Engine trouble

dheastings · Nov 13, 2014

I was operating my 1972 Kubota L-185 diesel the other day when I got a whistling noise from the engine. It soon stopped. A few minutes later the whistling was more pronounced and continuous. I got the hood up and saw the belt continuing to turn the engine and generator, but not the fan blades. I turned off the engine and carefully turned the fan blades by hand. While stiff, they moved. I tried starting it up and it worked. I drove it a few minutes to get back to where I store it. My guess is that the fan blades are independent of the engine and spin with the help of ball bearings. Perhaps the bearings at times are preventing the blades from turning. Does this sound plausible? And if so, is there a fix for it short of replacing the fan blades?

Dave Heastings
West Deer Township, PA (just north of Pittsburgh).

amaxwell · Nov 13, 2014

dheastings said:
I was operating my 1972 Kubota L-185 diesel the other day when I got a whistling noise from the engine. It soon stopped. A few minutes later the whistling was more pronounced and continuous. I got the hood up and saw the belt continuing to turn the engine and generator, but not the fan blades. I turned off the engine and carefully turned the fan blades by hand. While stiff, they moved. I tried starting it up and it worked. I drove it a few minutes to get back to where I store it. My guess is that the fan blades are independent of the engine and spin with the help of ball bearings. Perhaps the bearings at times are preventing the blades from turning. Does this sound plausible? And if so, is there a fix for it short of replacing the fan blades?

Dave Heastings
West Deer Township, PA (just north of Pittsburgh).

I'm not all familiar with your tractor, but on most the fan is attached to the water pump. It sounds like the bearings in the water pump are going bad and will require replacement of the pump.

Coyote machine · Nov 13, 2014

What amaxwell said sounds about right. If so, I would not run it until the pump is replaced because coolant will not be flowing to critical areas of the head/engine if the pump is starting to seize up.