kubota B3030 joystick/ float detent question

[pybyr]

Hello all-

My Dad has a Kubota B3030, about 8 years old. Used for lots of things including snow clearing with front mount OE Kubota snowblower.

Recently the main steel hydraulic line off the engine developed a crack/ severe leak; machine went into dealer, and they needed to take lots apart, even removing the cab, in order to replace the hydraulic line. ouch...$$$...

My dad has been sick so I ended up doing snow clearing with it; have used it with the snowblower before but not in several years.

What's puzzling me is that as it came back from the dealer, I could not get the snowblower to "drop and float" - it would drop but remain rigid, which equals fixed height and either having to run it elevated from the ground or no steering if pushed down against the ground. Moved the hoses and couplings around and was able to get it to "float" when hooked up so that hydraulic control joystick raises/ lowers the blower when you move the joystick left/ right (right= down/ float detent). Then had to use the front/ back of the joystick to run the rotator on the snowblower's chute.

There seems to be no float detent available on the front/ back movement of the joystick.

This is klutzy as hell. I am used to equipment where front/ back on the joystick raises a main assembly up/ down and the side-side on the joystick controls the auxiliary motion, such as a bucket or snowblower chute.

Am I right that something is out of whack?

I cannot say for sure if this was this way before the recent trip to the dealer.

Can someone confirm for me that there should be a float detent in the front/ back on the OE Kubota joystick, not on the side-side motion of the joystick.

If this is something where they got the cabling bassackwards, is it something I can swap the cables on without major headache/ heartburn? Any tips on what to change and how? I've worked on various other hydraulics but never on this machine.

 

[heat seeker]

Can you find a manual for the machine? That will at least tell you how the joystick should operate.

 

[greg13]

All of the joy sticks that I have ever seen are nothing but low pressure pilot valve that control a main Hydraulic valve. It sounds to me like someone has lines on wrong. Either call the dealer and let them know (they may want to make it right) or find a Hydraulic schematic and figure out what hoses are wrong, It may be either the pilot hose or the high pressure hoses.

 

[pybyr]

All of the joy sticks that I have ever seen are nothing but low pressure pilot valve that control a main Hydraulic valve. It sounds to me like someone has lines on wrong. Either call the dealer and let them know (they may want to make it right) or find a Hydraulic schematic and figure out what hoses are wrong, It may be either the pilot hose or the high pressure hoses.

Thanks- but the problem isn't with moving hoses (already been there and done that). Problem is that there is no detectable float detent in the fore-aft movement of the joystick valve, whereas there is a detectable float detent if I push the joystick hard right. So it's not in the arrangement of the hoses, it's (as far as I can tell) in the way that the cables are hooked to the valve body (unless there is a detent in the fore-aft that simply isn't working right now). It seems that there are cables leading from the bottom of the joystick assembly to the bottom of the main valve block that the hydraulic hoses connect to- but the cables go into some sort of closed assembly at both ends (joystick and valves). I'm moderately experienced in troubleshooting and repairing hydraulics of various sorts, but don't want to start disassembling complex assemblies that I am unfamiliar with and that are located in tight quarters. Guess it is time to call the dealer.

 

[flyingcow]

call the dealer and also go to www.tractorbynet.com Good group, nice site.

 

[greg13]

You are not the first person with this problem.

http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=69910

 

[Sawyer]

"The big water-to-air heat exchanger- roughly 27x27 4 row, using 5/8 tubing within the fins, and 1.5 headers, from Nationwide Coils (mentioned in a prior post of mine) is now in the cellar.
Before anyone wonders what the heck I am doing with such a big coil, my goal is to move lots of BTUs without needing a lot of airflow, and even when my big tank is running towards the low end of its storage temperature range.
Considering the quality and scale, It really didn’t cost all that much more than a dinky water—> air coil from the cut-price outlets, and I have a lot more confidence that it will last a long time, and that I will never need to wonder if I need to go out and buy a bigger one."

Trevor, I tried contacting you through a conversation. My plan is to change my HX this summer.

Are you satisfied with the coil? Does it serve the purpose on low storage temps?
I am considering doing the same as our HX coils seems to be more of a booster coil than a heating coil, only one pass and even on the gas boiler performance is slow and unsatisfactory. Delta T is usually 13-14 degrees. Summertime would be a good time to make the change.

Thanks, George

 

[MasterMech]

Thanks- but the problem isn't with moving hoses (already been there and done that). Problem is that there is no detectable float detent in the fore-aft movement of the joystick valve, whereas there is a detectable float detent if I push the joystick hard right. So it's not in the arrangement of the hoses, it's (as far as I can tell) in the way that the cables are hooked to the valve body (unless there is a detent in the fore-aft that simply isn't working right now). It seems that there are cables leading from the bottom of the joystick assembly to the bottom of the main valve block that the hydraulic hoses connect to- but the cables go into some sort of closed assembly at both ends (joystick and valves). I'm moderately experienced in troubleshooting and repairing hydraulics of various sorts, but don't want to start disassembling complex assemblies that I am unfamiliar with and that are located in tight quarters. Guess it is time to call the dealer.

Sounds to me like someone hooked the cables up incorrectly. There is could be a "recirc" position at hard right that allows the bucket to dump faster witha laoder hooked up but there should not be a detent that you can feel like the float position would have.

 

[pybyr]

Thanks for the suggestions- Sawyer- responded to you directly.

As to the Kubota, it turned out that swapping the cables solved the problem- the shop must've reassembled it backwards... solved, but annoying to have to solve...