New S470d owner here

[eightksi]

I'm a new Satoh owner, and wanted to drop in and say hello.

Picked up a nice used Satoh Buck S470d a couple weeks ago. 540 hours. Super heavy duty 5-foot rear Ro-Tech Master finish mower. Real good mechanical condition, but it needed basically all kinds of maintenance, since none had been done to it in years. I used two and a half tubes with my small grease gun on the zerks for the mower's 3 spindles, the steering, knuckles, pedals, etc.

Engine oil, front and rear trans/hydraulic fluid, battery, mower belts were all completely shot, and replaced.
The worst part: I overheated a little after running for an hour.
The cooling system was terrible: radiator fins plugged, terrible flow, hoses bad. Tore it down, flushed block and radiator. Blew out tons of junk from the radiator fins with my compressor, had the rad flushed/cleaned by a rad shop.

Now, I'm just waiting for the replacement hoses (and the missing thermostat) to ship to me from Valley Power (satohparts.com). Good guys, and I will definitely use them whenever I need parts, which I'm sure I will again! I'll put the whole front end back together, fill it up w/coolant mix, and I should be ready to go!
It was stored inside and rarely used, but they just didn't do any maintenance on it, especially any fluid changes or greasing. I doubt the motor has any damage: doesn't seem to lose coolant, and the only smoke from it is just the black diesel smoke when I throttle up, or start it up. No white smoke. I had put some Diesel fuel system cleaner in it before the cooling problems started, and I think it ran even smoother.

I'll attach a before pic, then an after pic in a few days, or however long it takes to get it back in commission. I degreased some of the frame and other parts, while I was draining out fluids, so it is starting to look a little better. The price was really good, so I don't mind some of this overdue maintenance work I'm doing to it. Paid $2600 for the tractor, mower, Diesel can, and a couple manuals. If I get selfish, I may even buy a nicer replacement seat.

 

[oliver28472]

Heck of a deal! I've got a Buck that my Dad bought new. It has been through the ringer and is a lot rougher than yours but still does what I need. Starts good, etc. My radiator has a few tubes soldered shut due to being damaged after being rolled on 3 separate occasions. The Buck will do better with a 48" mower if you can trade for one. I found a pretty good used Woods last spring for $240.00. My mower stays hooked to my Mits 1450D which is the same tractor with a smaller engine. Welcome to TBN.

 

[eightksi]

I agree on the mower size. First, a five-foot is probably too much for the Buck, but what makes it much worse is its weight and design. Holy cow, is it HEAVY! Plus, it doesn't have fron caster wheels, so a lot of that bulk is now hanging on check chains from the top link hitch pin on the back of the tractor. They hadn't used check chains at all before I put them on, so all that weight was on the hitch arms. Not good. You can see how the vertical hitch 'bolts' have bent some from the weight.

I will look out for a four-footer, especially one with front and rear caster wheels so I can just pull it behind me, instead of it hanging off the back!

 

[oliver28472]

My Woods just has them on the back. It's not terribly heavy and is a good match. When you get a mower with caster on front and back, it put the mower further away from the back of the tractor. This is a negative effect because it takes more room to turn. I tried a 5' with four casters one time. It was a new Bush Hog brand and did a great job of mowing. When I turned sharp at mowing speed the heavy deck would fishtail the tractor and the mower ran into stuff that I missed with the Woods while turning.

 

[eightksi]

So, what is really the difference between the Buck and the Beaver, other than the Buck's engine being a 3-cylinder?

It looks bigger to me, but I've never seen them side by side. The rear tires look bigger to me.

 

[oliver28472]

Let me see if I can get this right. The S-370 is a Beaver with 2 cylinder engine. It has a backwards turning pto. The 372 is a Beaver II with 2 cylinder engine and correct pto, supposedly a completely different (newer) tractor. The 373 is the 3 cylinder Beaver III, otherwise very similar to Beaver II. The Buck I beleive was made throughout all of the Beavers and does have more CCs than the 3 cylinder Beaver III. When I bought my manuals for my Buck, they also covered the Beaver III. The Beaver III has 776 CCs and the Buck has 849 CCs. The 370 and 372 both have 669 CC.

 

[eightksi]

Oh no.

I was removing the thermostat housing as the last part to take off for putting a thermostat back in. The left bolt came out OK, just really slow. The right bolt -- snap. It turned about a half turn, then snapped right off, with very little pressure onto it. So now, I have a bolt sheared off sticking out of the block.
I am hitting it with penetrating oil, and the PLAN was to let it soak for a few days, then try the two-nut trick on it, since there's about a half-inch of threaded bolt sticking out. (screw on two nuts, and tighten, loosen them gently with a wrench in hopes I could screw it out) I came home last night to find someone who was trying to help out had stripped all the threading off the bolt with vice grips. I'm done. The whole easy-out, left-hand thread drill bit stuff just throws off lots of warning flags to me, so I won't do that. I'm on a waiting list to get the tractor in to a Kubota dealer just up the road from me to get it removed. It will be at least another week. They said it's a pretty easy procedure for them, since they do it so often, and would either easily remove it, or just cut it out and re-thread and re-bolt it if they had to. Either way, they will remove, insert the thermostat and re-attach the housing. They, just like everybody else, are totally booked solid with repair jobs.

