TC 33DA Losing Power

GreenAcres · Mar 10, 2007

My husband and I were moving aged manure today in the front end loader of our TC 33DA tractor when it started to loose power for no reason that we could discern.

I was able to dump the full load of manure and managed to make it to the farmhouse -- about 300 feet away from where it was loosing power. But going up a 3 foot hill the engine almost completely killed, though it gained a bit of power going down the other side of the hill. Mind you, we're only talking about a 3 foot hill (a terrace, actually, built by the farmer who used to own the land).

I noticed yesterday that it was not sounding the way it normally does. It sort of reminded me of a sound that my dad's Chevelle made one time when he said he thought he would soon have to change some belt or another. But my husband, who does know something about mechanics, did not even notice the difference in the sound.

The only other thing that I can tell you is that our local co-op just changed fuels from regular diesel to a 5% blend of some kind of bio-diesel (I guess it is ethanol) in the mix.

My husband put new fuel in the tractor a week ago when the fuel gauge had just entered into the yellow "re-fueling" zone. This was the first time that he put the new 5% blend into the tractor.

This incident this afternoon happened right when the fuel guage was just about, but not yet in, that same yellow "re-fueling" zone. We figured on refueling just as soon as we finished moving that load of manure.

Can any of you help us figure out what is going on? This happened after our local New Holland dealer's shop closed for the evening, and I got to admit, I would like to have some idea what is going on before we call the shop on Monday.

Thank you in advance for your help. And if you have any questions, my husband and I will monitor this thread over the weekend and will answer any questions you might have.

Oh yeah, some background on the tractor: It is a TC 33DA with 4 wheel drive and a FEL. It is three years old and has 293 hours on it. The only problems it has had in the past is the several times that the hydraulic hoses busted on it while it was under warranty. The last time, the dealer just replaced all the hoses and hydraulic filters and oil and such -- that was at 198 hours -- and the hoses have been great since then. There were no signs to suggest that the problem today is a hydraulic hose problem.

Soundguy · Mar 10, 2007

1, NH fuel gauges are like a 'not so close guess'. 1/4 tank on my 7610s gauge is actually practically empty...

2, loosing power on a diesel is usually a fuel starvation, though can be breathing problems.. ( generally you see dark smoke if it has breathing problems. )

Refuell, see what that gets you. Drain water traps. See what that gets you. Might also add some diesel fuel addative that dewaters. And if there was significant water in your trap.. just go ahead and change the fuel filter.. once saturated.. don't count on them passing fuel very good.

If your NH has a tank tap a tthe bottom of the tank like mine does.. there is a little 'finger' sized strainer on it.. it may be plugged up with black gunk.. take the fuel line off and open the valve.. it should make a pencil sized stream... if it just dribbles.. you hve fuel obstruction.

When my diesels act like they are limping, i check fuel system first, then air filter... etc.

Soundguy

mathey · Mar 10, 2007

you don't say where you are located (or how cold it is there) but - possible fuel gelling?

jbrumberg · Mar 10, 2007

GreenAcres:

I agree with mathey. You should check out the related threads in the Oil, Fuel, and Lubrication secton in TBN. There is a lot of information there

!. IMHO the ultra low sulfur #1 diesel now being sold as well as the biodiesel does not have the correct "mix" of additives coming from the refineries to allow the free flow of fuel at temperatures lower than 7 degrees F. I have had problems this year as well as many of my neighbors with diesel gelling up. We all get our diesel from a high volume local station that fuels all the local school buses and most of the local diesels. I spoke with this station owners and they have some complaints about the additive mix as well. I would recommend you amend you diesel fuel both in-tank and stored with a double "dose" of PowerService White. THere is another additive called I believe Howes that most truckers use. Check your sediment bowl on your fuel line to see if it is clouded up and/or there are ice crystals. You may have to change the filter. The first time this year my tractor died (I did have a couple of episodes similar to you

) I was close enough to the house to be able to use an electric heat gun to CAREFULLY warm up the sediment bowl and fuel lines as I had just replaced the fuel filter and refueled with new #1 diesel fuel without addition of PowerService White. Power Service also comes in a Silver container, but I believe it is for a completely gelled fuel system. There is a TBN member named dieselpower with a pretty interesting avatar who is incredibly informative. Good luck with your tractor (I do not think it is anything serious.)

- Jay

dqdave1 · Mar 10, 2007

Change the fuel filter; bleed injector pump and it will run fine.

Bob_Skurka · Mar 10, 2007

dqdave1 said:
Change the fuel filter; bleed injector pump and it will run fine.

That is my guess too. It sounds like it might be as simple as a clogged fuel filter.

DieselPower · Mar 11, 2007

The first thing I would check is the fuel filter also.

Tazz · Mar 14, 2007

This too may be a cause of your trouble. I have a 1999 TC29D and found the rear hydraulic lift arms out of adjustment. When the lift arms were all the way up the pump kept running, trying to lift the arms further then they would go, and this used up a lot of the power normally available to drive the tractor.

I imagine the TC33 is about the same as mine, this may not be noticeable with a 55 or 70 hp tractor.

Try lowering the rear lift arms an inch or so and see if this makes a difference. I don't know what happened to cause this sudden change but it robbed enough power that I could not get up to speed in 3rd gear (HST). The fluids in mine were recently changed and the pump was pretty quiet even though it had a lot of pressure on it. This may account for the change in sound you noticed.

Tazz

SteveInMD · Mar 15, 2007

Is it low on power all of the time? Or, is it just when you try to accelerate? Remember that the hydro. pedal is not a "gas pedal". You have the most power when you just push it down a little bit. The further down you push it the higher "gear" you will be in. This is designed to let you moved slowly with a lot of power at first, and then go faster if you want to by pressing the pedal down further. If you just press it down most the way thinking you will get more power, the motor will just bog down.

DieselMonk · Mar 15, 2007

Biodiesel cleans out the old diesel sludge, that stuff just plugged your fuel filter, as many folks here already suggested. As a general rule: Once you started using biodiesel in an enginge that ran regular diesel before, you have to change the filter shortly after, as the biodiesel by nature cleans everything out that it goes through.