Radiator fan cycling heavy in reverse

[jaketheram]

Hey all, been lurking here since I purchased my Kioti CS2510 back in the spring. It was used, year old w. 50 hours at the time. Sitting at about 102 now.

Picked up an older Meteor 51" 3pt snowblower to use on my drive this winter and I do my neighbors also for her.

First time or two, worked great, no issues.

2nd to last time, worked fine for my drive (which is a lot of back and forth/forward and reverse using both loader and blower). Start doing hers (which is long and straight) and as I'm going down hers it sounds like the radiator fan is kicking into overdrive. I also can't be 100% on this, but possible felt like I was slowing down, however, her drive does dip down at first before going slightly uphill. It cycled like this a few more times as I did her drive, each time I got the feeling that I was progressively losing velocity. Only seemed to happen in reverse, and only after 30 seconds or more of continuous reversing.

Checked the temp and the needle is where it always, slightly cooler than the midpoint on the gauge.

Checked HST fluid level a few days later, it was a little low, bottom of dipstick so filled up, took less than a quart I would estimate.

Snowblowed again yesterday evening, same thing, fine for all my drive. Fan cycled loudly once backing down her drive the first pass, but the subsequent passes, while the reverse speed still seemed to progressively decrease, the radiator fan did not howl.

RPM of engine never seems to change throughout all this, I run it at 3000rpm, which is the rated speed for 540 PTO RPM.

Any thoughts?

I used it extensively this past summer and fall: trenching with the hoe, grading, mowing with the MMM several acres, never ran into this issue, but also was never going in reverse for longer than a 10 seconds.

I checked HST fan in case I was confused where the noise was coming from, all fan blades are in tact on that.

 

[CobyRupert]

Can't imagine how the radiator fan has anything to do with going in reverse.

 

[WranglerX]

Check radiator for leaves. weed and crap accumulated over summer use...

Dale

 

[jaketheram]

Coby- I agree with you. Only thing I could think of is the radiator isn't getting as much airflow in reverse (edit: not to mention ambient temps in the 20's)...but temp needle gauge show's no sign of overheating. Also doesn't make sense why I'd be losing velocity because the fan is spinning fast, unless there is some underlying cause of both. I really don't think it's the HST fan as that's directly underneath the seat and I am fairly certain this is coming from the front of the engine.

DL- Sorry, I should have mentioned that I had checked that and the radiator was clean. The tractor is stored outdoors (on concrete pad under a portable garage) so I check the engine bay often for signs of mice nests, so far they've left me alone.

 

[crashz]

Do these have clutches on the radiator fans? Never seen one on a compact tractor. Both of my tractors have a plastic fan attached to the water pump. No clutch.

Something sounds fishy with the HST. Have you changed the HST and/or hydraulic filter? Internal filter /magnetic may need to be cleaned? Maybe the reverse pedal is not adjusted properly?

 

[Ford850]

This almost sounds like you are fully depressing the reverse hst pedal and it is losing power and gaining heat. Similar to having it in too high of a range and fully depressing the forward and then climbing a hill and it slows down as the hst struggles. But I don't see how that could happen while snow blowing since you are no doubt in low range already, unless you are in deep snow. I'd experiment by easing up on the reverse pedal a bit.

 

[ericm979]

Often the fan is engine driven and usually without a clutch. However many machines have an electric fan for the HST cooler when it's not located in front of the radiator. That may be clogged with debris or malfunctioning in some way.

 

[jaketheram]

Crash and Eric, you are both correct, the radiator fan is belt driven by the engine. In my line of work I deal with electric motor driven variable speed cooling fans so I naively assumed this radiator fan had its own electric motor.

This led me to investigate the HST fan power source, which appeared to me to simply be the drive shaft, so checked my service manual and that appears to be case, so it doesn't seem to me it's possible for the HST fan to spool up either, at least not without the drive shaft increasing drastically?



...in which case...now I don't even know what this noise I'm hearing is coming from!

All filters and fluids were done at 55 hours by dealer as part of the 50 hour service. Oil change and oil filter were again done at 100 hours when took the deck off and put the blower on.

Ford, you are right, it almost seems to lose power like being in high range and going up too steep a grade. However, I am always in low when blowing snow, and I'd say her drive at it's steepest gains 1 foot elevation per 10. This past snowfall was only about 4". Blower and engine never bogged. I do have the pedal pressed down pretty far when doing her part of the drive, as its long, straight, and relatively level.

I will experiment with giving it less pedal and see if it stops making the noise...but now curious as to what's making it?

 

[ruffdog]

Check radiator for leaves. weed and crap accumulated over summer use...

Dale

Make sure you can see light through it....use a light and mirror if needed.

 

[crashz]

Any luck tracing this issue?

Quick question: does the transmission get hot? When running, can you put your hand on the case comfortably?

Since the HST controls direction and flow, this would be my first place to look. You checked fluid, filters were replaced recently. What about the pedals? Maybe the adjustment is out. Is there ever a hint of this behavior when traveling forward?