Ploughing problems with Dexta

I am new to ploughing and have a 1959 Fordson Dexta 3 cyl. diesel pulling a two furrow plough through a grass field. The tractor runs fine when driving around, but overheats when I plow a couple of furrows. I need help and have many questions. I assume the tractor should be able to plough through grass. The soil is sandy clay. Which gear should I plow with and how much throttle? My temp guage is broken. I will fill / check coolant levels, remove radiator cap and check flow. Is it my ploughing speed gear that is wrong or as I fear, the thermostat that is broken. How do I remove and check thermostat? All help or advice is welcome. I do not want to overheat and ruin the motor.

Thanks in advance

Hi Jason

Before you tear into the thermostat check the radiator fins are not blocked with grass clippings, chaff or dust if so carefully blow these out with compressed air if you have access. Don't damage the fins there needs to be gaps. You can use a hose if no air on a cold engine and radiator.
Other thoughts how is the seal and spring in your radiator cap? Could this be letting water out as things heat up and also check your fan belt tension and condition. You can check the thermostat in some boiling water. I would get the temp gauge working cause a cooked engine will be
expensive to fix. Hope that helps Matt

If your temp gauge is broken how do you know it's overheating? Most old tractors don't have a coolant overflow and recovery bottle like modern
equipment. They rely on a large top tank on the radiator to accommodate expanding coolant. If your radiator is full to the neck or nearly full
when it's cold and you are saying it's overheating when you see some coolant come out the overflow tube it may be entirely normal. Usually
you only need a little more coolant than it takes to cover the tubes in the top of the radiator.

To tell if you're working the tractor too hard while ploughing just try increasing the throttle setting while ploughing. If the engine speeds up easily
it's not overloaded, if it won't speed up or does it slowly you're overloaded. Usually 2nd or 3rd gear and about 3/4 throttle is a good place to
start. Good luck, Sam

Thanks Matt. The rad fins are clean. There was steam coming out from the radiator cap. I assume it was overheated. The fan belt is not slipping. I want a new temp guage. On mine, the red is low temp and the white is hot. Is it good for the motor to run hot?

Hi Sam. There was a lot of steam coming out of the radiator. I assumed it was overheating. I drained the rad and block, but now coolant will not drain in when I pour it in. A friend said the thermostat needs to open first and I need to run the tractor under load/ plow to get it hot enough. This sounds dangerous to me. Wont it overheat without coolant? Why wont the coolant drain in? I have read it should take 8 liters but only a half liter will go in. The tractor stalls in third gear when the plow digs in about 8 inches. What am I doing wrong ?

The coolant drains out fine. When I close the drain and fill with new coolant it will not pour in. How do I fill the radiator? The only way I can get coolant in is to pump tje bottom hose until air bubbles come out. Then about 10 ml at a time can be poured in. Isnt tjere a better faster way to fill? I can only get 5 litets in and it shoyld hold over 8.5 liters. The block must not have any coolant. How do I get the coolant in the block? Just running it with open throttle does not get it hot enough to open the thermostat and allow coolant into the block. What do I do??? Help!

i sent reply because I have dexta but it has been rejected for some reason

i will try again
I have dexta tractor which my late father bought s/h 52 years ago and some years ago I had problem filling with water after fitting new thermostat it turned out that there was no hole and jiggling pin in new thermostat to allow venting also the temp gauge is gas filled and you need to be careful removing what I did when I put new clutch was to remove thermostat and gently loosen temp gauge capsule from inside
is the fan blade clean as this caused overheating problem with JD tractor we bought 16 years ago also you say the tractor stalls in 3rd gear when ploughing you may not be aware that 1st high is third gear and third low is 4th gear or perhaps the fuel filter needs renewing or air filter needs cleaning also have you checked the pre cleaner and when you remove precleaner is the pipe clean going down into oilbath as some years ago I cleaned these out and there was big improvement in power now I do this regularly another item to check is see if brakes are binding

another item to check which I forgot is my dexta cooling system is non pressurised and has same cap as
oil cap the only difference is one says oil and the other says water but I don't know if this applies to export dextas, does your tractor have pressure cap also when you say it takes a long time to fill system is it possible that the radiator tubes are blocked inside

also does your dexta have cowling around fanblade

i have just remembered as it was some years ago when I renewed temp gauge the fuel tank has to be risen to fit new gauge

I have gotten so much advice that it makes no sense. Many say run the engine to get the air out. Others say I should not run it or it will destroy the engine. I have drained the rad and block. My rad has the bottom drain missing. That is why I could not find it. I filled the rad with great difficulty 10 ml at a time by pinching tje bottom hose to bubble air out. The rad is Not blocked bevause fluid drains with ease from the bottom hose. There is NO coolant in the block! I have removed the temp gage. No air bubbled up from the rad.I ran the motor and drove around. The tjermostat did not open. I can still get no coolant in the block. I am getting frustrated and get contradictary advice from everyone I ask. I love my tractor and depend on it. I do not want to ruin the motor. Isnt there anyone that knows what I should do? Is the next step to remove the thermostat?

yes you try removing thermostat and see what happens and you can check thermostat by placing in a pot of water and heating then you can use tractor without thermostat to see what happens then can you post here the verdict

Well, don't get too impatient and wreck things. It seems that you must be frustrated by how hard it is to access the thermostat. Just below the flange is the temperature sending bulb.
It looks accessible with a crow-foot wrench or something like an O-2 sensor socket. It may be
tight and delicate. Lubricate well, work it clockwise and counterclockwise very gingerly until
you have some penetrating oil getting into the threads. If someone has used locking compound, you are in a dicey situation. You need heat to break it loose, and that takes some judgment and skill also. If it does loosen, then back it out, it should let air out and antifreeze.

