Nanni, Kubota, Three-Cylinder Diesel Won't Rev in Gear

[Ex-Calif]

Beyond my experience but I think it gets expensive from here...

Without a bench manual for the injector pump or at least an understanding of what is inside I wouldn't be taking it apart.

When I did take it apart it would be on terra firma with the pump removed from the boat. Logic here is to avoid dropping any springs and stuff from inside. If I fix it. I put it back on the engine. If I don't fix it I can get it to the shop or order a new/overhauled one.

Good luck with the next part.

[surfmachine]

Thanks excalif, I have a pdf version of the workshop manual and have partially removed the pump for number1 cylinder and cleaned it and replaced it and tested, but still no squirt. The manual says how to remove the pump from the housing, which is part of the moror casing, so I will need a specialist kubota fixer to service it? But I will dissamble the pump parts for number 1 cylinder and see if I can repair it?
Does anyone have a service manual for a bosch injector pump?

BOSCH MD type mini pump

What is normally wrong with them?

thanks........Keith

[daddle]

Originally Posted by surfmachine

What is normally wrong with them?

Clogs, rust and the like.

Taking the pump out of the Kubota is not too difficult. But the lever assembly and springs will drive you nuts.

I've disassembled the pumps before. Wow are those parts tiny. Wouldn't do it again. There's nothing to fix in there anyway. If it's rusted it's trash. Every farm city has an injector pump shop. And these pumps are common.

Don't drop the springs into the crankcase.

[surfmachine]

Ahoy Daddle, the pump is out and the springs are safe!
It is a broken injector pump spring on number1 pump, the cam follower is sitting up and not under pressure like the other two.
So I will dismantle that pump and get a spring, the tamper proof scres on the top may be a bother?
Keith.

[daddle]

Ahh, good sleuthing. Yeah, I don't remember the way past the tamper-proof screws.

Do use some nice pure cleaning fluid...maybe diesel from after your filters. I recall the springs were ground to length...might be a trick finding them. There's shims in there: don't get them mixed up.

I ran my 4 cylinder on three for quite a while. Took out the lifters and piston. re-routed the fuel. Ran fine.

[surfmachine]

Ahoy Daddle, it is in the hands of a "diesel mechanic" in Teluk Dalam, works from a shed, and lives in it too, that looks like a big chicken coop!!!! Fingers crossed for a result this afternoon. He is also repairing the broken bolt in the engine mount.
Funnily enough, my motor runs quite happily on 2 cylinders, ok for charging the battery, but will only pull 1800 rpm under load.
We may have to put in a valve spring or something just to get the 3rd cylinder working?
Cheers from Keith.

[surfmachine]

Ahoy, thanks very much everyone, the motor is fixed!!!

Well we had a broken diesel fuel injector pump, a m ajor problem 100 nmiles off the mainland!!!!
After 2 days of work, determinig what was wrong with the motor I diagnosed a broken spring in the injector pump for num1 cylinder, no springs in all of indonesia!!?
We got an old valve spring and cut it down with an angle grinder!!!
Well, after much cranking of the motor and bleeding, the motor is running sweet and purring like a kitten!! Hooray!!!
The Nias'an guy's name was John, and his workbench was the kitchen table, workshop looked like a big chicken coop, and he lived there, colour of the water for washing looked like the green water in your car radiator. But, wow, for $24, he welded the engine mount back together, found 2 more springs, cut them to length using an angle grinder, so we have a spare and fixed the pump. the bench test was a 1 metre length of fuel line connected to the feed and just push on the cam followers with a spanner while I held the pump against a post!!! I gave him an extra 100,000 rupiah, asked for 200, 000!! He siphoned the raw diesel with his mouth, got a mouthfull, aargh! He is a catholic local, wife named Regina, "mamma". Nothing that these folks cant fix? said it may last a lifetime?
Fair winds from Keith.

[daddle]

That's poetry, man.

[Jim Cate]

G'Day Keith,

Great saga! Well done for both you and your great Mecho. The abilityof these third world folks to repair stuff that ain't fixable without computers and courier service from the parts depot, etc, is amazing. Their talents give us a real baseline with which to judge "professional advice" offered by the local factory-approved rep.

Happy that you had such a good outcome and such a good learning experience!

Cheers,

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Cairns, Qld, Oz

[surfmachine]

Ahoy, the pump was fixed by fitting a cut down spring from a mitsubishi brake master cylinder!! Got us half way from Nias to Sumatra and quit after I stopped the motor to sail and tried to restart it later when a sumatran blew up!

