NH 1920 diesel engine running backwards

[kirkawilson]

Last week, I was pulling my NH 1920 into my pole barn and caught the front edge of my FEL bucket tip on one of the center telephone poles. I was barely moving but the immediate stop gave me quite a jolt when the tip slightly dug into the pole. I quickly disengaged the clutch and the tractor kept running very roughly while blowing a large plume of something out of the hood. I thought I had destroyed the tractor but I wanted to get it into a position to work on it before shutting it down so I put it in 2nd gear forward and the tractor started going backwards! After my reactionary WTF's, I shut down the tractor and did a visual inspection around the tractor expecting to see oil dripping from somewhere...but nothing was dripping. No strange sounds and nothing looked broken. I proceeded to start the tractor and it fired as if nothing had happened. After much consternation, I surmised that the engine reversed rotating direction after hitting the pole and disengaging the clutch. The large plume must have been dust from the radiator and front screen blowing off as the fan was turning backwards. At least I got a clean radiator out of the crash :cool2:.

I have run the tractor for about 15 minutes since the crash with no noticeable difference in performance. I've read about diesels running backwards before but have never experienced it myself, until now. Luckily, it only ran backwards about 45 seconds before I shut it down so any oiling problems did not have time to develop.

Has anyone else been through this? If so, is there anything else I need to check on my tractor?

 

[RickB]

Check the INSIDE of the air filter element. That's where the exhaust was going.