New Owner of a Kioti LB2204

[JoelD]

Very nicely done you should be happy and very proud of yourself!! Time to do the “I fixed it dance”. Invaluable experience for sure. I added LED lights to my ROPS, way better than bulbs!!! Super bright and little power draw.

 

[RandR10]

Had to rebuild the whole left front final drive assembly after I got it running. The lower housing was full of a water/oil sludge slurry. Someone had been in there before and put several parts in that were obviously not for this application. I'm surprised it drove at all like that.

Found problems with the steering linkage once I put that back together. The drag link and the hydraulic slave were both bent, along with every rod end on the hydraulic assist being completely worn out. The main steering rod that actuates the hydraulic cylinder was out of adjustment and the rod ends were so siezed I had to get them red hot with the torch to get them to budge. Ace hardware actually carries the rod ends that needed replacing but of course because of the supply chain issues right now, only one of the 5 area stores I went to had any in stock, and they only had one of the 3 I needed. I straightened out everything that was bent on the press and cobbled the old rod ends back together to temporarily run it until the new parts arrive. I kind of want to stop talking about what needs fixing on this thing because the list keeps getting longer lol.

Anyway, I did get the front end in sufficient condition to mount the loader on the front and I moved my first dirt with it! Even though the hydraulics are F'd and running dog slow I was able to slowly actuate the loader and knock down this huge pile of dirt a bit that's been bugging me since I bought the place. Even limping it along I moved more dirt with the loader in 20 minutes than I had in a day's work by hand previously. Well worth the trouble to do the rebuild.

 

[RandR10]

By the way, all the finale drive bearings and seals are the same as the L245. I used generic ball bearings because when I first pulled it apart I didn't have any part numbers and just went off of measurements. The seal assemblies are uniquely engineered for this application so I needed to get the proper parts specific to it from the dealer. I got ahold of the LB2204 parts book and even the part numbers are Kubota numbers just like the engine. I would recommend measuring still on the bearings because the inner hub bearing was actually different than the Kioti parts book. It called for a 6206 ball bearing in that location and it actually needed a 6306. Who knows, maybe this final drive housing is off of another machine. There's no casting stamps so no idea whether it's original to this machine. I walked into the Kubota dealership and ordered seals for a later model L245 and they worked save for one thing, the collar that presses onto the bevel gear shaft. My shaft was so worn that the new collar was loose on there. The old collar was just flopping around on it and had worn the shaft undersized probably about 0.050" so there was no way it could work. I made my own up on the lathe to the same specs but undersized the ID a bit so it could be pressed on with some sleeve retainer. No leaks and the wheel has zero play with everything bolted together. The other side is weeping a little bit so I'm going to put that on the list, but at least it doesn't need a full rebuild, just seals.

 

[RandR10]

Yes every needle broke on all my gauges. That is when I did the mod to the Ford instrument panel.

Hey man, I was looking at options to do a tach/hour meter setup on mine and I was wondering, do you remember whether this tach is clockwise or counterclockwise? For some reason I have counterclockwise stuck in my head, but I can't find anything to verify.

What I'm trying to do is just get rid of the gauge cluster style setup it has now, put a sheet metal panel in its place and just put generic round gauges into holes I cut out of it. There are a few options out there that will help me get that solution working. I really like the idea of seeing actual numerical readings, especially for oil pressure and temp. Will be nice to see RPM's and hours too.

 

[K5lwq]

It is clockwise. Here is the thread showing what I did. Maybe it will help. The toughest thing was getting a cable that would fit. I had to have one custom made. They used a new cable I bought and replaced one end.

Lk2554 Instrument Cluster

A couple of months ago my tachometer started vibrating very aggressively and before I could shut the tractor down, every needle on the gauges broke off. Well, I figured I would order a new panel as I needed some other parts anyway. Turns out the instrument panel is no longer available. Now I...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[RandR10]

It is clockwise. Here is the thread showing what I did. Maybe it will help. The toughest thing was getting a cable that would fit. I had to have one custom made. They used a new cable I bought and replaced one end.

