IH 444 question/problems

About 8 years ago we sold our family farm to the man who had rented the ground for 20 years or more. I help him out when I can, though my health is getting worse, and it is becoming less and less I can help. 2 days ago I was using his 444 with a 6 foot pull type bush hog to clip light weeds in a pasture, and after it ran for half an hour or so, maybe a little more I noticed that I seemed to be getting a lot more heat coming back off the engine than I expected, though the heat gauge was staying in the middle. I noticed the oil pressure was running low, only about 10 psi or so at half throttle which is what I was mowing at. I drove it 1/2 mile back to my place and when I shut it down I could hear what sounded like boiling, but when I checked it was not coming from the radiator (yes, I took precautions removing the cap), but apparently was coming from the oil filler which comes out the top of the valve cover. Could not hear it at the dipstick though. Last summer it bent one push rod, and bent another, both on the same cylinder, but I cannot think of anything related. The owner is not much on maintenance unfortunately. Can anyone give me a startign point on this problem, I am pretty familiar with an H and cub, but a 444 is new to me.
Thanks

Is it Diesel or gas engine?

JimB

Coolant in the oil will boil.
and not lubricate. Wait a day and loosen the oil plug to see if there is coolant in the oil. Jim

It is a gasser, and I changed the oil today, but there was no sign of water in the oil. Asked the owner yesterday when he changed oil last. In the 3 or 4 years he has owned it he has never changed oil or filter, so I told him to bring me some oil and a filter. did not help much though, after about 20 minutes of running at fast idle beside shop the oil pressure dropped slowly from 35 to 15.

As a side note it will not charge. Appeared to be regulator, but that did not help. Can someone tell me where to find a wiring diagram for a 444 equipped from factory with alternator and external regulator?

Hi John,

Wiring diagram at:
http://cngco.com/wiring_diagrams/wiring_diagrams.h
tml

Wiring diagram for 424 should be similar to 444.

Re gas 444 will have a C-153 engine, how many
hours on the tach? Could be oil pump, worn crank &
rod bearings, worn rings. Can't help you much on
gas engine as I only worked on BD-154 Diesel
engines.

Good luck
JimB

Thanks for the diagram link. It really helped. The diagram for the 424 did not help as it uses a generator rather than an alternator. The 544 does appear to be the same though. I think it will work.

As to hours, that is unknown, the tach. does not have a cable, and by the looks of the fittings has not had for a long time. It is also my belief that the low oil pressure is the result of worn rod and/or main bearings. No smoke or oil usage. The thing that really puzzled me was the boiling sound coming from the crankcase breather. It may have been just the heat, it was 95 or 96 degrees and I had run the cutter for an hour or a little more, though it was not heavy cutting, just mowing a few weeds in the pasture.

Here is a diagram of just the charging system.

Thanks Owen, that helps. I can push the field relay of the regulator closed, and it will kick in and charge full scale on the ammeter till I turned off ignition. Changing the regulator did not help. Looking at that diagram it appears the alternator may have a bad diode causing the regulator not to receive voltage to pull the field coil in, or I am wondering if the idiot bulb (not charging light) could cause a problem by being burned out.

There could be insufficient voltage applied if the light is burned out. A parking light bulb might be a temporary substitute. Jim

Turned out to be simple once I knew how it was supposed to work. The 444 has an ammeter rather than indicator light, but with the diagram Owen supplied I could see how it was supposed to be wired and what it took to work. Never worked on a alternator with an external regulator before, so to make sure I had things figured out correctly I called Cape Starter and Generator at Jackson, Mo where I have gone to get other goofy problems figured out. They confirmed the #4 terminal (goes to indicator light) does require voltage for regulator to work. Apparently the terminal strip had gone bad and someone several years ago had simply twisted some wires together Then wrapped the entire bundle with tape and that one had slid out. I put a wire nut on it as a temporary fix, but the wires are too tarnished to solder which is my preference, so I will Use a crimp style butt splice to finish it tomorrow. Again, I wish to thank everyone for their help.

My 2444 has a charge indicator bulb in the dash but I added an ammeter when I did an engine overhaul 30 plus years ago so I now have both.

Actually the system is supposed to work even if the dash indicator light is burned out. The resistor between terminals 3 and 4 is in parallel with the bulb and is to provide enough power to get the alternator to start to charge. The output from the alternator will be limited until the voltage from the R terminal is great enough to close the field relay. Once the relay closes full battery voltage is available to insure full alternator output.

That was my line of thought too, but with the lead disconnected which would give the same result if the bulb were blown it would not charge unless I manually pushed the field relay closed.

Do you have two wires on both terminals 3 and 4? Mine does and the resistor is located about 4 inches above the regulator.

No, only one wire on each, and it is a plug, so none have been removed. There is a resister similar to the dropping resister used on a coil mounted just above the regulator, but I have not followed the wiring. Present owner bought it at an auction, and is at least the 3rd owner, so there is no way of knowing what butchering has been done.

I have the same problem with my 2424, except my heat gauge will show that its getting hot. My problem is all the dry crap from mainly golden rod gets sucked into the screen over the radiator and shuts down the air flow. I end up stopping every half hour or so and making a trip back to the garage to clean everything out with the air compressor.

Gonna try to mow earlier in the fall this year, before the first frost.


Tim

got a chance to go to farm and take another look at the wiring today. The resister in the diagram that is supposed to allow it to charge is wired into the harness, not directly to the regulator, , so when the wire came out of the wiring harness the resister was no longer connected to the regulator, and could not do what it was intended for.