# HELP! New Nortrac XT20 (Jinma) just delivered (then go BOOM!).



## TurfEnurf

Trucking company called Thursday afternoon, said their driver would deliver Friday evening. After work Friday, I meet the driver in the parking lot of the church below my house, he has three Nortracs, mine at the very back. The rollback finally arrives, my tractor is finally on the ground. So, I drive it up the hill to my house, and proceed to remove the roof and the retaining bolts on the rollover bar ( I have to fold it partway down to get it in my shed, I just need to take down the door header and raise it 6", then she'll be apples). I pull around back of the shed to drop the mower deck (shed not long enough for tractor AND mower). At this point, she's fully warmed up, sitting at about 60-70C, and the oil pressure is good. I proceed to pull back around the shed to put her inside, and I rev her to about a 1000 revs. She starts KNOCKING, like a rod or a piston coming apart! I am in front of the shed, about to back in, the knocking is HORRIBLE, she's only showing 1.3 hours, and suddenly she is smoking like a bleedin' freight train! I manage to get her in, and I shut her down, amid a blinding cloud of diesel exhaust. I've run out of fuel in my diesel Benz before, and it never made such violent noises like this! I check, and the oil's up, coolant good, but I'm afraid to try to start her back up until I know what's happening. I've owned diesel cars in the past, and I've worked on quite a few as a technician. This is my first tractor (always had little 8-13HP mowbuggies up 'til now), and my first BRAND NEW vehicle of ANY kind. She IS low on fuel, and I WAS on a slope, wondered if she may have been sucking air into the injection pump causing these horrific death rattle-like noises. After I got her in the shed, I just went in the house, it was almost 10PM, I had to work today (and for the next several days, 11 hours a day, my next off day is Thursday), so I probably won't even get an opportunity to check her out for a few days. I'm trying to be the optimist, hoping this is just a fuel issue, but if it's major, she'll have to go back for repair. Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?


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## Country Boy

Does the tractor have a separate fuel shut off lever, or is it an electronic solenoid? The reason I ask is if you can prevent the tractor from starting, I'd crank it over and see if it knocks then. If you don't hear any odd noises, I'd be tempted to fill it up with fuel and bleed the injection lines and then try to start it at idle. If it makes any weird noises shut it off immediately. Its possible it was just misfiring due to air in the injection pump, but its impossible to tell without a more in-depth investigation.


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## TurfEnurf

G'day Country Boy

It has a manual shut off valve actuated by a pull rod with a knob on the lower left hand dash. Yeah, reckon I'll give her a go, bleed it out see what happens. Regardless, it's under warranty for two years, so it will be fixed IF it is truly a calamitous internal defect. As I said earlier, I've had a bit of experience with diesels, but I've never had one exhibit these symptoms, but the injection pump is a bit archaic in design, what with the '50's style lubrication reservoir and all. It probably will act differently than a more modern pump design when it runs out of fuel. From what the truck driver who delivered told me, they put very little fuel in them at the assembly plant in Minnesota, basically enough to give them a good hour's run-in. He's been delivering Nortracs for about nine years he told me, and has had to siphon a bit from his truck to make them go from time to time. I did have it running for about 15-20 minutes, so that may have been enough to run it down to sucking air. I only ran it long enough to get in the shed after the knocking began, maybe 45 seconds to a minute, so I hope I haven't damaged the injection pump. After it started knocking, it was smoking profusely, so it very well could be a bit of air mixing with the fuel. Too late tonight to do anything with it, I'd have to drive out and pick up a jerry of diesel. I'll see how tomorrow pans out, may be able to find a spot of time tomorrow evo after work. I'll let you know what I find.

Cheers,
TE


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## Country Boy

Good luck!


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## TurfEnurf

*She's apples now!*

Well, finally found a bit of time Thursday evo, topped up the tank with some O.R. diesel from the yard I work at, bled out the system. Double-checked all the fluids, made sure all exposed nuts and bolts on and around the engine were torqued to specs. When I first fired her off, she was still smoking and rattling, after about a minute and a half, she cleared out, and the rattle disappeared. So simply a case of the fuel level too low. Which also means I need to tweak the arm on the sending unit, as it was showing ABOVE the empty mark on the gauge. Pretty strange, I've owned and worked on quite a few Mercedes and Isuzu diesels, never heard this sort of racket coming from those when they ran out of fuel. But it's a totally different animal compared to those, their pumps are self priming for the most part, this one most definitely isn't! At least it was a minor issue, resolved without much effort or money, that's the important bit!


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## Country Boy

Good to hear. Hopefully you get a long, enjoyable life out of that tractor!


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## Halifax

I have a 07 jinma, same company of yours. Sounds like you had an injector problem. Same indications I had. Sounds like it was going to rattle apart. I purchased another injector but before i could replace it, everything smoothed out and has been running fine. Have 340 hrs now, and i still have not put the new injector in. Spoke with my dealer, possible a piece of trash or something that had stopped the one from atomizing the fuel. Luckly it cleared out by itself. Been very pleased with the tractor. Aubrey


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## TurfEnurf

G'day Halifax,

She's going good now, gave her a workout today, put about three and a half hours on her. Won't stand for any badmouth from anyone, I'm pretty well stoked over this tractor, it works like a champ. Should have bought one seven years ago when I bought this house, I've used up two secondhand mowbuggies in that time. This Nortrac should (with proper maintenance) last me the rest of my life, since my fiftieth
is this year, that would be about thirty to thirty-five years, if I'm lucky.
Now I've got to extend the shed so that I can put the tractor AND the mower deck inside. I have to drop the deck behind the shed and cover it with a tarp for the moment. No worries, got a concrete man coming out Saturday to add on to the existing pad, and then I'll punch out the back wall and extend the shed about ten more feet. Can't ever have TOO much storage space. 

