I'm often impressed by the repairs completed in small shops. Just looking at all the pipes and hoses is enough to deter many. Your rant is fine, just an honest display of how you felt.
Genius for remembering, and also Honest enough to show everyone you did. It would have been easy to leave that little clip out. No one would have ever known. Thanks Mike
Hi, I have been a mechanic for 53 years and have seen this every week and you are right to moan and rant more people should, old designs of engines that have had a load of crap bolted to them to make them compliant with today,s needs , i have a box full of bent, cut, twisted, spanners to get to bolts that have been covered up by a after thought, and don,t get me started on oil filter placement and headlamp bulbs that you have to remove the bumper to change . great channel, stay safe.
arthur bolton It all started with firms making it impossible to do stuff without buying thousands of £’s worth of special tools that only do one job. This was about keeping ALL the work for the dealer network. My favourite irritating job was a BMW motorcycle belonging to a friend of mine, where the whole fairing had to come off to change a headlight bulb.
My neighbor has a Mercedes Benz. When a headlight went out, he asked a dealer what it cost to replace it. I believe they had 3+ hours labor to remove the front wheel, the inner fender and what ever else was in the way. Most of $400 labor to change a stinking light bulb, didn't happen. He did it himself in his farm shop.
Genius for remembering. If the Kubota dealer has it in stock you know they are selling a good number of them. You are one heck of a mechanic. That would have been costly for the dealer to fix!
I understand your frustration. I recently bought another JD tractor. I went out of my way to research and buy one that was pre-emissions (Tier 0?) and had very low hours on it. Hard to find, but I finally found one with 200+ hours on it. No only no emissions garbage, but no computer to fail. They potentially can last a life-time. In 2003 I used I bought a new Takeuchi TL150 track loader (again, pre-emissions) and recently was looking to find another with low hours. A low hour model is incredibly hard to find, so I will bide my time and wait. A good piece of equipment should arguably last a lifetime if you are willing and able to rebuild it when time comes. I really hate what the EPA has done to the diesel engine market. And no, I do not think it affects the environment significantly. Stay safe!
You are absolutely right! In addition, research has shown that they probably clean away the large particles that were actually not so dangerous, but that they now emit more microscopic particles that are incredibly harmful in many ways, plus that diesel engines now emit CO2 that used to be bound in carbon as " polluted " Ok in cities but in sparsely populated areas it fertilized nature instead of today's much more dangerous exhaust fumes...
I’m glad you kept it. We’re all human and these were your thoughts at the time. Hopfully you’ll have better luck with it in the future. It is a big deal for most people. Not everyone has your mechanic background either. That bill from a kubota dealer would have been rather large as well. Good stuff man
having worked on vehicles of all sorts for years i feel your pain and frustration. I have often said that designers and engineers need to intern in a shop for at least a year before they can even think about getting in front of cad or a drafting table!
Commenting for my husband here...This video and your dpf cleaning video have been a real help for our company making a living with only two machines. Our 90-2 with 4500 hrs started blowing black smoke of the dpf assembly near the turbo /catalytic side. Decided to clean the dpf per your video to find the pipe entering the cat broken loose from both ends with pieces blown out around it. That cat is a $3.3k part unless my I can find a used one. But to your bracket issues, ours has cracked three time in three different places that we've welded up. I believe the vibration that cracked the bracket worked its way through to the cat causing the failure. Now to check that exhaust bolt! Thanks loads for the time you take to document and instruct.
As a heavy equipment mechanic and worked on many types of equipment I have wondered why an engineer would put parts where they do.Very frustrating .I feel and understand your frustration.
Because engineers don’t work on their designs, for the most part. Maintainability is only one of many design considerations, and not the most important one.
The joys of having thousands of subscribers watching over your shoulder. Glad you caught it and even better you showed us. Maybe someone else will think of that while they work on their machine. Thumbs up!!
The rant is not a problem Mike, the down time is enough to put a lot of small Buisness’ down the drain. Anyone that wants to become an engineer should be required to work as a mechanic or an operator before pursuing the engineering degree. Your hands don’t get dirty learning from a book like they do in the field. P.S. Nice job man behind the scenes!!
Just found your site a couple weeks ago..I was a mechanic and truck driver for a lot of my working life, know exactly where your coming from ..You were a lot nicer than I would have been, have not heard much good about Kubota or their dealer net work , for things that should be covered under warranty. Good luck and God Bless Mike, and tell MBTS I said hey !!!
I think Aaron might be just the right guy to work with since he's well capable of things, lowers the temper of a heated situation and even gets you to laugh. Great seeing all this interesting engineering stuff and the interaction between you guys is great!!
