Purchased a project backhoe with the 3-53 engine and after replacing the battery, primary & secondary fuel filters along with rebuilding the fuel pump, the engine seems to be without a whole lot of power. Has a tachometer on board but inop. Where on a diesel engine should the tachometer be connected to? Any ideas on what could be robbing power?
Detroits have all sorts of places to mount the tack drive. Common is an adapter that serves as a camshaft/balance shaft cover and is on the rear of the engine. Low power-make sure the injectors are going to full fuel by manually pulling on the rack (engine not running). If they are set right, all 3 should roll up when in the wide open position. Check the valve lash. if not right, get the correct go-no go feeler blade and set to the correct height. Get someone to do it for you if you are not an engine guy. Check the emergency shutdown flapper to make sure it has not slipped on the shaft and impeding air intake. Finally, check the governor gap. Set if needed. That should get you started.
One thing about a 3-53 is they dont have a lot of power particularly if your not familiar with them are you running wide open?
Yeah, wide open in forward and it wont move forward, it tries but wont move more than a few inches. Is the Tachometer mechanical? Would low hydraulic fluid level look like this?
Yair . . . As often happens different folks can be speaking in different terms with different meanings. "Wide open" and not driving (to me) does not sound like an engine problem . . . is the engine bogging down? What is the transmission? I'll be no help but folks who can help will need more details. Cheers.
Meaning, in gear, pedal to the floor and there's no power to move the Hoe. The Hoe has a 4 speed with power reverser. The engine bogs down when the hoe is retracted.
The 353 is designed to run at a higher speed than most diesels. I think 2600 or 2800 RPM. You can get a cheap digital tach off ebay. Harbor freight may have them too.
What kind of backhoe? Need more details to start.. Old dynahoes have torque converters that are notorious for losing power if not completely full of fluid... Even a quart low and you lose noticeable power... Also they don't like to move in the higher gears if you don't have good engine power. Old air filters can rob lots of power or the moisture separater can get plugged with dirt and do similar things... One other thing, there is a screen in front of the blower that can also get plugged up and kill performance.
Its a clark bl700. I had a mechanic check it out and its producing 150 psi but it might be low on fluid. I will check today.
Is the engine smoking when bogging down? what colors? Are you sure you have it in 1st or 2nd. Hopefully you blew out all the lines when you did the fuel system work. What does the tank look like inside? have you checked for a screen in there or debris floating around. Then check the fuel pressure/vacuum before the fuel pump, or run it out of a can of clean diesel.
This is another of those times when trying to diagnose something just going by someones description of it can be very difficult. To the original poster, is there any way you could make a short video with sound that you could post to YouTube? This would answer a few dozen different questions very fast. I'd start recording the video before starting engine then with everything in neutral rev up the engine a couple times to max rpm. Then shift it into gear and again rev it up to max rpm. If possible do this so we can see the exhaust coming out the stack. Would also lie to see how it sounds and looks when you run one of the hydraulic cylinders all the way to the end of stroke while at full rpm, don't slam it hard move the cylinder slowly by the control lever but with engine wide open, just hold it there for second or two should tell a lot.
So far I heard someone blaming a engine running wide open but the tractor not moving as no power. I heard this with truck drivers years ago when they would complain of 'No Power' but were actually speaking of road speed and nothing to do with the engine speed or power delivered. If your tractor does not move and the engine does not pull down as if doing some work then it is definitely a drive train issue and not the engine. Making the engine spin faster will not make it function better.
Checking the Hydraulic fluid in the reservoir the fluid appeared to be about .25 of an inch above the Low mark on the stick. I filled to the Full mark and powered up and it propelled fine so I guess the fluid has to be Full to function. Thanks all for the help. I'll be back again with more questions soon enough.
I have also seen tank dipsticks swapped out or repaired with wrong length parts that makes the markings on the dipstick inaccurate... something to think about. Glad you got one problem figured out
Good point, anything is possible.