John Deere 540G Lacks Power?

[JDeere]

One of our skidders is a John Deere 540G that had a complete re-build of the engine a year ago. Recently, I have noticed it really seems to lack power when climbing much of a grade at all. Usually, I have to climb, with no hitch, in second or even first gear if it is really steep. Coming down with a good hitch it seems to do fine. Any ideas what I should check or what could be going on?

[bill m]

Start with the basics first. Fuel filter would be my first guess, second would be air filter.

[Brian_Rhoad]

Check the governor.

[JDeere]

The governor was the first thing we checked. It is opening fully to the stop. Is there anything else we should be looking at with it? Fuel filter was the second and that it the glass type and it was very clean. We plan on pulling the air filters in the AM. Thanks for the responses so far.

[snowstorm]

you cant tell that the filter is ok by looking at it. toss it. manual fuel stop?? fuel pump or screen in pump. fuel line back to tank. return line restricked

[Brian_Rhoad]

Check the pick up in the tank. Our 440 would clog up at the screen on the end of the pick up in the tank. If it sat awhile it would run ok until the screen was clogged again.

[ST Ranch]

Agree - start with the fuel. Is it winter grade? Add some winter anti-gel like HOWES which is also an anti-freeze - add lots direct to tank of skidder plus a bottle to your truck transfer tank.  Possible Ice in the fuel filters as well [also the transfer pump screen etc.  Second check the air intake and filters - both inner and out - try drying them or putting in warm dry ones, both the inner and out and see if it helps. - are you getting frost on the air intake from unusual wet weather. Third - is it direct drive or torque converter - if a TC - then it may be slipping - low oil, water in the oil - to thick oil. Fourth - if it is real cold- are you running light enough oil in the diffs?
One other quick check on fuel is to carefully crack [open] your injector lines a bit at the injector end from the injector pump and see if you are getting good consistent pressure on all lines [did you rebuilt injection pump when rebuilt motor?]  One last thing - if your skidder has a gear fuel pump [vs. electric] - then I think your shut off is mechanical and the shut off cable may not be fully disengaging so you are always running lean.  Good luck

[logloper]

Had the same problem on a 540. Pull the air filters, and run the machine up a steep pull without the filters. This will save you tossing filters that are fine. Running with no filters wont hurt it for just a bit. Make sure to put them back on before going back to work. This is just to show you if its the air filter causing your trouble.

[semologger]

I have a 648E and on the fuel line coming out of the tank is a filter. You have to take the line off then the fitting then put a straight screwdriver in the tank and unscrew the inline filter. It's about the size of a small finger. It's in the metal line that's in your tank. Mine got stuck so i tried to get it out and it went in past the threads now it's stuck in the line. I took a long rod and tried to drill it out it seemed to work. But now I have replaced 2 injectors in last week and have one more to pull out. Seals are going bad on them. One took me an hour to get out after pulling the exhaust manifold. good luck

[JDeere]

Thanks for all the responses. Today we changed the fuel filter and it seems like the skidder is running up the rpms higher, definately sounds better. We then were going to change the primary and secondary air filters and realized the parts store gave us the wrong ones. We did not have a chance to try it under load as we got washed out with rain. One thing we did find was that the throttle pedal has a bolt-type stop that limits how far you can push it down. By adjusting the bolt we were getting a higher RPM and the engine sound was much stronger. We previously thought the governor was fully open, but now know it could not have been due to the limit on the throttle pedal. Tomorrow we will install the new air filters and try it under load.

[nhlogga]

After checking the filters, disconnect the fuel lines at the filter housing and check for any debris. Also if there are any elbows in  the fuel lines, check tje elbows. Debris likes to collect there.

[JDeere]

Thanks again for all the advice. We changed the fuel filter and both air flters and all I can say is "Wow", what a difference. They weren't very old so I didn't suspect that was the problem. I recall an old diesel mechanic once told me he solved this same problem many times for other mechanics who were stumped by simply changing the air filters. Snowstorm, thanks for the tip on the glass fuel filter.