KBennett

I have a little 1980's Ford 1210 tractor with a three cylinder non-turbo diesel that has an issue.

My son was using it today to clean up some snow in the driveway. It had been running fine until he idled for about a minute to take a phone call. When he got done and increased the throttle, the rpm would only go up to a fast idle, even when full throttle is applied.

It normally never blows black smoke unless you put it under a hard load but right now it is smoking black at idle and gets worse when you increase the throttle. It seems like it isn't getting enough air but we checked the air filter, even ran without it for a minute, cleaned the fuel bowl and filter, and flushed the fuel line going into the injector pump. I also added about 4oz. of Power Service to the little fuel tank which is about half full.

Any thoughts?

rattlerbob5.9

Seems to point to bad injectors but it would seem odd to have more than one take a dump at the same time. If it was the 2 cylinder engine i would be more confident with your low rpm. Try cracking lines one at a time at each injector find the bad one or ones. You might have to rev it to keep it running while testing.

By the way i like your quote from Ted .

pind

check your fuel return line. It is probably either pinched shut by icing on the machine, or has developed a blockage of some other sort. Also make sure the tank vent is working properly.

KBennett

Thanks for all the input so far.

I put the tractor away after the last time I posted and it would not start when I went back to check things out. Today was much warmer so I tried again and it started.

Cracking the fuel lines to each injector may have given a clue. When I crack the injectors one at a time that are closest to the front, the engine wants to stall right away but when I crack the last one, it smooths out a little.

There is a nipple on the last injector that the fuel return line is connected. I removed the line and made sure it is clear. I also ran the engine without the line connected and only a small amount of fuel came spitting out, not sure if this is correct or not.

Hvytrkmech

You may have a cracked injector. I would pull the last one you checked and inspect it. In most cases you would have a "mostly" steady flow of return fuel. A cracked injector would overfuel a cylinder causing the black smoke and would reduce your fuel return flow.

KBennett

I pulled the injectors and they all have the same amount of black soot on them.

I'm not sure if it is a good test or not but after pulling them I cranked the engine and they all look to have the same spray pattern.

Next I am going to pull the pump and see if there is anything broken or out of place.

Holdera60

Have u fixed this mine has exact same symptoms

KBennett

I have not. The tractor was being used to do the excavating for a shop I was building so I ended up hiring a guy to finish the work and started on building the shop. Now the tractor is sitting in the shop waiting for me to get back to it but a home remodel has been taking up most of my time.