I was the service manager at a Kubota and Bobcat Dealer. Kubota engines were always top of the line, with a lot of other equipment manufacturers using them. Seems like emission add ons are their downfall as with all engines. But the rest of the Kubota and Bobcat machines do not have the reliability or longevity that some other machines have. My opinion is that Kubota and Bobcat are both more suited for non commercial use. When our salesmen did manage to sell a Kubota or Bobcat to a commercial user or a municipality, they seemed to have the most failures. I owned a Kubota compact tractor and a Bobcat skid steer. I had good luck with both, but I am not a commercial user.
You have every right to be upset about the broken intake and poor engineering. You handled yourself well and have no need to apologize. With all the parts you had out of the machine thankfully that was an easy place to install the forgotten gasket. You really do a great job of taking us along for the ride and I for one appreciate how much effort you put into posting great videos.
When you were pissed and on a rant I noticed you still put happy music on !!!! Weather its your sense of humor or just circumstance I got a giggle out of it!!!
I am a retired millwright turbine mechanic (36 years) retired for 6 years and I have certainly had my share of frustation. I feel your pain and I must say I am impressed with your self control and lack of expletetives. I agree there is some lousy engineering on this machine which is common these days with global suppliers trying to find cheap engines they can adapt to their machines. Most of the time they were designed for a completely different application. I am currently in the market for a skid steer and I love the door on the Kubotas, but videos like yours have me a bit shy of this brand. Did you do anything to help alleviate the intial problem with the manifold? GOD bless you and thanks for the video.
Genius, I was thinking there should be a gasket when you were putting it back together. Late at night, easy to miss something, at least there was no damage other than a bit later night
Loctite is a mechanics best friend. I worked as mechanic for over forty years, the company I worked for had a loctite Rep. in to explain all it’s uses when I as a young man .We used that stuff on everything what a difference it made, great product. Great videos Thanks stay safe
I know it's an old video, but the way it was done says about the creator. First is the honesty displayed. You left your mistakes in the vid. I used to think I was the only one who made mistakes, second is your degree of generosity. Recording, editing etc. I'm sure takes a lot of energy and is hugely appreciated. Finally the demonstration of your mechanical knowledge, skill and education. Without a big fanfare about where your authority to judge engineering flaws comes from we learn that you were officially trained to identify not just failures but the cause and effect of mechanical and static failures in a pretty complex piece of machinery. These are why I think you're a pretty cool dude and mainly why I take my time to wach your videos. I'm glad I got to see why I wouldn't buy a kubota or a skidsteer loader in general. I also see why Kubota machinery is less expensive than Cat or Bobcat. They don't spend the money on engineering, design or parts quality. Thanks for the education. I'll be watching later...😎😎
I agree with you 100%, about everything with the engineering aspect on the engine, they could go the extra mile to make those brackets a bit more secure, and making the oil fill a little easier to access. Good job on getting it fixed up, and hope you dont see any more failures for quite some time bud!!
I missed this one last week. I do feel your pain, my family has heard me yell from the shop more than once that "engineers should stick to driving trains, and let mechanics design things!" Since you posted this video, I guess you figured out where that missing chunk of the manifold went?
HELLO from chihuahua mexico, yes is the name of one state in mexico, HONESTY is important you got my respect for being HONEST, GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.
You are a contractor self employed. I understand that when you buy a piece of equipment there is zero guarantee of work available to pay for the machine, you took a chance. I have seen from previous videos you do your homework before buying equipment. I am willing to say you did read up on this machine and a lot of the info came from Kubota themselves. The machine has failed you a few times now, the capital is rising on it so profit is down. I would never criticize you for saying what’s on your mind and your experience, I have no skin in the game you do. I appreciate a honest opinion, biased opinions hurt other contractors in the long run. If Kubota can’t make a engine to work with the current epa regulations then bow out like Cat did with the truck engines. It cost you more then $550, lost work and your time along with what you pay your employees. Also, I see Elite has tagged the skid steer too
Finding that uninstalled gasket, after a very long a stressful day, I give you credit for not doing harm your yourself. Really enjoy your videos, especially your shop work.
I thought for sure you were going to add some gussets or other structures on the new intake manifold using tig to strengthen the "weak" design. After you discovered that this looks like others have had the problem and how hard and expensive the repair was, why not beef it up? Great job on explaining the process and thanks for the tip about the wsm book. Thanks!
I did see you fail, there, but since I saw the "bonus footage", I was impressed that you saw it. In fact, I paused it and looked carefully when you were installing it.
