Advice on buying kx 161-3

[Chuck Currie]

Hi new member here, thanks for letting me join and for reading this post. I'm looking for advice on a 2004 kubota kx 161-3 I just looked at today.

Machine was clean and looked well taken care of, guy selling is 3rd owner and uses it for firewood processing. New tracks, serviced, and painted. Previous owners were local construction/landscape companies. 5100 hrs, auto idle, hyd thumb. Said he would take $25,000.

Concerns I have: bucket pins/bushings were fairly sloppy, as well as where stick meets boom. Also seemed to have "slop" when rotating/swinging, when you stopped rotating it would keep going a couple more inches then stop and bounce back, similar to bucket slop. Temp gauge also not working, said he replaced sensor and thermostat so must be gauge.

Questions: Any idea on temp. Gauge repair? is there a way to tell if it's just pins and bushings, or if the bore is worn out and will require extra work? How much $ to have someone replace all stick/bucket pins and bushings, and/or line bore everything? Should I be concerned about the slop when swinging? Does the price sound reasonable, and how many more hours can I expect to get out of it if I fix these issues?

Sorry lot of questions thanks in advance for any input you may have! Looking to use the machine on a 100 acre farm digging water lines, flail mowing fence lines, loading logs on wood mizer, and other misc farm tasks, probably put less than 100hrs/ year on it.

Happy digging! -Chuck

 

[uffex]

Good day Chuck
I suggest you make a real good inspection it can save you bucks and you get to know the product, there is help to inspect on the excatech.org web site however I arttach a document that may be of interest.
Kind rgards
Uffex

 

[Chuck Currie]

Thanks for the info uffex, I will check out the website as well. I got a quote for $5,000 to do bushings/pins on bucket and the top of the stick. The service tech said the swinging issue could be a number of things, worn gear, worn motor, bad bearing, etc. I would expect another $5,000 for that fix as well. I also consulted my uncle who has a kobelco sk120, and he said the bushing and pin at the top of the stick shouldn't be loose unless the owner rarely greased it, and if he never greased it chances are he didn't change the oil or do other maintenance regularly either. Decided to pass, $25,000 +$10,000 in repairs for a machine with 5100 hours that was poorly maintained doesn't sound like such a good deal.