Question about Temp Gauge

After your 900 warms up and reaches normal operating temperature, where is your temp gauge needle?

My needle stays just a 1/4" or so from the edge of the red zone. My other Kubota equipment always keeps the needle somewhere near the center of the gauge ... never anywhere near the red zone.

The dealer screwed around with this after I brought it to his attention. He replaced the temp gauge ... no change. Then he popped out the thermostat and swapped it ... no change.

The needle has never gone into the red zone and it's probably nothing to worry about ... but I sure would like it to stay further away.

Anybody else experience this with your RTV 900?

Yep, I had the same problem

Yep, I had the same problem. I also have a ZD21 mower and it has the same engine. I swapped the temp sender and that proved to be the problem. The dealer then gave me a new one.

I have gone thru 3 gauges on the mower because of moisture inside them. I just accept it now. I love my Kubota toys, but their gauges are not the best.

Heatwave, is it at idle or running down the road when near the red zone? What year is your unit? Do you hear the fan cut on? When my engine is very warm and I have cut it off,I can hear the fan kick in when I turn the key part way on -otherwise not as the engine is so loud. On my '05 unit,the gauge stays at the starting point for a good while and just running around the pastures, it moves to about the 1/4 position (from the starting point). Now if I am running down the road at 25mph it will climb to near where you say and after I park in less than a minute it will fall to the 1/4 mark. Make sure your air intake is not obstructed. I found that it also helps in my case to clean the cooling fins on the radiator and engine/trans with water (when cool) and then immediately blow them out with air. a lot of crud is loosened by that water. I also had a lot of those small holes blocked by debris under the brake handle and that cut down on the air getting to the radiator. Keep us informed . Bordercollie

I just replaced my temp guage last week. Since new my 05 would only register after a time of hard use. Perhaps 5 minutes or so. It would rise to perhaps 1/4 of the way and then the fan would kick in and it would go back to nothing.

While replacing the fuel guage last week, I also picked up a new fuel guage. NOW, it goes to just above the 1/2 mark, rises to perhaps 3/4, the fan kicks in and then goes back to above the 1/2...........I personally am glad I changed out the guage. I knew the old one was kinda working; but NOW I can tell if it really gets HOT........

My drive is 1/2 mile up an 18 percent grade. I loaded it up the other day when hauling feed with 900 pounds and drove up and down the road a few times. NEVER did deviate from what I described above. This was in the middle of the afternoon on a 97 degree day here in NW Georgia............Anyway....thats the way mine works......Dennis

Many thanks to all for your thoughtful responses. First thing I'm going to do is swap the temp gauge in my ZD21 mower with the gauge in my RTV900. Can't hurt. The ZD 21 runs cool as a cucumber ... if the needle ever starts to edge upwards, it's a sure sign there is a accumulation of fine grass clippings on the screens in front of the radiator. I keep my RTV radiator screen and cooling fins clean, so I can rule that out as a possible cause of the engine's possibly running hotter than it should. I'll let you know how this works out. Thanks again.

I'm going to put a mechanical guage on mine because I have no faith whatsoever in the temp guage on it. Riding in hay fields I have a continuous problem with hay clogging up the radiator and I have the clean it almost daily. When it's clean, my goes to the middle but as it get hay built up it starts to climb. We've already had to replace the head gasket on this thing so be careful with the temps. The upper gasket kit is $156; I can't imagine what the labor would be as I did the work myself.

Tell me more about the mechanical gauge you intend to install. Where do you get one? Where and how do you install it? I'd like to know more about this ... I may do the same.

Mechanical gauge

I have decided to add a mechanical water temp gauge to my 900 and am wondering what the normal operating temp should be for this engine under load. BTW, can't use normal off the shelf gauge as the sensor wire needs to be about 74" and most are 72". Believe me, I tried every way routing the wire and it still came up short. Found one on eBay that has a 98" that will work. Just curious about what operating temp to expect once I get it installed.
Thanks, PW.

Kerry said:

Yep, I had the same problem. I also have a ZD21 mower and it has the same engine. I swapped the temp sender and that proved to be the problem. The dealer then gave me a new one.

I have gone thru 3 gauges on the mower because of moisture inside them. I just accept it now. I love my Kubota toys, but their gauges are not the best.

Click to expand...

Heatwave said:

Many thanks to all for your thoughtful responses. First thing I'm going to do is swap the temp gauge in my ZD21 mower with the gauge in my RTV900. Can't hurt. The ZD 21 runs cool as a cucumber ... if the needle ever starts to edge upwards, it's a sure sign there is a accumulation of fine grass clippings on the screens in front of the radiator. I keep my RTV radiator screen and cooling fins clean, so I can rule that out as a possible cause of the engine's possibly running hotter than it should. I'll let you know how this works out. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

I think he's giving some good advice. A new gauge didn't fix it so the sender would've been my next step also

Brett

Make sure your radiator core is clean as well. I had a similar problem with my combine, the slightest amount of fodder on the radiator caused excessive heat. Upon further inspection I found the cores to be full of crud. I spent the whole day with my pressure washer turned way down and compressed air cleaning the cores, now it runs cool a a cucumber!

rjglenn said:

I'm going to put a mechanical guage on mine because I have no faith whatsoever in the temp guage on it. Riding in hay fields I have a continuous problem with hay clogging up the radiator and I have the clean it almost daily. When it's clean, my goes to the middle but as it get hay built up it starts to climb. We've already had to replace the head gasket on this thing so be careful with the temps. The upper gasket kit is $156; I can't imagine what the labor would be as I did the work myself.

Click to expand...

If you can fashion a screen door screen over your radiator on a frame, or over the radiator intake, basically a pre screen sometimes it's easier to wipe that clean

Alaskanassasin said:

If you can fashion a screen door screen over your radiator on a frame, or over the radiator intake, basically a pre screen sometimes it's easier to wipe that clean

Click to expand...

I've seen people use cheese cloth or furnace filters as pre-filters. Pitch the furnace filter or wring out the cheese cloth in water and re-install when dry.

Answer my own question

I changed temp gauges to a VDO and now have some temp readings to share. Normal trips around the farm the temp gets up to 205. One road trip between farms running flat out it got up to 215. Seems high compared to my other diesel engins but considering the indirect air flow combined wtth cooling the trans fluid I guess this is normal? At least I now know how hot it is getting.