T.Jeff Veal … I’d say if this is your second front bearing, you’d be game for more counter weight…. Especially with the weight your picking up… MasterMech gave me insight to this… read his two post about counter weights, maybe you can apply something…. X720 Rear Tire Rim Air leak
You are asking that little L to do more than it was designed to. More ballast will help you identify the second-weakest component. Hopefully it fails as benignly as the wheel bearings do. You might be surprised at what your L is still worth in a private sale.
Thanks, I'll try to cut the logs shorter. My wife bought us that tractor when her dad passed in '06. I better hang on to it. It does look like Kubota would have designed the front end to handle what the loader can pick up. I know I have overworked it.
I hesitated to say anything because I know from your posts that you know what end is up. Nice to have a machine with some sentiment behind it. A neighbor and I got a few semi loads of wood ash to spread as lime. I asked if we should rent a loader rather than use his farm tractor to load the spreader. He looked at me like I had sprouted a third arm and basically said he bought his machines to work for him, period. I grew up babying older machines to get as much life as possible out of them, and have carried that forward.
I was thinking similar Flamestead and trying to not experience T.Jeff Veal expensive front axle issues had my mechanic double check it. He did and I explained why; he said BIG difference between L and my MX. Not that I haven’t over loaded it.. it’s pretty sure been done when back tires come off ground with ballast when you stop
Got the front axle broke apart yesterday afternoon. Had some sparkles in the oil Inside bearing failed A piece of the split collar also came loose I think that may have been what broke this spot on the front cover, O ring was broke at this spot. Will order additional parts today...
What oil is being used in that? Is there a magnetic drain plug? No matter your answer...the ultimate fix is dealing with the overloading though...
I would call your dealer and ask them what they would recommend if you wanted to go to a synthetic EP oil...that and a magnetic (even homemade) drain plug would very likely buy you some more bearing life. I'm sure someone here might have a good suggestion too...I use a lot of Mobil SHC series oil in gearboxes at work...but there might be a better one than that even for this extreme load situation? That, and maximizing your counterweight might make a big difference in bearing life...
The SHC series is what I use in anything that has brass/bronze components, good stuff. Mobil 1 synthetic GL5 gear lube is what I use in my front axle. However the EP additives, sulfur among others will eat brass/bronze.
... That looks about like the end bearings on one of our fuller pumps...it got so hot, smoke was coming out the grease zerks like a volcano. Dry grease caught fire when they took the end cap off.
