Guys,
This thread has got me wondering. I noticed a random rattle / mettalic sound to the front of my Iseki TE 4270 over the summer months. It was usually worst at startup, but could appear at any time on idle for a few seconds then go away again. Much as I tried I could not source the problem. I envisaged all sorts of problems such as cracked rings, valve springs broken etc, but had to rule each out as the sound was too random and seemed to be at the front of the engine block.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I took some time last week to start her up, strip off all engine panelling and listen carefully for the source. Finally I determined it was the cooling fan touching a light metal tab on the housing hence the mettalic rattle. Once found I discovered that there was about 5mm play at the end of the fan blades. The fan is securely mounted to the water pump flange, so I have to determine that the bearing in the pump is going out.
The question is what to do.
I have cleared the tab that was causing the noise.
There is absolutely no leak to the pump and to be honest, this "play" could have been there for the past 1000hrs. I never had reason to check before.
Why is the pump not leaking?
What is the chances of the bearing disintegrating?
Would you just keep on tractoring until it grinds up or leaks?
The repair manual lists a water pump repair kit which includes the bearing and seal, but there is a good chance this is no longer an item held by the distributing agent given the age of the machine.
Any advice would be appreciated.