Massey Ferguson 1740M Hydro: LOSS OF POWER when hot!

[TopSpeed1]

@FrankJG and others... Throughout this thread plus the mytractorforum thread, injectors have been mentioned several times including by myself, but we never had a definitive dealer conclusion. We kinda did, but that owner had two things done including injectors, so we never could pinpoint it, and to the fact that owner was apparently happy and never reported back. So that was a dead end basically, but left some hope I guess.

I think the driving of your tractor 15 miles (and then back home again I assume after) is pretty impressive from a owners perspective.

Crossing my fingers!

 

[FrankJG]

I work for an excavation company and they were supposed to took care of transport for me, finally too much last minute machinery move made transport impossible before dealer closing hour.

Didn't have much time left before warranty end so decide to road it saturday morning. 15 miles on secondary rural roads wasn't that bad took me about an hour and a half.

I told them to check the turbo too, since an other user on other forum mentionned that they changed it on his tractor.

I have close to 900 hours on the 1740 and loved it so far. Hoping everything going to get fixed but my trust on the machine dropped a lot.

 

[DarkBlack]

I wouldn’t have suspected injectors, as usually one is bad , not all 4 , or not even 3 of 4 at the exact same time. I also didn’t suspect injectors because you said it takes like 40 minutes of running to a full hot engine and coolant. I wouldn’t expect any major temperature change of injectors happening after running so long. Strange if they think all 4 injectors have the same temperature defect, and they all drop out at the same time. You’d think they would find 1 or 2 dropping out.
One ECU driving the injection would make sense, but all the individual injectors?
Interesting, if it proves correct

 

[TopSpeed1]

Ok, I get the fact that injectors and extended run times with heat is or was a reach....
BUT!, when I first contacted my dealer about the problem, I talked with the mechanic (right in the shop area) and the first words he said was "injectors I'm thinking, there is a recall on some MF models and power failure when hot is caused when the injector gets hot it doesn't compress or mist the fuel efficiently anymore". He also said that basically the fuel is being squirted vs. misted creating poor combustion.

Ok, sounded reasonable. He then said the recall is by model and serial number. So on my 1740M's visit back in the early Spring, either my serial number didn't match the recall, (and/or) they couldn't recreate the issue. The later I know is true because when they said they couldn't get the tractor to go into the lower power/ higher heat and work load mode.... he said they had the tractor on for like 30 minutes. Not even sure this was under a good load like mowing?. A dyno would of done the trick, but they do not have a dyno

So injectors was my dealers lead mechanics first intuition, way before even having the unit in front of him. Could it still be the Turbo or something else, sure! Just want to put out there my dealers mechanics first words when I told him the problem of losing power when extended and heated workloads.

PS; In these (Late October) 40F to 50F days, I can mow 2 hours (and more) with no power loss. Those prior hot summer days along with the Air Conditioner on is really what kicks this problem into motion (or lack of).

TWT, and I think I would have this solved already if my dealer just had a load dyno.

 

[FrankJG]

So my tractor is back from the dealer. Basically what they did is put the tractor on the dyno and observed a drop in engine power after the tractor reached higher temperature. PTO hp dropped from 30 to 20 hp.

They first changed both fuel filters put it on the dyno again, same results. Test injectors concluded they were the problem. Changed them and put the tractor on the dyno again with no dropped in hp this time.

I asked them if they changed the design of the injectors, they told me the part number didnt changed from the initial factory design. Therefore they put in the same injectors of before. Guy at the service told me theres a technical note on the part but couldn't really explained in detail what it was or mean.

I really liked the machine so far but i'll probably trade it for something else since a lot of other person had the same problems on here and other forums. They reinstall the same injectors design that were at problem with a technical note on them.

This repair would have cost me over 8000 $ CAD if done out of warranty. So I don't know if i'll take the risk to have the same problem in a few years. My tractor is an important equipment for my 35 acres lot (Snow removal, logging, firewood, sawmill, bushogging and a lot of dirt work). I bought it new to have a peace of mind and be in control of the maintenance from the start, which I did religiously, but it still failed on me.

 

[Yander]

Thanks a bunch for replying Frank, that's not good news but at least it is something to go off of. I will likely see about getting mine looked at this winter and if it is the same thing, I'll probably do exactly as you are. I'll be buying Yanmar if I get rid of the MF.

 

[TopSpeed1]

@FrankJG
Yes, Thank You for updating us on that. I'm interested that if in your real life usage (again) it really appears to be solved, so please keep us updated.

My warranty is now out, but, this issue was documented (and in shop) while still in warranty and they did or could not resolve and fix it. So this should be a carry over issue with my tractor.

I think my biggest gripe besides the same injectors for the replacement as you mentioned, would be the fact that this is now broad spread (enpough) that Agco/MF isn't addressing it as a recall, at least net yet. So as my mechanic told me early on when I first met with him about this issue; just before early Spring of '24, he stated right away "might be the injectors and I think there is a recall by model and serial number". He went on telling me that (when hot working load temps) the fuel doesn't get vaporized or misted into the cylinders in an efficient manor to make the top end HP of the engine.

-KJ Miller

 

[JWR]

So my tractor is back from the dealer. Basically what they did is put the tractor on the dyno and observed a drop in engine power after the tractor reached higher temperature. PTO hp dropped from 30 to 20 hp.

They first changed both fuel filters put it on the dyno again, same results. Test injectors concluded they were the problem. Changed them and put the tractor on the dyno again with no dropped in hp this time.

I asked them if they changed the design of the injectors, they told me the part number didnt changed from the initial factory design. Therefore they put in the same injectors of before. Guy at the service told me theres a technical note on the part but couldn't really explained in detail what it was or mean.

I really liked the machine so far but i'll probably trade it for something else since a lot of other person had the same problems on here and other forums. They reinstall the same injectors design that were at problem with a technical note on them.

This repair would have cost me over 8000 $ CAD if done out of warranty. So I don't know if i'll take the risk to have the same problem in a few years. My tractor is an important equipment for my 35 acres lot (Snow removal, logging, firewood, sawmill, bushogging and a lot of dirt work). I bought it new to have a peace of mind and be in control of the maintenance from the start, which I did religiously, but it still failed on me.

Seems to me this injector issue has finally been nailed as THE problem. Having heard the same symptoms on multiple brands of tractors I wonder if the common culprit is the injectors AND are these injectors from a common source for multiple brands? Frank, being an injector issue not the tractor or tractor brand per se, I would not be switching horses to some other brand just yet. Surely much more will come out over time. This has to be an industry issue rather than a tractor brand issue and must be a big topic in several company boardrooms.

 

[FrankJG]

I don't know if these injectors are from a common source for multiple brands of tractors. Maybe it's just mental, but having a black cloud in my mind of a possible 8k repair in 4-5 years bugs me a bit.

@TopSpeed1
I don't know if colder temperature will offset a possible issue, but from now to end of the year i'll work the tractor quite a bit with my logging winch. I will give update if something happen. After that will be snowblowing season.

 

[Soto]

hello everyone, about 3 weeks ago I found out that my tractor was still under warranty so I took it to a dealer shop here in Georgia. They called me today to let me know 1 injector was bad but they ended up replacing all 3 injectors and injector lines. All I have to pay is about $600 for new fuel filters and labor for replacing the filters, everything else is covered by the warranty. For those that don’t know the warranty of the tractors is transferable and is for 5 years, I am the second owner of my tractor and I didn’t know the warranty until I called the dealer. I hope you found this information helpful.