Good lord. I’m a CAT mechanic and I thought I had some things to complain about. Not after seeing that mess! You have every right to cuss Kubota for that disaster of an engineering marvel. Those high pressure common rail fuel systems don’t handle contamination at all. Be careful pulling fuel lines, fuel rails, injectors etc. and keep all the ports capped off or covered. Glad to see you spent the time to clean everything. Dirt and dust is bad new for these newer fuel systems. I also hope that intake wasn’t open for a long time eating dirt.
Being in construction it comes with the territory. My family had a huge construction company for 60 years and before i could drive i became a diesel mechanic and carried it through my whole life. 1 thing to take away from this, newer equipment becomes more difficult to work on and the stupidest issues will arise
Our maintenance department is getting one of these. It came down to the Takeuchi and Kubota, and the Kubota was about $15K cheaper. I hope we have better luck, but at least I know what to look out for. I am very impressed by your composure and courage under fire. I am so susceptible to mechanic's rage these days that my workers keep me away as much as possible. You are cool as a cucumber correcting and not getting hung up on things. Impressive.
The engineers behind a lot of this stuff are under the gun for compact, lighter, smaller etc so everything gets more and more cramped inside the bay. The days of popping a hood on my 90 gt and thinking "hey I can fit inside there with the 5.0 are over. Look at exotics and German cars its insane how they try to stuff everything inside every nook. It makes me not want to work on anything.
They're also under the gun to design stuff that's faster to assemble in the factory. The bean counters don't care what happens to it once its off the line.
You handled in much better than I would. I have a KX92-2. It makes me crazy. Parts cost are exorbitant. Machines are so expensive now and I only use it on my property, so I guess I’m stuck with it. If I had to work it, it would gone and quickly.
I feel your pain brother. Every time I work on something I say bad things about the engineers. I just had to put a starter on my daughter's Honda Accord, easy right? Wrong! Had to remove the intake manifold to get to it. I feel like if the engineers had to work on the stuff they designed they would be a little more considerate when they design it. Don't be too hard on Kubota though, they aren't the only ones that do stuff like that.
I had a Chevy Chevet and to remove the starter motor you had to remove an engine mount and jack up the motor. OEM starters had 3 ears and one bolt was inaccessible without jacking up the motor. Aftermarket starters omitted the 3rd ear.
You have way more patience than I, tool & die and always run into crazy engineering designs that do not work. Good luck but as you know it will happen again. Lol
I can't tell you how many times I've put something together only to find that critical o-ring or gasket laying under a rag or box on the bench. great catch. I have made it my practice to always have a schematic drawing on the bench next to the parts. a picture is worth a thousand words.
I've turned wrenches in several industries and the Navy over the years, and I've come to believe that part of the problem is engineers trying to show how clever they can be rather than finding a simple solution to things. Almost every machine has designs in it that will have you praying for 5 minutes alone with the person who designed it. Have a great day.
Don't apologize for calling out stupidity, how else will they learn? I've been an auto mechanic for over 30 years and I honestly believe stupidity reigns rampant with engineers and designers. Okay, they're not completely to blame because they also have to deal with last minute modifications that have to be made without the time or budget to redesign the whole thing properly. Also, I have made it a habit of using medium strength Loctite on just about every bolt I ever have to re.& re. They won't come loose and they won't rust in solid for the next time. Believe it or not, I did catch that there was no gasket but I have seen a few metal to metal joints without gaskets so you're still a genius in my eyes. Excellent Video! Loved every minute of it! Thanks!
D: None of the above. Any mechanic, anywhere, will tell you they've done the same kind of thing multiple times. It may be bolts that were missed, a bracket, or a seal, but they had to take things back apart to get to it.
I've been a mechanic for 50 years. Now retired. Thank God. That is one tight space to work in. I bought a new John Deere tractor. Warrentied for 6 years. I'm glad.
Your comments about the engineered design are valid comments and especially clear at the end when you start the engine and you cannot even see the oil fill cap. As for torque specs there is a general rule of thumb based on the fasteners size. 6 mm is usually 12 Nm, 8mm is usually 22 Nm and off the top of my head I can’t remember 10 and 12 mm fasteners. There are exceptions to the “rule” like a 6 mm with a lot more thread contact can be up to 18 Nm which is the torque for 7 mm bolts. Yes. 7 mm bolts. The engines I build use 7 mm bolts to bolt down the cam shafts.
You sure helped me! And it was a great laugh watching at 2x. It's just funny, 😂 I bet the real problem is because the system has such a small footprint, they have to stack subsystem on top of each other. Yeah, your analysis is spot on! What stand up skid steer so you recommend?
