# 2005 Kubota L3130 : Manual trans with 4x4 : Small metal flakes in front axle fluid



## jutboy (Apr 21, 2020)

Hello everyone,
I just bought this tractor. It is completely new to me. It had a leaking seal so first thing I did was pulled off the front knuckles. When draining the fluid it had a fair amount of flakes in it. All were every small. I just wanted to get some advise on how to handle this. Should I change all the bearings or should I inspect and only change the ones that I can see/feel damage on? For the gears, if they visually look fine can I assume they are fine? There seems to be a some bearings up in the tube, its got a front diff (which I haven't look at yet), should I tear all that down that as well?

I would appreciate any help I can get for this job.

-Justin


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## HarveyW (Sep 15, 2014)

Hello Justin, welcome to the forum.

The first thing I would check is the front & rear tire sizes, to ensure you don't have a circumferential mismatch causing the front and rear differentials to fight each other. Check with your Kubota dealer as to what's the correct tire sizes for your tractor. 

Driving on hard pavement (good traction) in 4WD also causes tire binding and differential conflict when making turns.


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## jutboy (Apr 21, 2020)

It had the r4 on them...confirmed with Kubota that it was a stock configuration. 

I've got a pair of turfs to put on. Near new. I'm more worried about damage done/how to fix. I'm assuming I should just drop the front diff...disassemble everything and inspect/replace all that I can. Not sure how expensive bearings are...it's all a lot of work so I didn't want to do it for nothing.


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## HarveyW (Sep 15, 2014)

I think that you will have to go through the entire front differential looking for the source of the metal flakes. Many years ago, I had a car differential that a bearing broke apart. The ring and pinion gear were ruined.... broken teeth from pieces of the bearing.


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## Dunacn1 (May 9, 2021)

I had this problem in the fall with my L3010. One of the bearings was mangled. The bearings and seals are not expensive, but I found it to be a fairly laborious job. There are some good videos on YouTube for this. The Kubota front axles are pretty standard across models.


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