New Ford 1700 owner with questions

79ford1700 · Oct 8, 2013

Hey guys,

Last year I purchased my first home and piece of property. Figured that I needed a tractor to start working my property, plow snow, mow my huge yard, and to just have a useful tool and piece of equipment around the house. Tractor came with the 770 FEL and a 7ft king kutter back blade. At the same time i purchased the tractor I found a Woods RM-90 finish mower around the same location I bought the tractor so picked that up on the same day. The mower is a little to big for this tractor in my opinion but for now it cuts my grass and keeps the fields mowed down. Tractor came with all manuals and manual for loader as well so I jumped right into some PM work. Changed the oil right away just for piece of mind. Ran great all summer and plowed snow for me just fine all winter but wish I had an actual plow and not just the bucket but it works for now. Did have to replace the water pump in February but that job was a piece of cake. All in all I love this tractor just wish that I had a little more power sometimes.

Have a few questions about it though. JC if you have any anwers I have read many of your posts and you seem to know a lot about this model.

1. Just recently changed my trans/hydraulic fluid and noticed that my dipstick looks to be homemade. Took out hydraulic filter and it was fairly clean but there were some metal shavings on it. Anything to worry about? Put the 5.8 gallons that the manual calls for and the fluid still does not even touch the dipstick yet all hydraulics work great. Do I need to add more fluid because I have the FEL? Also if anyone could give me a length on the dipstick from the bottom of the cap I can fab up a new stick sometime.

2. My uncle who is a diesel mechanic was over and mentioned that it sounds like it may have a slight miss to it. I thought the thing ran great and had great power but he works on the things everyday and knows what they should sound like. Anyone out there ever try to do a valve adjustment according to the book? Would like to look into that as I am sure this thing has never been opened up. Also would cleaning the injector pump maybe clean up this slight "miss"?

3. Would really love to have rear remote hydraulic hookups. Anyone attemt this or is it even possible with such a small hydrualic pump?

Thanks guys any feedback would be great!

79ford1700 · Oct 8, 2013

Also one more question. When first starting the tractor for the day I always have to use the glow plugs but once warmed up it starts great every time. If I dont use the glow plugs the tractor will just turn and turn and turn and not start. It does give off some white colored smoke when this happens but if I use the glow plugs right after it starts right up. Would valve clearance have anything to do with this? Would dirty injectors have anything to do with this?

Thanks.

JC-jetro · Oct 8, 2013

79 Ford,

1-Look at the pic below. Make sure your home made dipstick conforms to it. Normally the same is right level with the loader while the bucket is o the ground. Bucket up and obviously the level goes down but at no time is below the intake of the hydraulic pump. My Ford 1700 does not have a hyd filter but a screen in the diffy. did you see metal shaving there?

2- I would not mess with the pump to fix a miss. It might be fuel related, may be not a good spray pattern on one of the injectors causing it to run a bit rough. I have done valve adjustment but did not have to make adjustment as it was just right. the book recommended to do with the engine running

I know that procedure can be done but doing it cold gave me the spec per IT fo-44.

3- It is possible to have rear remote but need to buy a hyd bloc. it goes where the relief device is. I had some posting in that regard also.

4- do use the glow plugs on a cold engine. Valve clearance has nothing to do with white smoke. I think here might be related to incomplete combustion. Do you get white smoke while engine hot as well? do you see any oil residue in the radiator? a bad spray pattern (not fully atomized0 makes it for a difficult start. Once engine hot I never use preheat to start as it starts right up.

JC,

79ford1700 · Oct 9, 2013

Thanks JC. Yes the screen did have some metal shavings on it but I dont think it was anything to be worried about. It was actually pretty clean compared to your photo of the screen on yours and other photos that I have seen. The trans/hyd fluid also looked fairly clean as well but it was mostly just a piece of mind thing for me with winter coming up. Thanks for the dipstick picture, I will work on getting a new one fabbed up. Any idea how much a hyd block would run me for the rear remote? I meant to put in my second post yesterday that the starting problems are only when I first fire up the tractor for the day whether it is 80 deg in the summer or -10 deg in the winter. After the intial start for the day it is always fine. And once the engine is warm there is never any white smoke and I never have to use the glow plugs until it sits overnight. I do also run an inline heater on the coolant line in winter time so insure that I have a warm cooling system on first start up. You ever mess around with putting a frost plug block heater in? I would rather have that than an inline coolant heater. Did not see any oil residue in the radiator when I did the water pump swap this past February. Of course when I did the swap and drained all old coolant (which was kind of dirty and old looking) and topped it off with new 50/50 mix. Thanks again for any advice. Still pretty new to the tractor scene and diesels as well.

JC-jetro · Oct 9, 2013

79ford1700 said:
Thanks JC. Yes the screen did have some metal shavings on it but I dont think it was anything to be worried about. It was actually pretty clean compared to your photo of the screen on yours and other photos that I have seen. The trans/hyd fluid also looked fairly clean as well but it was mostly just a piece of mind thing for me with winter coming up. Thanks for the dipstick picture, I will work on getting a new one fabbed up. Any idea how much a hyd block would run me for the rear remote? I meant to put in my second post yesterday that the starting problems are only when I first fire up the tractor for the day whether it is 80 deg in the summer or -10 deg in the winter. After the intial start for the day it is always fine. And once the engine is warm there is never any white smoke and I never have to use the glow plugs until it sits overnight. I do also run an inline heater on the coolant line in winter time so insure that I have a warm cooling system on first start up. You ever mess around with putting a frost plug block heater in? I would rather have that than an inline coolant heater. Did not see any oil residue in the radiator when I did the water pump swap this past February. Of course when I did the swap and drained all old coolant (which was kind of dirty and old looking) and topped it off with new 50/50 mix. Thanks again for any advice. Still pretty new to the tractor scene and diesels as well.

I have never has issue stating it in cold if I preheated for 20 second, so no I have not messed with it. I would not worry about the shaving. It might have been first time it was drained and hyd oil replaced. I don;t have you have any issues on how it starts with the glow plug. Below couple of link that might help you with the hydraulic.

JC,

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/new-holland-owning-operating/231616-ford-1600-how-tap-into.html

Ford 1700 Hydraulic Valve Kit (HV4116)