Kevin
Junior Member
Out of the blue my diesel engine was failing to start. The engine is 650 hours old and I acquired it at hour 600. It was due for fuel filters due to how long I've had it. I went through dozens of articles on bleeding / servicing the fuel lines as this is my first diesel engine I've ever owned. I changed the fuel filters and did an oil change. I noticed something peculiar in the bleeding process.
While bleeding the primary and secondary fuel filters, as well as the injector pump inlet bleed, all went according to plan. But, when I went to bleed the injectors, only the first and second cylinder were spurting (the 2 closest to me as i'm viewing the engine). Nothing from 3 and 4. Even if only the 3 or 4 injector were loosened, nothing would come out. This wasn't mentioned in any of the articles I read. I took off the #4 line and was able to blow through it with my mouth so it wasn't clogged. Back to the internet I went looking for info on injector pumps. Most of what I read said not to touch the injector pump and that rebuilds would likely cost hundreds to about $1k. A new pump from westerbeke (who now handles OEM parts for these old universals) runs $1.9k.
I wasn't really happy with that conclusion so my only option was to see if I could find more answers. I dug deeper into kubota tractor land and found 1 video of a guy that pulled a 2 cylinder kubota pump out of his tractor and found a broken spring on one of the pump cylinders.
reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7oEC3wJXmg
This made a lot of sense to me in my search for answers. I also noticed that it seems that the pumps are pulled and installed pretty easily, it is just if you want to disassemble the pump itself, then things get REALLY complicated and require professional tools / clean room / test bench etc. I decided to pulll my pump and find out if this was the same situation I was in.
Well, here is what I found when I pulled out my pump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf4hecqHCfQ
Cylinders 1,3,4 broken! Only cylinder 2 had a functioning spring. There is only 1 spring element that seems to be for sale on the internet for kubota pumps and that is mentioned in that tractor video I linked.
Kubota part designation is "SPRING,ELEMENT #15841-51280"
I found it for sale at a few online diesel parts stores e.g. https://www.messicks.com/part/15841-51280/spring-element I plan on replacing them all if this spring fits. I'll follow up after they come in. Anyone else ever run into this?
While bleeding the primary and secondary fuel filters, as well as the injector pump inlet bleed, all went according to plan. But, when I went to bleed the injectors, only the first and second cylinder were spurting (the 2 closest to me as i'm viewing the engine). Nothing from 3 and 4. Even if only the 3 or 4 injector were loosened, nothing would come out. This wasn't mentioned in any of the articles I read. I took off the #4 line and was able to blow through it with my mouth so it wasn't clogged. Back to the internet I went looking for info on injector pumps. Most of what I read said not to touch the injector pump and that rebuilds would likely cost hundreds to about $1k. A new pump from westerbeke (who now handles OEM parts for these old universals) runs $1.9k.
I wasn't really happy with that conclusion so my only option was to see if I could find more answers. I dug deeper into kubota tractor land and found 1 video of a guy that pulled a 2 cylinder kubota pump out of his tractor and found a broken spring on one of the pump cylinders.
reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7oEC3wJXmg
This made a lot of sense to me in my search for answers. I also noticed that it seems that the pumps are pulled and installed pretty easily, it is just if you want to disassemble the pump itself, then things get REALLY complicated and require professional tools / clean room / test bench etc. I decided to pulll my pump and find out if this was the same situation I was in.
Well, here is what I found when I pulled out my pump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf4hecqHCfQ
Cylinders 1,3,4 broken! Only cylinder 2 had a functioning spring. There is only 1 spring element that seems to be for sale on the internet for kubota pumps and that is mentioned in that tractor video I linked.
Kubota part designation is "SPRING,ELEMENT #15841-51280"
I found it for sale at a few online diesel parts stores e.g. https://www.messicks.com/part/15841-51280/spring-element I plan on replacing them all if this spring fits. I'll follow up after they come in. Anyone else ever run into this?
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