Lk2554 Instrument Cluster

A couple of months ago my tachometer started vibrating very aggressively and before I could shut the tractor down, every needle on the gauges broke off. Well, I figured I would order a new panel as I needed some other parts anyway. Turns out the instrument panel is no longer available. Now I...

www.tractorbynet.com

Thank you. That is very helpful.

 

[Rychehawk]

I have an update for everyone on this. I attempted to bore the original sleeve on that broken piston's cylinder and the scoring was too bad for it to clean up with a 0.020" (0.5 mm) over bore. There's no 0.030 or 0.040 over pistons available for these, so I bought a rebuild kit with new sleeves and standard size pistons and rings for a Kubota DH1101 (also compatible with D1100, D1101 and D1102 Kubota engines). Upon assembly with this kit, the only part I've encountered so far that hasn't worked is the valve seals. I ended up using valve seals from an early '90s Ford Taurus 3.0 V6 (the Vulcan pushrod engine, not the DOHC Duratec) which fit perfectly. Right now I've got the bottom end assembled, the head is on, cam is installed, crank and idler gear are on, and I'm just about to install the injection pump cam and gear. I'll probably wait to give another update until I get the tractor running.

So to review, the cylinder liners, pistons, rings, wrist pins, wrist pin bushings, rod bearings, main bearings, and so far all of the gaskets specific to the Kubota DH1101 also fit the Kioti DH1101. The pistons look like they were cast from the same mold. They are absolutely identical to the originals. As I said above, this is great news for both these early Kioti tractor and Kubota L245 owners because it gives a cross reference that allows a broader pool of cores to be used for things like engine blocks and cranks, and guys needing to re-sleeve and overhaul LB2204 engines can just get the Kubota parts. Those L245 engines are unicorns and very expensive to get cranks and blocks for. You can probably buy a whole LB2202/04 in good running condition for less than a complete running Kubota DH1101 engine by itself. The market for Kubota parts reminds me of old Mopar stuff. I hope this helps some people get their tractors running again.

Hi I’m new to the forum as well as new to tractor ownership. I picked up an 86 LB2204 that needs a head gasket. Previous owner did one and probably didn’t replace the bolts and/or didn’t torque correctly. So I’m having a problem 100% identifying what engine this is. The block has 1115cc on the right hand side buy the injection pump which I know is displacement. So is it a Kubota DH1101? I just can’t find head bolts for that model. I also ordered a head gasket kit for a Kubota L245 but it’s taking forever to get here. So can you help with what head bolts I need? Thanks in advance!

 

[RandR10]

Hi I’m new to the forum as well as new to tractor ownership. I picked up an 86 LB2204 that needs a head gasket. Previous owner did one and probably didn’t replace the bolts and/or didn’t torque correctly. So I’m having a problem 100% identifying what engine this is. The block has 1115cc on the right hand side buy the injection pump which I know is displacement. So is it a Kubota DH1101? I just can’t find head bolts for that model. I also ordered a head gasket kit for a Kubota L245 but it’s taking forever to get here. So can you help with what head bolts I need? Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the forum Rychehawk. When looking for engine parts, almost anything for a D1101, DH1101 or D1102 will work. They're all roughly the same. My engine kit listed all those applications. In the research I did tracking down parts and looking at specs I found that every single piece internal to the engine was the exact same spec as the Kubota version of this engine, but it is in fact listed as a Kioti engine in every piece of literature I could find. Wanted to clarify on that because things like the front cover and oil filter don't interchange, and the gearset behind the injection pump is set up to run the hydraulic pump at a much higher RPM. I'm assuming to bump the GPM for loader use. That said, I bought a rebuild kit for the DH1101 and save for needing to use a little RTV on a part of the front cover where they weren't the same, everything was plug and play, including rings, pistons, wrist pins, bearings and the rest of the gaskets. It didn't come with new head bolts because they're not torque to yield. I used the old head bolts and followed the 3 stage torque sequence for a final 58 ft-lbs. I'm past 50 hours now and that head gasket is still holding.