went and he would
start on it as soon as they got it to the shop. She's hoping it will be back before
feeding time but I doubt it, it's a 35 minute drive one-way. She said it sounded
as if this is not the first one they've had with this problem, he said it was something
that wasn't hooked up right at the factory. Hopefully I'll be able to ask exactly what
it was when they get back, I'd really like to know exactly what the problem is.
You never know someone else out there maybe experiencing the same thing.

 

[leonz]

I'm confused, where did I say I threw the air filters out? We have 6 tractors
all well maintained, our air filters are cleaned and put back on a reg. basis.
It has the large primary air filter and the secondary smaller inner filter that
everything I've heard said do not try to clean the secondary filter.

Here's what I said ;-)
>"the primary air filter has been pulled twice and cleaned and the secondary has been inspected and put back in."

>"You definitely need Racor fuel filter water separator with a fuel heating element in the sediment bowl for that Kubota after the tractors fuel tank."

Why would I need a different setup than what came with the tractor?

The air filters should be tossed and not cleaned;

You can actually have air filters so plugged they will be destroyed by being sucked into the engines intake piping- happens more than people realise. The air flow restriction indicators are niether fool proof or truly accurate either and need to be cleaned or replaced occasionally as they do not give you a true Hg. reading from the intake where a milk house vacuum pump gauge kit would be of great benefit.



The secondary safety element filters are not ment to be inspected and reused!


The racor filter removes water and debris to 2 micron depending upon the cartridge and the water is totally stopped from entering the injection pump.




The Japanese fuel storage standards are much higher than ours hence the fine fuel filters on the engines.

I have had diesels stop dead in their tracks from water plugging up the Racor cartridge filters.

The fuel bowl removes the dirt and crud and the water as the fuel flows through the turbine and settles out as it is spun to the sediment bowl wall.


The tractors are built around the Kubota built engines and transmissions.

The tractors sold here are subject to the designers whims and what
equipment they can fit in the space.

When all the Kubota tractors were imported directly in the early 1980's they had many fewer problems as quality control was not an issue they had to worry about.


I dont have nickle invested, but I really dont want to see anyone spend a small fortune buying a new injection pump because of water and dirt when it is not necessary either.

 

[Egon]

From the sounds of things I feel very embarrassed!

Maybe someday I'll win one!

 

[RickB]

The air filters should be tossed and not cleaned;

You can actually have air filters so plugged they will be destroyed by being sucked into the engines intake piping- happens more than people realise. The air flow restriction indicators are niether fool proof or truly accurate either and need to be cleaned or replaced occasionally as they do not give you a true Hg. reading from the intake where a milk house vacuum pumg gauge kit would be of great benefit.



The secondary safety element filters are not ment to be inspected and reused!


The racor filter removes water and debris to 2 micron depending upon the cartridge and the water is totally stopped from entering the injection pump.




The Japanese fuel storage standards are much higher than ours hence the fine fuel filters on the engines.

I have had diesels stop dead in their tracks from water plugging up the Racor cartridge filters.

The fuel bowl removes the dirt and crud and the water as the fuel flows through the turbine and settles out as it is spun to the sediment bowl wall.


The tractors are built around the Kubota built engines and transmissions.

The tractors sold here are subject to the designers whims and what
equipment they can fit in the space.

When all the Kubota tractors were imported directly in the early 1980's they had many fewer problems as quality control was not an issue they had to worry about.


I dont have nickle invested, but I really dont want to see anyone spend a small fortune buying a new injection pump because of water and dirt when it is not necessary either.

If the tractor runs and performs as designed once the difficult starting is overcome, it is impossible for me to believe that water and dirt has anything to do with the immediate problem, or that replacing the injection pump is an indicated solution. Further, there is absolutely nothing wrong with examining and reinstalling a pristine secondary air filter.
Lets bring the discussion back to the actual symptoms and possible cures.

 

[crazyal]

I hope they fix it quickly. If your glow plugs aren't working I think that could be the root cause of your problem. I've heard of people turning on the engine, waiting for the glow plug light to go out, turning it off then back on to have glow plugs come on again before trying to start it but I never have. Mine will start (the teens have been the lowest I started it in so far) just by waiting for the glow plug light to go out and it only takes a second or two and it fires up. I have been very impressed with how quickly it fires up.

I would have thought the glow plugs were controlled with something that monitors the temp of the glow plugs (or chamber). Maybe it just used a standard time based on the engine coolant temp. If so it wouldn't know if they came on or not, just supplies power for a preset time and then shuts oof. It's nice to learn new things.

 

[Grateful11]

No one should feel embarrassed y'all were trying to help. It didn't make
back today, hopefully it make it back tomorrow. You should have heard her
when I said they might leave outside at the dealership tonight. She and her
late Dad never left any tractor outside in the elements. Man did she get loud,
"they better not" she said.

I appreciate all the suggestions. I will definitely post any and all details they
give us when it comes back. It's suppose to snow in the morning so it may not
make back tomorrow either. What do most dealers charge for pickup and
delivery back, I figure around $150. We have a Hudson trailer that would haul
but it's never been titled and tagged, she and my son use it to haul round bales.

I'm going clean the fuel filter regardless when it gets back, book says kerosene
but wouldn't mineral spirits do it?

 

[JoeL4330]

so, here's a guess: recall that the original complaint was turning over slow...and, some improvement when allowed to idle at a charging rate, rather than constant stop-start ...and, started right up when glow plugs were energized directly ...so, just guessing, there's an unwanted path to ground around the glow plugs...short in the glow plug relay?