Crated 554 Jinma, FEL and snowblower.

[doxford jim]

Hi All,

Well this last weekend I picked up and trailered home the 554 Jinma tractor, ZL-60 FEL and snow blower, I ordered around 2nd week of August. Took two trips to get items - 1st trip snowblower and FEL, 2nd trip the tractor.

I know a lot of you don't like the chinese FEL, but it has to better than my old one and I can still use that.

Today I got the tractor uncrated. Boy is that machine ever big when compared to the old MF-65 I have. All the parts seem to be there and the only problem so far, is a cracked fibreglass canopy - which should be easily repaired. The FEL is massive compared to my old one and is going to be a bit of a challenge to mount on the tractor. One nice surprise is that the tractor came with two sets of rear remotes (hoses and valving with QD) - that has got to be a big savings there.

I am amazed at the size of the rig and when fully assembled, looks like it will do a lot of work for me - actually bigger than I needed, but the price was right. Just have to figure out where everything goes - the paperwork and books are a little scant on that. Nice set of spare parts and tools too. Then of course, how to use the thing properly!

Will update ya as thing go along.

Cheers

Jim

 

[AndyMA]

Sounds good. Keep us post and pics please.

Have fun

Andy

 

[magyarbacsi]

Jim, how much was just for the tractor? Also, I have been told that the hydraulic pump is the weak link on the Chinese tractors and most importers replace them before selling them. You have any info re this and if so, what pump is the upgrade?

 

[Flyhiflylo]

Pics! We want Pics! Ordered my 554 Oct 1.

 

[doxford jim]

Hi,

Bit of an update on the tractor. Now I have all axles installed and it is sitting on four wheels - and is starting to look like a tractor, a big one. I think I might have bought bigger than I need or anticipated. Will try posting a pic or two in a few days - once I figure out how to do it. Now, if only I could figure out how to install the ZL-60 loader (which is also big) - haven't yet found any instructions or diagrams.

Jim

 

[Flyhiflylo]

Take pics while building it. If you need any help go here. CHINESE TRACTOR OWNERS CLUB FORUM - Home

 

[doxford jim]

A bit more of an update. Finally finished adding fluids (Oils, water etc) and had the tractor running for ten minutes. Ran pretty good but was cold and I had some light blue exhaust smoke until it warmed up a little.

An aside note to anyone that has/wants to order one of the 554 units. My one came without glow plugs and no decompression valve lever setup (at least I can't find them and I looked everywhere), so it is going to be interesting when the real cold weather arrives.

Everything went together pretty well - in fact I was surprised at how well. By the time I had finished I had chipped quite a few spots (the paint seems to chip very easily) gonna need the small can of touch up paint that they provide. Had a bit of a challenge getting the hood to line up properly (fiberglass and flexible), but it got done.

Went to restart and got absolutely nothing - no lights at all on the dash. I think this is probably a bad ground so tomorrow I will be going over everything to find the problem. Everything worked well at first and suddenly nothing! I hope it is the main ground at the battery. I also checked all the fuses and they were fine and metered out good too.

Have a few pictures taken but not sure how to make them smaller to post (they are all around 1.2Mb - max. here is 500kb).

Oh, for the record it came as a Jinma Red (which is very close to Tremclad Fire Engine Red).

If anyone has some other ideas of what the problem might be, I am all ears and would welcome any sage advice.

Thx.

Jim

 

[GuglioLS]

Jim,

"think this is probably a bad ground"

Most likely you hit the nail on the head with that statement. Remove the battery cable where it is attached to the tractor frame, grind off the paint / slag / rust, where the wire lug attach's right down to bare metal. Put a lock or star washer under the lug so it digs into the frame metal. Doing it that way will ensure you will never have a problem with it again. If you got some dielectric grease, a light coating of that will help prevent future corrosion.

Resize your pictures! even 500K is too big! try to size them to 640X480 or 800 X 600 at most. Do a google search for a free download of "Picture sizer" or "Picture ReSizer"

Larry

 

[magyarbacsi]

Jim, I will assume you took a reading at the battery + and frame and got voltage. The battery may be weak, who knows how long its been in storage. Can you hook up a remote starter on the solenoid and get the starter to crank, making sure its not in gear naturally. If no cranking then you're probably right about the ground cable. And if there is no fuel cut off solenoid, it should start as long as you get fuel and it can turn over. This way you can isolate the main starting circuit from the secondary, e.i.panel, lights, etc.

Look for safety switches that disrupts the starting circuit. Did you get a schematic so you can look at the voltage paths?

 

[3RRL]

Jim,
I think you and Larry are right on track with the bad ground. Larry did exactly what he said to my tractor (KM554) and ut cured the problem. Also check ALL the grounds to be sure they are tight and the star washers are biting in...even the lights etc.

To post clickable thumbnail pictures, here's an overview to try.

Ok so first thing is to re-size your photos to make them around 50 to 100 kb size. This will help the dial up members. I use a Windows Picture Re-sizer that is free to download.

When I open or preview a picture, right mouse click on the photo and one of the options will be to "resize" the photo. I usually use "medium" setting and large only for more detailed ones. Here is the link to the Windows Picture resizer.
WINDOWS PICTURE RESIZER

Or do a search if you don't have XP for the computer system you have.

When you re-size a picture, it makes a copy of the original photo so it is not lost. I keep the resized pictures in a separate folder under Thumbnail photos, under individual folders for each project.

OK, once you have a folder of resized pictures, you can log on to your Photobucket account and also log onto TBN and to the thread you want. So now you have 2 web browsers open at the same time.

Minimize the TBN and go to the photobucket web browser. I have made sub albums in the photobucket account for each project too. Make one for "Boxblade" and click on it so you are in that sub account and upload those pictures to that.

Once the photos are upload, they will all appear as thumbnails on your screen. Below each photo is a square box with the name of the photo and also 4 types of formats, but disregard those.

What you want to do is check that box by the photo name by clicking on the box. You can check more than one photo at a time if you want. It will highlight the photo(s) and puts a red border around it.

After checking the box(s), scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. There is an option to select/unselect all and also 3 rectangles below that.

You want to click on the one that says "Generate HTML and IMG code".
Click on it and another screen pops up with 5 more rectangles.

You want the 3rd rectangle down that says "IMG clickable thumbnails for message boards - recommended".

Highlight all that is in the box and Right mouseclick on it to copy it.

Then open up the TBN browser and "paste" the information into the reply with another right mouse click.

When you "Pre-view" your reply, you should see a clickable thumbnail in it along with your written post. That is why I don't use the "quick reply" so I can check my spelling and also my photos.

Click on the preview thumbnail and it should open up. If good, post it.

Sounds harder then it really is, but like anything else, once you get used to it it's not bad at all. lol ... Like tying your shoe laces the first few times.

Try that and keep these instructions in your computer for reference.