I think you have every right to be upset, that is an expensive repair, both in cash and time. To me its seems like both of those brackets were a band-aid to get the emissions equipment on the engine by changing as few as parts as they could. Honestly I can not think of a: truck, tractor, machine or other piece of equipment that I haven't questioned what the heck they were thinking when they built it at least once. And I have had the displeasure of working with engineers, they seem incapable of understanding the real world doesn't work like they think it does. The worst one was myself with an Associates degree and my boss who only had a high school diploma arguing for thirty minuets with a Professor of Structural Engineering on why we could not cut a 10 foot by 20 foot hole in a load bearing concrete wall.
When they first started down this road ,of engines eating their own shit to satisfy emmisions....Well, that was the begining of the end for ANYTHING making sense in engineering! Todd the retired trucker.
I think that you were very brave to undertake such a repair in the first place... You understood how to get to the broken part and how to put it back together and have it start the first time... So missing a small gasket is nothing (but 45 extra minutes)... Genius!!!!
Your rant is a lot nicer than most would have done (including me). Engineers do not think about the people who have to work on the equipment. Thanks for the video and explaining things as you go. I learn something new almost every time I watch one of your videos. I am pretty new to your channel and am still working on catching up on all your past videos. Thanks again and stay safe out there!
It always seems to become a problem when the engineers add things to an existing design without accounting for the new stresses that will be put on the pre-existing parts. It appears that the intake manifold mounting boss could have been extended back to the next mounting bolt and thickened in the area that broke. I was hoping that there had been a redesign of the manifold and maybe even a change to cast iron as the weight would be beneficial on this machine. Engineers don't want to change a design or maybe the company doesn't want them to change a design because that would be admitting that there is something wrong with the original design. They always used to tell customers that nobody else has had that problem, even if many have the same problem. The internet has made it much more difficult for manufacturers to hide those problems now. The fact that the dealer had the intake manifold in stock speaks volumes as they don't stock parts that don't sell on a regular basis.
Ah yes. It's like when our government got the bright idea to start adding armor plating to the standard HMMWVs. As the mechanics, we voiced our concerns in regards to the added weight affecting the engine, transmission, diffirentials, geared hubs, brakes, steering, suspension, tires, wheels. The response: Protecting our troops is more important. Yeah, that didn't end well for them. Mechanical failures increased almost 30% with the first layer of armor. Then they slapped on armor doors and another layer of armor. Mechanical failures increased even more. We constantly expressed our concerns and tried to get AMGeneral to step up and assist with improvements to prevent the increased failures. It wasn't until the third layer of armor that the powers that be finally started listening and AMGeneral started manufacturing upgrades to everything. They had to upgrade all of the suspension and steering parts. They increased the number of bolts that held the split rims together to prevent explosive rim separation, as well as upgraded the solid run flats to endure the extra weight. They had to improve the steering/cooling fan hydraulics to endure the extra weight. If the original 6.2 Diesel had to be replaced, they upgraded it to the 6.5 Turbo. A newer and stronger transmission was installed when the old one failed. They added external coolers for everything to keep everything cooler. They upgraded the axels and drive shafts, as well as the internals for the diffirentials. They didn't have to do anything to the geared hubs since they were built beyond their standard capabilities. Had the powers that be listened from day one, we could have saved BILLIONS in costs for maintenance, parts, and equipment loss along with countless hours of down time. AMGeneral could've started manufacturing properly designed fully armored HMMWVs almost 6 years ahead of time. All because the powers that be were to stupid to listen to the REAL EXPERTS ON THE GROUND! Of course the better armored vehicles that replaced the HMMWV would have been designed and put into service years earlier and saved countless lives. The HMMWV was not the ideal designed to protect our troops. It was a death trap and no match for IED's and other large munitions. Small arms rounds were about all they could handle. The armor paneling was subpar compared to the newer armored vehicles that replaced the HMMWV. It was a quick fix (bandaid) for a military vehicle that was way out of its capabilities for modern warfare while the powers that be drug their feet and acted like they couldn't afford a proper replacement............with the trillions they were spending for the mid east war. The sad thing is, all the newer HMMWVs and the upgrades on the older HMMWVs cost almost as much as the entire fleet of MRAPs that were put into service for the first five years! Yeah. I understand Mike's frustration. Especially when the bigger guy is less concerned than the little guy and the costs are pocket change to the big guy while the costs are the difference between paying your bills and bankruptcy!
a real man is humble enough to admit his mistakes, and big enough to allow others grace and space to make their own mistakes... you're a good man, I don't care what Wade and Jason say!
