Tractor Mechanical Question

[Secondwind]

Tractor - John Deere 5400 - 1000 hours

Diagnosis- Fuel pump needed ( Diesel tractor)

Used the tractor on Friday - on farm and about two miles on highway traveling between farms. Noticed no deviation in power or any problem with the fuel flow at all. Parked tractor when work completed.

Started tractor on Sunday and it would not go beyond the idle stage. The fuel imput/tractor response never changed when I would try to "give it gas".

Mechanic showed me fuel drained from fuel filter and it had small bits of debris in the fuel.

I have NO mechanical knowledge. None. Nada. It just does not make sense to me that the fuel pump wouldn't have given signs or symptoms that it was going out before it crashed.

Any suggestions or questions I might ask or make before I pay for a fuel pump I cannot afford and hopefully don't need? Any diesel mechanics here with optional suggestions to check before replacing the fuel pump?

Thanks!

[TnAndy]

My money is on a fuel obstruction....either another filter you haven't changed yet, or a clogged line, or something in the tank. 1000hrs is nothing on a fuel pump, and they basically either work or they don't work. ( assuming you mean an ACTUAL fuel pump, and not the engine injector pump )

I have a bulldozer that has little electric fuel booster pump to get the fuel from the tank up to the primary filter, and then on to the injector pump.

In that little booster pump is a real small inlet filter that plugs up on a regular basis, and the power goes completely away.....as you said, nothing above idle. Took me quite a while to find it, after changing the primary fuel filter with no results. It was buried under the floor board of the cab, and the filter itself is only about a 50cent pc diameter by 1" long deal you have to take the end of the booster pump off to even find ! But when that sucker clogs, it's all over....fuel goes to just a trickle, and power goes to nothing.

SO, if I were you, I'd be looking for a source of a clog. Start by taking the line off the tank and see if you have free flowing fuel FROM the tank ( possible you have crap in the tank....I know my dozer does, and that WHY it clogs that inlet filter, which is the first thing downstream )......then follow the fuel flow all the way to the injector pump.

[Allen W]

Is this tractor computor controlled? I don't know where they changed from mechanical to computor control. If it is computor controlled it sounds like a computor/electronic problem. The pump shouldn't fail at a thousand hours.

I'm guessing it isn't in a john deere shop either.

[DaleK]

What KIND of debris? If it just looks like dirt, that's pretty normal for a fuel filter. If it's metal fragments, that's more of a problem.

The fuel lines on those older JDs, the 5000s and 6000s, were well known for deteriorating and getting microscopic holes in the lines that would let enough air in to airlock the lines. I replaced the lines on my 6400 3 times in 13,000 hours but it would have been built about the same time as your 5400. That tended to be more of a situation where it wouldn't start at all though.
Since it's idling, I'd be more inclined to look at a linkage problem between the throttles and the pump etc. before replacing the pump, but regardless of the hours, that pump has some age on it.

[DaleK]

Are the RPMs changing AT ALL when you change the throttle or is it perfectly steady?

[countryboy84]

Had same thing happen to my long still not fixed it yet as I bought some draft horses and use them. But I thought it was the injector pump also but dealer and the local pump rebuilder keeps telling me that it is just a cloged line even though some fuel will pass though not enough though. When the pump went out on our ford it would not start or anything ran fine but one we shut it down that was it. Dealer tells me that is the way it is all the time. It takes about at leat 10,000 psi to crack open some injectors and other take like 25,000 -40,000 on some large equipment. So any little clog can keep that from happening but if the pump is bad then it can't even open them to start the engine.

[DaleK]

There's an extra strainer in the lines on the 6000 series that's pretty hard to find unless you know it's there, might be the same on the 5000 so TnAndy could be right too.

[TnAndy]

Apparently, reading around ( Google IS your friend), the 5000 series have fuel problems, sometime solved with an inline strainer/filter added near the tank, which may also be factory installed on some models...part number RE220719. Go looking for that, and change it if found.

Also, the problem apparently is low fuel supply to the primary filter due to poor design, and the next recommendation is add what my dozer has....a small electric booster pump that runs anytime the key is on, and keeps enough fuel to the primary filter to make up for the low feed from the gravity fed tank. Fairly cheap solution as well.

Then I also found a reference to a diaphram on the inlet side of the of the injector pump which may get some crap built up under it. As I understand it, all fuel flow to the the point of the injector pump is gravity, and there are several things that can restrict it enough to cause problems. IF I were you, I'd be looking from the injector pump BACK to the tank for my problem FIRST....as in CHEAPEST.

And if you find those are the problem, I'd be hunting a new "mechanic"

[agmantoo]

Water in the fuel will do this for you. Change the fuel filter first!

[rambler]

Typically, 9-% of the time, a new fuel filter will take care of this with a diesel engine.

Their may be another screen, or restriction somewhere else - often bottom of the tank? That will still be restricted.

Does fuel pour out of the filter canister, or only dribble out (when filter is removed, open to the air, starter running to make fuel flow or gravity flow if the tank is higher?)

Would be a fluke for a 1000 hour diesel to need a new pump/ pump rebuild.

Unless there is a known issue with this model tractor, as some are looking into?

--->Paul

[wvstuck]

Only three things affect a diesel if it is not electric (non-computer) Air in fuel system, Water in fuel system or no fuel in fuel system.

I would change the fuel filter first, then bleed the system completely from filters to injectors. Your manual should outline the procedure or you can look it up online.

[Ross]

Has the throttle linkage broken or come undone? The 5400 seems to have a mechanical linkage not a solinoid controled injection pump like the newer ones.