Kubota R530 - Center Pivot/Bearing Concern

[m2lumber]

Hello,

New to the thread so my apologies if this has been covered many times, i did a quick search and did not find anything exact however.

We have a "New-to-me" R530 Machine that we use at our sawmill and lumberyard mostly with forks for hauling logs and moving stacks of lumber. Great machine and very happy!

I have owned the machine for 6 months now and we generally put less than 10 rhs per week on the machine (probably less than 5 as we only mill wood 2 days per week). I have noticed the center pivot pin (not sure what the actual name would be) has gotten much looser and "clunky" since we first got the machine. It is very noticeable bad goiing over the tiniest bump, we get lots of clunking. I am fairly certain some seals or something is missing from this center bearing portion, but I would like to get some feedback from others of how "serious" this could be? Is this a potential $500 repair....$5,000 repair? worse?

This is our first real big machine and I do not want to take to my local kubota dealer because they only work on lawn mowers and smaller tractors. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tags]

Welcome aboard m2lumber! How many hours on the machine? Those center joints need lots of grease, I think the manual calls for grease every 10 hours. It certainly looks like you could use a shim or two in there to snug things up though. I have had the center joint done on an R520 years ago by the dealer, very similar center articulation joint, they used all new parts claiming it could not be rebuilt and I believe it was around $2000. That joint not only serves as the articulation joint but also allows the front and rear to rotate independent of each other. If you find a parts breakdown I would imagine there are bushings in there that can be replaced along with a new center pin. You need to have someone watch the joint to see exactly what is going on there when you are going from forward to reverse or by putting the bucket on the ground and applying down pressure.

 

[Mike85]

Agree with looking while lifting the front off the ground. Up and down vs front to back wear. Looks like the pin is sliding up and down in the hole (pic 2). I’d shim it and try some different washers up on the tear drop. The pin sliding will wear the bore quick. Low hours like 5-10 a week tighten it up and keep an eye on it

 

[Nige]

I'd say possibly one of the two taper bearings inside the (black) housing has failed and that's what is causing the movement.
Maybe even a broken pin.
Hard to be definite without an idea of the arrangement inside the articulation.
Could be big $$ if you let it run like that for long. My opinion (* other opinions are available).