If cheap, I'd buy the whole tractor. Having all the electrical, plus radiator & all other related components is invaluable! Could be as simple as a clogged fuel filter.

 

I'm actually going to drag the whole tractor home to get the engine running good first, then use whatever I need off of it for the conversion. I haven't talked with the owner about the remains of the tractor. He kind of has a GT graveyard at his house so he may want to add to the collection or he might just want some stuff gone for a change instead of people adding to it. He has taught me a lot about small engines, he works in my fathers gas station repairing small engines and rebuilding automotive carbs, etc. He's handicapped and when people drag stuff out to his place it's always welcome but he has no way to organize it. It's up to him what happens with the tractor but I know I don't want it laying around after I get the engine. Someone will need a gearbox or something off of it.

But first I need to get it running good.

 

If the hood is there I might be interested in that. We now have 3 g4200's and a g3200 in the family. The hoods for some reason take a beating. I have all the factory service manuals. If you can give me an idea as to what the problem is I can forward the information to you.
If he decides to give you the tractor and it has a good deck do NOT throw that away. The deck shells are worth almost as much as the tractors if it is not rusted out. People are always looking for them.
The first thing I would do is replace filters, available at NAPA, and then run a good injector cleaner though it.

 

Hood is there and the deck is leaning up against the wall. I will resize and upload some of the pics I took. I snapped a deck pic but had no interest in it, if I had known I would have actually looked at it. Will know this week either way.

 

I would say from the pictures that the deck is a keeper.
If you look in the 5th photo you will see both the air filter housing and below it one of the fuel filters. And I think behind the right rear wheel is the other fuel filter. Near that fuel filter is your 12 volt fuel lift pump. When you get the battery in it and turn the key to the first position you should hear a ticking sound. That indicates that your lift pump is running. If you don't hear that find out why before proceeding as you will not get fuel to your injection pump. One thing in your favor is that it is not a hydro which means it is worth considerably less. The clutches on those can be a bugger to get operating properly.
I'd be interested in the hood and grille if the time comes that you end up with everything.

 

Yeah,that deck looks in great condition.Up here it is really hard to find a deck for one of those that isn't rusted full of holes.

 

I was wondering if it was equipped with a lift pump. That answers some questions.

 

Yes, the pump & filter are above the right rear axle housing. Mine got to running poorly, and I found the small filter right next to the pump was all clogged up. New filter & she was like new again!

 

I got it home last night but been too busy for pic resizing and such. Hood is curled up in the front and the grille is cracked. Both are fixable but nothing to get excited over. Deck is rust pitted but not rotted through anywhere that I could find. I didn't take the deck home with me, he said he put some new parts on it planning to rig it up on a 3 point for a rear mower setup. He said if anyone else is gonna get the deck he wants his $50 back out of it. (He's smart enough to make the rear deck thing work but I'm not sure why he would.)

Ok full story on the motor as it was told to me:
Guy in texas overhauled the motor a few years ago. It hasn't been used since because it hasn't ran right since. He gave it to a guy who used to live down there and that guy drug it home to KS. He enlisted the help of the guy I bought it from (the small engine guy). This was 2 years ago. Small engine guy replaced all filters as well as all fluids, verified lift pump was working and other misc. things. He figured it to be an injector pump timing issue but didn't have the proper manuals to mess with it. Owner said he'd locate some manuals (he had big plans for this thing). He never got a round tuit and had to go job chasing across country again, so he gave it to small engine guy for his troubles. I purchased from small engine guy for $100. He says he doesn't care either way what happens to the rest of the tractor but I should give it back if no one else wants it (he doesn't like good parts going to scrap either.)

So in short, I paid money to take over someone elses headache, but I figured I've whizzed away $100 on dumber things and this is my only chance at an affordable diesel. If you never fail you will never succeed!

Help?!

 

....but seriously. I'm thinking along the same lines as him. Maybe a compression check (how high should it be?) and a check of injector pump timing, then a full fuel system bleed. If that fails have the injectors checked out even though it was claimed that it ran fine prior to rebuild other than smoking or oil comsumption or something along those lines. Hour meter reads 700 hours but the wear on the steering gear tells me that the hour meter hasn't been hooked up.

 

I couldn't find a free online engine manual for this engine so I bought one (in PDF form) and uploaded it here for safekeeping. Enjoy!

 

Your not going to loose much if any of your $100.00. I would have done that in minute. The radiator and screen should get you most of that back if your any good at all at marketing your parts.
The steering gears (more than likely the bushing) could be worn in 700 hours. It's running down in all the dirt you stir up and there is really no way to lube it. Most of these don't have as many hours on them as the meter shows because if you leave the key on one time between mowings you can run up a bunch of hours and you don't need to turn the key off to kill the engine. I've caught myself a couple of time almost doing this.
Don't forget to check that lift pump and make sure it is working. I would also bet that the fuel filter by the pump wasn't changed when the others were.
Keep us updated.