The temperature fitting is above the high point of the engine block, so it should fill
up and start leaking out of this fitting hole.

Now if you get too vigorous, it's not the end of the world. You can get replacement temperature units and replacement thermostat housings.

If you just want a quick-and-dirty air bleed vent, just drill a 1/8 inch hole and plug it after you're done with it.

(quoted from post at 16:18:23 02/01/17)
Well, don't get too impatient and wreck things. It seems that you must be frustrated by how hard it is to access the thermostat. Just below the flange is the temperature sending bulb.
It looks accessible with a crow-foot wrench or something like an O-2 sensor socket. It may be
tight and delicate. Lubricate well, work it clockwise and counterclockwise very gingerly until
you have some penetrating oil getting into the threads. If someone has used locking compound, you are in a dicey situation. You need heat to break it loose, and that takes some judgment and skill also. If it does loosen, then back it out, it should let air out and antifreeze.

The temperature fitting is above the high point of the engine block, so it should fill
up and start leaking out of this fitting hole.

Now if you get too vigorous, it's not the end of the world. You can get replacement temperature units and replacement thermostat housings.

If you just want a quick-and-dirty air bleed vent, just drill a 1/8 inch hole and plug it after you're done with it.

Click to expand...

Well... I got my courage up (I am not much of a mechanic) and came home after work and began taking stuff apart to remove the thermostat. I also removed the temp. gauge. Unfortunately, the temp. gauge is sitting very fast in the block. It will simply not come out. I remove the flange for the thermostat and...imagine my surprise when I found that THERE WAS NONE. Also, the block is completely full of coolant. This is both good and bad, because I was afraid the thermostat was stuck and there was air in the block, etc. That is apparently not the case. This means either the tractor overheated due to me trying to plough in third gear low (which someone told me was actually fourth gear) and therefore also the reason it stalled and lugged or...the water pump impeller is broken. Any thoughts on this new development. I really appreciate you folks that write in and help. I am also following your advice...slowly. Should I now...
A. Drive the tractor as it is without a thermostat and pull a plow in the appropriate gear (2nd low) and see if it overheats? This must mean the water pump is bad, right?
B. Install a thermostat first.
C. Do something entirely different.

When I look in the radiator fill cap while the tractor is running, it is hard to see if the fluid is running or just jiggling due to the vibration of the tractor. So I am not really able to trouble shoot the water pump this way. What should I do????
Boiling blues

If the engine does not seem to be getting "Hot" unusually quickly...and it should NOT with no load and no thermostat..

You can use the tractor without a thermostat, but all things being equal (?)..I would want the thermostat in place as soon as I could get it in..

The engine will run better, be more efficient and WEAR LESS with the thermostat in..You could test the new Thermostat in a pan of water...use a cooking Thermometer and heat the water and note when the thermostat opens...

I would recommend 195 Degree therm..

I always check to see if there is a "Bleed Hole" (1/16") near the outer area ..or maybe made into the shutter ( a "V" or the like )..

If not, I PUT one in and I KNOW I will have the block full when I finish filling..

Oh, and by the way..it never is a good idea to "Lug" the engine down, if you really should be in a lower gear..

A AC WD-45 will pull 3x14" in third gear, but the plow does the best job in 2nd anyway, so why not save the wear on the tractor by over-loading it..

It would be pretty uncommon for the pump impeller to be bad. Usual failure mode for a
water pump is a leak from the shaft seal bleed hole.

Plough in first or second gear. That's it. On majors I think you can take the thermostats out and run them. by all means keep the block cool.

I have a 1959 Fordson Dexta 3 cyl. diesel. I tried plowing with it in the wrong gear (3rd low) but it overheated and steam started coming from the radiator. I let it cool off and drove into the barn. It did not overheat when I just drove it around. I drained the coolant and flushed a tiny bit with some water and then filled it with coolant/water. I have checked the thermostat and found out that someone had already removed it! The radiator fins are fine and clean. I have filled it completely up with coolant and there is no air in the system. The temperature gauge is broken. I then took it out and tried plowing with it again to test it under load. This time it did not overheat at all. Some coolant came out of the overflow hole under the fill cap, but I have heard that is normal if you have filled it all the way up. The radiator hoses and the water pump got a little warm and you could tell that it was slowly warming up, but nowhere near overheating and it handled plowing fine. Can I assume the water pump is OK? Remember there is no thermostat. Should I install a thermostat and how important is it? How do I install a temperature gauge? It looks like I need to raise the fuel tank. How do I do that nd is there another way? What is the result of driving it without a thermostat? All advice and help is appreciated. It is very important to me to restore the tractor and have it working correctly. I also rely on it for my hobby agricultural production with plowing, harrowing, etc.

I don't think 3rd low would be the wrong gear. If you are pulling any load and the
engine rev 's stay mostly 3/4 of maximum,or higher you are not lugging the
engine, IF they occasionally drop lower than that for SHORT periods....10 or 15
seconds...it won 't hurt anything and should not overheat with a properly functioning
cooling system. Extended periods of lugging...rpm 2/3rds of max. or less under wide open
throttle...will cause overheating and eventual engine damage. Sounds like your water
pump is OK , but a reliable temp gauge and working thermostat is best for preventing
engine damage.That's what they are there for! Ben

(reply to post at 17:54:5
0 01/31/17)

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How???