Cheers,
TE


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## GrampsinNM

Be sure to check your manual, most of these engines require a valve adjustment and a head re-torque at about 50 hours. 
Good luck with your new machine.
Gramps


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## TurfEnurf

I read the manual thoroughly, I noticed what you mentioned. The tractor as a whole IS more maintenance intensive than most other makes, but that is primarily because it is based on old technology, very simple and VERY tough, but you have to stay on top of all the adjustments or you WILL have problems. The dual-stage clutch must be adjusted periodically. Hydraulic fluid changed and strainer cleaned per schedule, oil changes, fuel filter changes, clean air filter and valve adjustments per schedule. Drain and fill the front & rear diffs and gearbox yearly. Drain and flush the cooling system yearly and install a fresh t-stat. Give all the grease fittings a shot about every 10-15 hours of use, check over all the electrical fittings monthly, make cert the battery terminals are tight and clean, etc. I'm a stickler for proper maintenance, that's why all the vehicles I own look good and perform flawlessly. I feel that one of these tractors, with proper care and maintenance and used properly, within the limits of their capabilities, should last 30-40 years with no worries. Thanks for checking in, I'm at about 10 hours on her now and she's a beauty, no complaints on her performance, if she were a woman, I'd marry her. ;-p


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## bontai Joe

Glad that it's working well for you. I can't see why you shouldn't get 30 plus year out of this machine. I know I risk making a few folks angry right now, but take the old Ford 9N as an example. Very simple tractor, used old simple technology, not particularly heavy duty is design, not a lot of power either, and yet their are LOTS of 'em still running fine 60 years later because their owner's took care of them.


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## biggerten

I'd check that clutch adjustment RIGHT NOW, it's easy enough to do, and these have been known to come needing adjustment.

And are the smaller Nortracs still Jinmas? I thought they moved to Fotons.


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## TurfEnurf

Actually, you're right bigger, it IS a Foton. Don't know why I keep confusing the two. I've been out of pocket for a bit, recovering from an accident I had back at the end of April, starting to walk again, got a ways to go before i get the strength back in my leg and arm though. I'll move this to General Gabbing, has nothing to do with this thread.


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## smokinmad

*New Tractor*

Isn't it SAD! You buy a NEW tractor and the dealer, can't even fill it up for ya. Enjoy your new GirlFriend. When Momma gets my blood boiling, I head to the barn to see my girlfriends. I have 6 myself, love them all.


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## longrider

Halifax said:


> I have a 07 jinma, same company of yours. Sounds like you had an injector problem. Same indications I had. Sounds like it was going to rattle apart. I purchased another injector but before i could replace it, everything smoothed out and has been running fine. Have 340 hrs now, and i still have not put the new injector in. Spoke with my dealer, possible a piece of trash or something that had stopped the one from atomizing the fuel. Luckly it cleared out by itself. Been very pleased with the tractor. Aubrey


I have a nortrac 20 hp a lot like yours have you used the rear hydraulic connection point yet.


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## TurfEnurf

G'day Longrider,

Actually, no, I haven't used the hydraulic port yet, only accessory I have is a 60" finish mower, sure gives the PTO a workout though! You have a backhoe or post hole drill for yours? Those are the only accessories that come to mind, I've looked at a lot of the accessories that Northern Tool offers, several items I would love to have for mine. One thing I didn't see, but would be useful, I'd bet a fellow could rig a hydraulic wood splitter to plug into that port, that would be a handy use for it, if you cut a lot of wood.


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## piglett

TurfEnurf said:


> G'day Longrider,
> 
> Actually, no, I haven't used the hydraulic port yet, only accessory I have is a 60" finish mower, sure gives the PTO a workout though! You have a backhoe or post hole drill for yours? Those are the only accessories that come to mind, I've looked at a lot of the accessories that Northern Tool offers, several items I would love to have for mine. One thing I didn't see, but would be useful, I'd bet a fellow could rig a hydraulic wood splitter to plug into that port, that would be a handy use for it, if you cut a lot of wood.


did you change all of the fluids on your machine yet?

i know the Chinese fluids are not very good & can cause wear 


good luck


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## HERMELCYR

I have a 2010 jinma 254 bought second hand i had a problem with the small oiltank beside the fuel pump my mecanic dismount it clean and remount with new oil. It was ok for a while.but now its hard to start .after it is started it works good.glow plug seems to be working good.it comes close to start but i got to keep the starter on for a couple of minutes to keep it running.i even try ether can you help


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## piglett

HERMELCYR said:


> I have a 2010 jinma 254 bought second hand i had a problem with the small oiltank beside the fuel pump my mecanic dismount it clean and remount with new oil. It was ok for a while.but now its hard to start .after it is started it works good.glow plug seems to be working good.it comes close to start but i got to keep the starter on for a couple of minutes to keep it running.i even try ether can you help


Your starter will not be holding up for very long if used in that way.

we say 30 seconds max. in the boat world

& to be honest if it doesn't start in 15 seconds, stop, 

because something is wrong.

could you have an air leak in your fuel system?

there can be a leak where air enters the fuel system but doesn't drip 

a drop of fuel.


good luck
piglett


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