Moved it to a new tread. Drove it today (JD544 - no suffix), he had the fuel problem fixed, so engine ran pretty good. Still can't rule out full power from engine, but seemed to be OK. He said he had checked the linkage for full throttle, still wondered about injection pump timing. Anyway, coming up road (climbing say 10 - 20 deg. incline), it would just barely crawl along. Got it up on the flat, seemed to do OK. Pressure seemed to stay in low part of normal band in all ranges (L, H, & R), and it did overpower brakes in L & R. I dug just a very little, it seemed to have some power there, no good place to do a "pile tire spin test". Again, never operated machine before, so hard for me to judge. It did seem to pic up speed in L & H on flat, didn't think to try H during climb. Guess I'd call acceleration so-so. Couldn't commit to buy, fearing tranny gremlins. T >>>>>in other thread, MGW said: Turntable, When you try it out again, watch the trans pressure gauge in the dash to see if you have the same pressure in low, high, reverse and neutral. If it is always low, possibly a charge pump issue. If it's just low in one position, that would indicate a problem with clutch apply piston/seals for that position. Also, (with engine off) have someone hold the throttle to the floor and check to see if the arm on the injection pump is travelling all the way open. You might have to pull the cotter pin and remove the rod to verify where the pump-arm hits the limit spring; then hook it back up and check to if it's travelling far enough. It should be vertical in the full fuel position. The throttle pedal is bolted to the right hand forward floor board and if it's loose or has been shifted around it's very likely to be not adjusted correctly anymore. Doesn't take much to cost you several hundred rpm. Ask me how I know this I think high idle is about 2500 rpm. Just trying to rule out engine power problems. Take note of whether low and reverse are both bad and see if it will spin it's wheels pushing into a pile (I'm assuming not). It should also overpower the brakes in low and reverse. It may very well be a bad freewheel clutch if it has no pulling power in forward or reverse, or some other converter problem. I'm sure jmatthai or another expert on these transmissions will have an idea if you can post a little more info. Later, Marv
Hmmm... Very hard to say considering it overpowers the brakes and seems to have had some digging power. A 10 or 20 degree incline is fairly steep... did it make 3 mph or so on this incline? If it was steep enough the converter may not have "shifted" up. In high range I doubt it would move at all starting from a dead stop up a steep incline. Will it accelerate from a dead stop on flat ground in high in a reasonable time? If it can take off decently in high it would almost seem that the one-way is functioning. Could you get black smoke out of the engine? I don't blame you for not committing to it; and it's still hard to say if it's a converter issue or power problem. There could be other problems with the converter as well, bad bearing in there and it's chewed some aluminum off of expensive things, making the machine sluggish overall. I guess I should ask what the current owner thinks of the way it's acting. Was it a machine he was actually using recently and with a good idea of how it performed before?
Hi Marv, I forgot to say that I did see the tranny filters he took out. They are in canisters, didn't cut them open, but didn't see anything down in the creases. Kinda hard to tell, but looked clean from what I could see. I wanted to look, cuz I wondered about torque converter too - power at stop tapering off on move? I'd guess closer 1 1/2 to 2 mph up the grade, he said it used to do much better than that. He's had it about 6 years, but been sitting 2+. I think I mentioned once that injection pump got loose one time, so may not be in good time. Starts right up on the ether starting aid, so quite strange. It did kinda "puff" smoke going up road. Wasn't black, just grey, & not quite intermittent. That was w/ it revved up some too. Other than that, too busy to remember to watch stack. Owner talks of injection pump timing or fuel volume. Puts starting so well against valves or other engine problems, & digging power, flat ground performance against tranny. Only thing I did notice was last trip (wet fuel day), when he used lots of ether (flooded?) it would "CLACK, CLACK, CLACK" pretty loud. Didn't seem to knock bad when running. Needed someone used to diesel machinery w/ me. :Banghead T
It's really hard to say what the problem is, or what the combination of problems is. Maybe one of the board members in your area might notice this thread and volunteer to go look at it with ya. If you could borrow an optical tach you could verify high idle rpm also. Also, the engine should at least show a haze of black when wide open and pushing hard. I wouldn't buy it either until I was sure what the problem was or the price was low enough to allow for a trans and labor. If you're in the mood, the timing is easy to verify. Inspection plate on bellhousing left side, has a screw and a bolt with pin attached to head. Remove bolt, swing plate open, turn engine till you see a hole in flywheel. Using the pin on the bolt head, insert pin through threaded hole that you took bolt out of. Turn engine slightly to engage pin in flywheel. This is TDC. Run around to other side of engine. There is a 1" long plate on pump body held on with two little slotted screws. Remove plate, don't drop rubber gasket! There is a mark on body and on rotor under this cover. If mark on rotor is not visible in window, remove pin and rotate engine one full turn and reinsert pin. Loosen pump attaching nuts and rotate pump body until marks align. Remove pin!!! Tighten stuff up. Done! Regarding ether, ya, it will do that, and usually you get away with it. However, I have a Deere coming into the shop that appears to have been OD'ed on ether recently. It had cranking speed problems, wouldn't start, was fed too much ether possibly. Now it's missing, blowing antifreeze out breather, and blowing bubbles in rad. Hopefully it's just a head gasket. Later, Marv
free-wheeling clutch ? So let's see if I have this right? If free-wheeling clutch fails to lock up tight, then 1st turbine won't pass full power to wheels due to slippage = poor power & acceleration. If machine does gain speed, 2nd turbine would take over as normal. Machine would then make speed / have normal hi end power. Is that right? T
That's exactly how it works Turntable. So, I guess you have to decide if it seems to have normal power when in second turbine but not when in first turbine (indicating a failed freewheel clutch as you suspect)... OR is lacking engine power making it sluggish all the time... OR a converter that is not transmitting full power at any time (due to mechanical failure or oil supply issues) A converter stall test might be appropriate at this point. Basically, IF the engine is running right, shift into H and hold the machine with the brakes while taking it to full throttle. The converter should have enough "coupling" to shave 2 to 300 rpm off the high idle engine rpm. I don't have the exact numbers for this test unfortunately. Marv