As the tractor turns...

As you remember, we bought a tractor a few short weeks ago - Kubota 4150 from Nova International in Aylesford.


In that short time, it has had the ignition replaced, a solenoid added/replaced and a battery replaced.  Today, she died again.  And so, the tech came out (again - third time lucky?) and had a look at what happened.

It appears that when the tractor came in on a trade, it was not given a very thorough "once over" in the shop.  When Bertie first died, the tech came out  and futzed around under the hood with the electrical and solenoid. At that time I had a look at the fluids and asked the him to top everything off - coolant, oil and something red.  Transfer case? Transmission? I can't remember, but it was located directly below your thighs, between your legs as seated for driving.

I thought everything was good to go.

Buuuuuuut then she died again. And again a tech came out to have a look. Apparently something had happened and the battery had died - something about the solenoid and grounding, somethin' something.  He came out again the next day and replaced the battery and everything was good to go.

And so you can imagine my surprise whilst clearing the driveway today when the tractor lost power and the engine started to die.  I immediately shut it off and let it cool down a bit. It turned weakly over, then died again.  A third time resulted in nothing whatsoever - not even a gasp.

This is what the tech found today.

A dirty, clogged and frozen fuel filter.

This is what a brand new, clean filter should look like.

Large chunks of gunk

Some of the gunk from the fuel filter reservoir on the tailgate, the rest is on the ground.

To be fair, I asked the tech if the filter could look that way after five hours of use. He said no. After 10 hours of use? No way.  I just wanted to make sure that it hadn't been replaced and that somehow it'd become that dirty after being here at OA for a few hours.  The tech recommended it be replaced in the fall - and that this one looked like it hadn't been replaced in a long time.

So, Bertie is sitting in the middle of the driveway, where she died. The tech said they'd be out mid-morning with another tractor to pull her up the drive and push her on to a flat deck trailer.  At that time she'll be taken back to the shop and hopefully given a more thorough "once over" - perhaps they'll have a look at the quality of fluids in her, replace some more filters (Oil, hydraulic come to mind) and make sure all of the gauges work.

I'm trying not to be too irritated, but the tractor cost a lot of money and I wish it would work properly and that I could trust it and the dealer.

Oh, and there appears to be a lug nut missing from the front right tire.

I am not a mechanic, I am not a farmer, but neither am I a dumbass.  I hope that the tractor gets a detailed examination to eliminate these wasteful and inefficient trips out to our place.

At the very least it's a good lesson on being diplomatic.