Gmikehall
New Member
I picked up this little JD 27 ZTS a few weeks ago. It was non operational and I quickly found out the 3LD1 was destroyed inside. Someone had run this thing for hours with no #3 piston and the pin rubbed a hole in cylinder into a water passage. I may could fix it but I opted to do a repower. I ended up going with a Kubota V1505 Turbo which is quite a bit of a bump in power yet fit almost perfectly with a little rearranging. I moved the engine/pump unit back about 1" and built all new motor mounts and this little kubota fits like a glove. The machine display shows just shy of 600 hrs but man if that is the case this thing was abused its whole life. I kind of think it could be accurate hours as all the controls are very tight. On another note the bucket pins and boom pin bushings are not all that tight but not ultra sloppy. I plan to replace all the bushings sooner or later. I need to repack the bucket and boom cylinders and hopefully get the shafts straightened. Both of those cylindres have bent shafts and are leaking slightly. I sure hope the gland nut and cylinder bores are ok as these are not cheap units if I can even find them.I would sure like to find a proper manual for this machine. I bought a manual for a 27C thinking that is what this was only to later find that its an earlier 27ZTS. Manuals are a little different but honestly the manual I bought sucked with no diagrams or anything. I need to button up the wiring harness and then get the fuel system back in and plumped up correctly. I have been running it with a little external fuel tank for now.