Good morning shipmates, maybe I was singing the praises of the mechanic in Nias too early?
Just pulled the diesel injector pump out again and the cut down spring from the mitsubishi brake master cylinder that John put in at Nias is broken, so off to the diesel machanic in Sibolga. It did last about 20 hours though, and I have 3 spares for emergency use!!
Got a tooth filled in sibolga square, an old chinese dentist, 60 years old, same as me, a huge filling from one of my molars came out whilst chewing butterscotch candy at Nias, a very pretty female,Thai dentist from Patong beach replaced it when it fell out in March. He charged me 50,000 rups, about $6.00 aud, and we sat and talked about boats for 30 minutes. Just walk in from the satay stand and no waiting, his assistant pulled out my card, from a previous replaced "fallen out thai filling", a piece of recycled A4 paper straight away. He did a "cement pour" on the molar and said it would last 2 weeks!!! We shall see?
Cheers mateys.

[surfmachine]

Number 1 pump delivering way too much fuel!!!
God morning Shipmates, can anyone give me the benefit of your experience with the kubtoa injection pump!

So it would appear that the injector in the head accepts whatever fuel is delivered by the pump, so it is the amount of fuel from the pump causing the problem. How does the sleeve control, rotated by the throttle rack and the assembly plunger regulate fuel delivery? Does it open a bypass port, like a 2 stroke motor and let some fuel out? It's always fully charged pump stroke?

This motor has the external fuel stop solenoid, so it is relatively easy to remove and replace the injector pump. No springs to fiddle with, just be sure to get the rack pin into the throttle control arm and postion the fixed idle spring against the gearbox end. I cleaned the fuel lines and connectors before reassembling, so dirty injectors are unlikely.

They talk about about hooking the start spring onto the injection pump control rack pin with a bent piece of wire, but in my motor this spring is already connected to the fork lever that the injector rack control rack pin slots down into. This is the only part of the reinstallation that has got me worried. The shims are back in the right order.

I will run the motor and crack of each injector in turn to see which cylinder or maybe all are causing the black smoke!

No idea what caused the spring to break, in 2 places, then the replacement spring broke as well after 20 hours, but it was a spring from a master cylinder and not flattend each end, just cut off partway and the sharp end sticking up! the agents in sydney said water getting into the pump causes it break springs, but no water in with racor fuel filter on and a motor primary fuel filter, no sign of corrosion.

The rack is connected to all of the pumps, you can see the sleeve controls rotating when you slide the rack via the pin forwards and backwards!

Oh well, it is very close to being fixed, I hope? Will check which pump is rich and then maybe cut down the spring in case it is over compressing, on Monday as all shut today! I have a pdf of the users manual and parts manual for the 3 cylinder kobuta.

YES, it is number one pump that is running very, very rich, when I crack of the injector lead it stopped blowing black smoke and shoots diesel all over the engine bay, when I crack off number 2 only a small puff comes out, so it is getting way too much fuel from number 1. It may not be the spring length? But, if the spring is closing right up and overcompressing then that pump would be delivering too much fuel. I did think of this when I did it and checked that the compressed spring lengths were pretty close, but at about 7mm longer it may be causing a problem?

Thanks again for your kind comments and help with this motor problem.

A nice fine morn here in Sibolga, for a change!

Thanks again from Keith.
__________________

[surfmachine]

Ahoy shipmates!
It's very annoying when people post a problem and never say if there was a solution!
Well there was for this one, its going again, without any black smoke!!
The flamin "diesel mechanics" in Sibolga, I call them hodads!!! had put the plunger needle in back to front on number 1 cylinder pump, so it was pushing full power fuel all the time, just straight through. After a rest I pulled the pump out twice, put a shorter spring in, still smoking! Then checked the orientation of the plunger with the slot at the end, with number 3 and could see it was reversed, so put it back in the right way, after pulling the pump out again. Bingo, it works great, no smoke, nearly full power, as the spring is a bit shorter by 1mm than the original.
But, hey!!! it sounds wonderful and nearly 7 knots under power!! Yippeeee!
Now its 8pm local time and time for lunch, phew!!
Now .... what will be the next catastrophe??
Cheers from Keith.

[lateral]

Great followup! Thanks.
Have a barrel for me will ya-winter here & I have a cold.
Roly
NZ

[surfmachine]

Ahoy Roly, had more stand up right hand barrels than u can poke a stick at over here in the Banyaks for the last 6 weeks, also, a huge, long, bowly left hander.
Cheers from Keith.

[lateral]

I needed to know that.

I still have a cold. Epoxy & isocynates aren't helping.
Stay tubed mate, the worlds in meltdown.