I mean this literally: THAT WAS THE LAST BOLT I HAD TO REMOVE ON THIS REPAIR JOB!!!!!!

I just got all my replacement parts in the mail yesterday.

 

[oliver28472]

My Buck don't like to turn loose of it's bolts either. One in the water pump and one like yours on the thermostat. Water pump bolt came out OK. The thermostat bolt broke almost flush. Easy outs can't be trusted here. I just drilled and rethreaded. It may be a bit off center but no leaks. In your case if you still have the 1/2" sticking out, you can try heating the area pretty good and let some candle wax melt down into the threads. Then try the vice grips. If you have a welder, weld an oversized nut on and screw it out.

 

[eightksi]

Since you are painfully familiar with this repair job I'm doing, I want to ask you a couple questions:

Since there isn't an old thermostat to pull out or reference exactly where the new one should go, I'm assuming that the thermostat will lay horizontal between the two parts of the gooseneck? I also got a gasket with the thermostat, and it looks like that is where this should go. Am I right?

Here's why I ask: there is one more part to the gooseneck or housing that may or may not be part of the head. It has one regular 12mm vertical bolt and another weird threaded bolt with a long 'hex' nut - it's long-like an inch. Those two bolts to the other piece are totally corroded, and that threaded stud bolt is in bad shape too. I really do not want to have to take that off. I really think it should sit in between those two gooseneck pieces, but it's better to ask, I guess... And I thought it was weird that a thermostat would lay horizontal.

Will attach pics later of the disaster area, in case this description makes absolutely no sense.

 

[mit]

i agree with the heating of the bolt to have it removed. use a good blow torch to get it red and use a vise grip to remove. exactly where the thermostat goes i dont know but u could give bill a call at www.satoh parts .com and i am sure he will help u.

 

[oliver28472]

I'm going to have to look at mine before I can give a decent answer now. I do remember that funky bolt though. I think that is so you can use the hex part of it to tighten down the gooseneck. Then the air filter housing is attached to the threads on top of the hex. I have a new bolt laying around waiting for the next time. I remember using a longer bolt and some spacers under the air filter housing. Right now its not leaking so I'm not going to bother it. Let me look at mine this afternoon. I'm sure you can get one of those bolts from Bill or Len. I recommend using anti-sieze on the bolt threads when you re-assemble.

 

[eightksi]

The Thermostat does lay horizontal. Whew. I shouldn't have to take off that portion that attached to the head/block.

I'm going to have a Kubota dealer up the street take off the broken bolt, and determine if the new bolts will work in the block threads. The bolt threads to the one I got out look horrible. They're really shallow, and very worn down. They may have to re-coil the bolt holes, and put in bigger ones to close up the thermostat housing. I'm thinking the job is a little too big for me.

 

[mit]

if u had a tap set u may be able to retap the holes and use new bolts.the thermostat bolts corrode out over time.u gave it a good shot u know where to stop.good luck.

 

[eightksi]

Those pictures I promsied. I should be able to get the tractor in to the shop Monday.

 

[oliver28472]

I don't think I've had that piece off. Just the one it's bolted to, that bolts to the head. If you take that one off get ready for more of the same. You may want to try the heat and wax trick to begin with. Good luck.

 

[eightksi]

They got the bolt out. The block threading was OK, and took the new housing bolts just fine. The shop put the thermostat, gasket and bolts back together for me, and said it looked real good. They just heated up the bolt, and worked it out. No drilling or new threading. Whew.
I may even have it back tonight from the shop. Now for re-assembly!

I'll post some pictures of the before and after repair later, after it's put all back together. I took some time while it was down to clean off some of the gunk off the frame, motor, etc, so I found it's actually painted blue under all that gunk! I re-sprayed the muffler guard and front grill, and used about a half bottle of Simple Green degreaser to get all that caked on grease/funk off of most of the tractor.

I do have a question: I have heard of two different types of hydraulic fluid should be used for the tranny/hydraulic. I went with what the sticker on the gas tank and my manual said: 80w90 gear oil. $50 for a 5 gallon drum at NAPA. Now I'm finding that I might should've used Tractor/Farm hydraulic transmission oil instead. what did you guys use, and did anyone have problems w/ 80w90 in the transmission? Should I worry about it?

 

[oliver28472]

I'll repeat what Bill has said. If you are using any attachments that have hydraulic cylinders (front end loader, back hoe, etc.) then use the transmission hydraulic oil. If no hydraulic attachments use what you bought. I don't have any hydraulic attachments and have used the transmission hydraulic oil (JD 303 equivalent) for years w/o any problems. I run the heavier stuff in the front axle.

 

[eightksi]

Some picture of the buck before the repair, and during the teardown.

 

[eightksi]

And the after pictures.

 

[mit]

nice job on the tractor.glad u got it all fixed up. now u can tell us how well it works.