 

He did specifically say that he replaced both fuel filters. I know he found the lift pump and the filter is right there, doesn't exactly look like a factory filter. Next few nights are busy so who knows when I'll get to it.

 

Factory filter at the pump was just a small canister type, maybe 2 1/2" long similar to many on gas garden tractors.

 

Is there any reason why I would have to check compression through the injector hole? The diesel compression tester I have access to uses the glow plug holes. I figured for sure that I could, but never hurts to ask. Kubota manual says to use the injector holes.

I'm going to start with compression. If it's low or unbalanced I plan to tear it down and check EVERYTHING. If compression is good, then it's on to fuel delivery/timing.

 

I am not a diesel mechanic but the only thing I can think of is if your injectors weren't holding you might get an inaccurate reading. I wouldn't hesitate to use the glow plug hole. I hope someone with more experience will chime in.

 

It's possible there is some water in the injection pump. The filters won't stop everything. Some people dont change the filter when they need to.

 

IT RUNS!

With relatively little effort. I put fresh oil in it and primed the system using the 2 year old diesel in the tank. It seems to run fine under non load conditions. Shakes the hell out of the whole tractor. Revs fine, idles fine but again shakes the hell out of things. Had to leave it alone for the day but when I get a chance I will do a warm compression test.

 

Dump & replace with fresh fuel, along with a healthy dose of quality diesel injector cleaner. The shaking may clear up after a while. Slower speeds is where you'll see the most shaking, but again, it may clear up with new fuel & conditioner.

 

My Son in-law just purchased a G4200 that had been setting for 5 years. Needles to say it shakes pretty good when idling but started right up. I'm hoping by now that he has installed new fuel also. Nice to hear that yours is up and running.

 

Fired it up again today and finally figured out how to get it to engage and move under its own power. I don't know how much power its supposed to have but its certainly not running right with all the shaking. Couldnt test compression because I didnt have the right fitting but I'll ask around tomorrow.

I couldn't get it to die while driving it unless I sidestepped the clutch in 3rd while at a dead idle. otherwise it'd chirp the rear tire and take off. But it seems to labor a lot to gain rpm while in gear. Wish I had a normal running one here to compare it to. Never been around a small diesel, I don't have a clue what it's supposed to do. Sounds like it has a miss.

Gearbox pushes oil out everywhere when its moving. Continuously dripping even after 5 mins. Don't really care, no need for the box, but I thought it was odd. Comes out the shifter boot and if you pull the stick it flows out. Good clean oil smells like 90wt.

Rides like crap with no seat. Bout went off the back of it when I popped 3rd at full rpm.

Would have been fun to get up and chase an unmanned half tractor running amok.

 

HA! Just noticed I'm a "contributor" now. Musta been the engine manual I uploaded. Best $12 I ever spent BTW.

 

Here's a good video that should give you a good idea of how your mower should sound and operate. This sounds just like mine.

 

At slower speeds, these twins do sound as though they have a miss, and they have shake at slow speeds even running perfectly. 3 cylinders are almost perfectly balanced, but not twins.

 

Factory compression spec (converted from metric) is 448 psi with a 337 psi rebuild threshhold. The story of it being rebuilt must be true. first cylinder just touched 500 psi and the front cylinder hit 450 but it took longer. This was warm but not full operating hot by any means. the lower of the 2 cylinders had a lot of soot/carbon on the glow plug and I know the glow plug is working. I think thats the one thats not pulling its weight and I dont think that side of the motor was warm enough. It took me FOREVER to get the ambition to get the right adapter for the compression gauge and the d**n schrader valve was bad right out of the box. Had to procure another so I had to assemble and warm up and then do the test TWICE. Starting this thing in late fall is a chore.

Next is injector testing. Luckily my place of employment has a tester to test the popoff pressure of the injectors. Kubota manual has the spec as well as instructions to re-shim. I got a million things to do to my grand national as well as move from one garage to another and I plan to spend the winter working on the interior of my house. So updates will be few and far between but when I do something to it I WILL be back. I know everyone's on the edge of their seat waiting for the outcome LOL. NOT!

 

Injector popoff pressure spec is 2000-2150 psi. Got them to work this week and had the diesel guys play with them on the test fixture. Injector on the "suspected good" cylinder pops off at ~1500 psi but has good pattern and consistent popping operation. Injector on the "suspected lazy" cylinder gets to ~1800 but spray pattern is erratic and if you really lay the pressure to it, it sticks open and just sprays. We think it's washing the cylinder rings and is the cause of that cylinder beihng lower/slower on the compression gauge. Injector pump is in time as near as I can visualize using the timing marks on the flywheel, both sides shoot equally high toward the ceiling when cranking LOL. I found the part number for the shim kit assortment to re-shim the injectors to proper spec after a disassemble/cleaning. Basically rebuild them in house. $32 shipped for the shim assortment. Something every kubota owner should probably have checked/done. If this don't fix it, It's for sale!

BTW the rubber return hoses were so brittle, there's no way in hell anyone's even had them out of the tractor anytime recently, let alone an engine rebuild.