Remember, when dealing with mechanical's, (or anything for that matter) we need to leave our negative feelings on the sideline and concentrate on the task at hand. It's one of the hardest traits to develop when working on anything that breaks and causes down time. Especially when it's our time and money we're losing. Just imagine if our surgeon ranted and raved while working on our heart because it was damaged (naturally or by life style) and forgot to install a critical valve suture (because they were bemoaning the reason they were there in the first place.) and had to open us up again to remedy it. Pretty sure lawyers would be involved afterwards. There's plenty of time after the repair to complain about the engineering. As far as leaving the gasket out, and at the risk of sounding harsh, it's understandable, but not without fault. We have procedures and check lists, as well as an order of recovery about such things. There was obviously a fault in technique on this one. Learn from it. We're not idiots unless we don't! After all, we need only to look at why it's important to do things right, and that's our family first and customers next. Having said that, I really enjoyed your honesty, integrity and the content of this video as well as your channel in general. Keep up the good work and always strive to be better!
Thankyou for posting this. I was seriously considering a SVL95 just had a good chat on the phone with the dealer but I'm out now. What a bastard to work on!
We had a Kubota B6000 4x4 mini tractor which pulled a chunk out the Alloy Diff case where the bottom link arm pinned on !!! - we were grading with a rear grader blade which snagged on a Girder stump buried in the concrete floor !!- i finished up re-engineering the link arms to Category 2 pins and beefing up the mounting to more points! guess anything breaks with enough force though !!
Good bonus footage. Nice to let people know that even the most experienced wrench turners can forget something. It’s all good, no harm no foul. Remembering what you forgot is always good.
I have a 2007 kubota kx41 excavater & couldnt be happier with it. I would never buy anything with a particulete filter or use DEF fluid. I agree that bracket cant hack it.
You are a genius and a VERY Patient person.. Pretty sure I would have been saying a few cuss words. I am impressed that you stayed even later than midnight to back track and fix the forgotten.. It would have been sooo easy to say.. I'll get it in the morning.. (Thats how I roll) lol.. Good job, I enjoy all of your videos, very level headed and hard worker.
@@zstation64 Perkins they seem to go on & on,access on JCB skidsteer is pretty good,tilting cab, top radiator location makes a lot of sense, gives you great access to the essentials. And having side access for entry to cab so much easier & safer.
You did good. Big companies won’t get better building their stuff if they don’t get your valuable feedback. If I was a Kabota representative I’d see to it that you got everything you needed to make it right.
at 3:00 or so you've filmed yourself dumping the a/c out, there's some ridiculous fines for doing that, and rewards for turning people in over itI'd edit that out of the video but that's just paranoid old me
yep...I'm in the A/C business and have been for 40 years. Fines up to 40,000 and 1200.00 reward for turning someone in is not unheard of. But rare as hens teeth as its hard to prove. Almost have to be caught by the licensing dept outright. I'd edit that out
Wow excellent video. You are too humble! Your rant was totally called for and your intelligence and knowledge is much appreciated and noted! Too bad the Kubotas and Bobcats etc., of the world didn't have more guys like you consulting with their engineers!
Mike I give you a lot of credit, you were so patient with that machine, you have a right to rant and complain, I probably would have been worse than you were, I think I would have fixed it, pressure cleaned it, and sold it and bought a cat skid steer, things like that grind my gears to, that equipment isn’t cheap and one can’t afford down time, your good you don’t need to apologize, keep that dirt a movin, Mike
I appreciated your honesty and great explanation of your frustration. I hope Kubota engineers see this video and learn from it. Great brands appreciate this kind of raw and honest feedback. They know how their products are used and will need maintenance. Maintenance should be considered as much as its use in any great machine. Just my opinion! Thanks for not deleting this video. You are a gentleman.
Nice job and good information thanks for sharing. I would think I would have made a brace from that one intake bolt to those other two bolt holes next to it. When you had them side by side I was sure that's what you were going to do!!!
I agree TAKAUCHI is the the machine to buy , mine is almost 14 years old and I have had no break downs at all ,just regular maintenance and it really works smooth and never gives me any trouble
You are very talented mechanic and machinery repair person. Im really impressed with your knowledge base of what you know and understand. I would love to work with you and learn just learn some of what
You need a Deere 333G, Volvo MCT125D, or a Cat 299D3 EX, or maybe even a JCB Teleskid 3TS-8T. The side doors of the Volvo and JCB with a single mass boom intrested me greatly just because the easy of entry and exit.
You don’t have to explain yourself to no one👌🏽❤️we have a kubota zero turn mower and it’s always giving us issue, they really do suck, thanks for another great video, I like seeing that you guys keep your work space clean through the project😅👌🏽
