TC45DA stalls, loping idle

[NWOH_Grizz]

Was out plowing the 8" of snow (more coming....) this evening just before dark, and the NH stalled and wouldn't restart about 20' from the barn door. Acted like starved for fuel. It's supposed to be -16 the next 2-3 days here, so I knew I had to get it inside while it was still 30 degrees on the plus side. Fuel tank was 1/2 full, the vent on that cap never worked right from the get-go. It let out a big woosh when I opened it. Finally got it started and quickly moved it inside, ran rough again. Pulled the filter bowl, it had some water in it. Installed a new fuel filter (had a spare), filled the bowl up about 1/2 way, bled air at the injector, it still won't start. Pulled the fuel line into the filter, it burbled for a bit then started to run like it should. Drained some into a drain pan I had there. Water was in the fuel, it segregated in the drain pan quickly. After much cranking to get the fuel bowl full, bled a bunch of air, it finally started and ran well. I use Power Service 100% of the time, but not the 911 stuff, Getting some tomorrow.

 

[dgeesaman]

A little update:

I think the lack of treatment in the fuel was probably the biggest contributor here. I started it up dead cold this evening at 8F temperature and it fired up on the first try, and aside from that same loping idle it warmed up ok and ran pretty well. I moved a load of hay bales with the bucket and on the way back to the garage it gave me a couple of moments where it wanted to stall but didn't. Quite an improvement considering I just splashed additive into the tank and didn't get to mix it in.

I'll be filling up my jerry cans with diesel and the additive already in them. I hope that puts the stalling to bed.

It seems that the loping idle may be a separate but less critical problem. I will post later when I make progress on that root cause.

 

[dgeesaman]

I am still having trouble. Not sure if it's a fuel issue or something else. The loping idle is mostly gone since adding the fuel treatment, except for a little bouncing right after a cold start.

1) The tractor stalls at least once about 5 min into a session. It fires back up in most cases as if nothing happened and doesn't stall again. It tends to stall when I'm rolling along in high gear, 2k rpm.

2) The other day I tried to lift the front wheels using the loader. It's a 16LA loader, and I had the tip of the bucket pointed straight down. It could not lift the front wheels on the ground, even running at 2300rpm. Temps were in the 40's.

3) Today it's 15F and I got the tractor out to move some firewood. In addition to stalling once, I noticed that after restarting the tach stayed at zero. After restarting it another time the tach came back.

Also today, when driving through 5" of snow and some soft ground, the tractor struggled to propel itself forward. I was in 4wd mode and 2k rpm. It just seemed to struggle even though the engine speed stayed the same. The HST did not make any wild noises - just the sound of running under load, but the tractor was hardly moving. I got out of that spot in low/low gear, but even still it did not seem very happy.

Thoughts? I'm going to go plow in a couple of hours and hopefully it does not die in the driveway and prevent anyone from getting anywhere.

 

[jinman]

Your tach works strictly off of the alternator. It not working has nothing to do with the engine as long as the engine is running at all, it should spin the alternator and make the tach work.

i'm sure you have a fuel feed problem of some sort. Just stick with the fuel system and you'll eventually find your problem. It sounds like some air is getting in somewhere.

 

[dqdave1]

my tach and gages sometimes stick and a slight tap on panel gets them going; If it has been cold, when was last time hydro filter was changed?