Possible fuel starvation

[bythepond88]

Eddie has started giving me problems. She will run for about twenty minutes or so, then she will cut out under load. She will start up again immediately, but only run a second or two. If I wait a bit, and give her choke, she will start up, run for a bit, and then shut down again, which leads me to think it is a fuel delivery problem. The first time it happened, I pulled the main jet to clean her, and what came out of the bowl was milky, so I thought that I had water in the gas. I pulled the carb and gave it a thorough cleaning, let it sit inside for a week or so, and reassembled it with a new bowl gasket (from TM), and drained all the gas from in the tank and replaced it with new, with Sta-Bil added.

Didn't need her again until this past Sunday, but the same thing happened. When I pull the main jet or the bowl drain plug out, I get a steady stream, but I remember that when I drained the previous tank, and it wasn't even full, it took about an hour. Just recently I have seen several posts that said the tank drained in a much shorter time. I'm thinking I may have some sludge in the shutoff valve, but wanted to get your thoughts before pulling that out of the tank.

So, what do you think? Am I on the right track?

[Mike in Louisiana]

take fuel line loose at carb and you should get a steady stream. do you save the gas shutoff completely open?

[SONNY]

I had trouble with the crappy alki-gas eating the luni bowl and swelling the hole shut at the top of the inlet.---you pretty much need to taks the assembly out of the tank and very carefully take it apart to clean/scrape it out,-- then you should have good flow! thanks; sonny

[Don McCombs]

Before you take the strainer out of the tank, drain the fuel again and blow some air up through the strainer.

[Eugene]

Couple of thoughts and cheap tries.

Gas line deicer in fuel tank. Might still have some water in the sediment bowl.

Fuel system cleaner.

If one or both work, great. If not you are out under $10-.

[challenger]

Years ago I bought an old pickup truck that behaved the same way as your tractor. It drove me crazy because it would just stop unexpectedly on the road as if the truck had run out of gas. I would wait a short while and it would start right up and run OK for weeks on end and then stop out of the blue. I finally pulled the tank off the truck and thoroughly checked the inside. I found a small swatch of plastic, similar to shopping bag plastic, in the gas tank. The plastic would float around in the tank until it would get close to the outlet and then the flow of gas would draw it down over the hole and shut off the gas flow. After the engine was stopped for a awhile the suction holding the plastic over the hole would release and the plastic would float away and everything was back to normal until it reoccurred at a later date. I'm not saying this is your problem, but I would thoroughly check the inside of your tank. With the gas cap right over the outlet hole, you are in a much better position to carry a penlight and immediately check the gas tank when the engine stops to see if there is something obstructing the outlet.

[offrink]

My dad had the same issue like challenger. His was the white cardboard thing that goes under the gas cap on plastic gas cans. It would float around and get sucked to the bottom. Once the suction was off and it was sloshed around while getting towed or the sloshing of the tank the tractor would start again.

[ScottyD'sdad]

I had a "bug" in the fuel tank outlet. Actual black beetle body, in the top of the sediment bowl. It would shift back and forth, sometimes allowing fuel flow, sometimes stopping it. (Cousin of the "butterfly valve?) Drove me crazy, til I removed the sediment bowl unit, from the tank, and found it.
Ed

[raystractors]

Have you checked the spark after it has died? Sometimes when the coil starts to go bad it can act like you describe. Does it have a battery ignition or mag?

[randallc]

I had a piece of fuel soaked cork gasket that would float around and get in the outlet and stop my gas flow. Pain to find.

[Bezirk]

I had a similar problem with my Oliver OC 3, removed gas tank and when I purged it ,out came not one but two shop rags . Po's do sme strange things.

Berlin

[Urbish]

I had similar problems with my Farmall H. It was rust flakes drifting around in the tank and eventually covering up the outlet. A thorough cleaning and coating with POR-15 straightened that out. So, along with the others, I would say check fuel flow from the tank, screen and sediment bowl, and see if your coil is getting hot (if so equipped).

Jim

[Rodney51Cub]

Also check fuel cap vent.

Rodney

[bythepond88]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I doubt that the problem is ignition related, because it will start again immediately, just won't keep running. Also, I felt the coil, and it wasn't hot. I've had the bad coil problem, and she isn't behaving anything like she did when that was happening.

The tank has always been shiny clean, no rust, and I did peek in to look for something blocking it. But I doubt that it is something floating in and out, because I do have flow at the carb, I'm just thinking it's not enough to keep up with the engine at full throttle. Fuel flow seems to be about the same whether I check with the main jet removed, the bowl plug removed, or the line removed from the carburetor, which is why I'm leaning to the shut off valve.

I appreciate the suggestions about back pressure and/or de-icer, but I want to use her to push snow (much more civilized to do it sitting down than using a shovel or thrower), and I just get to the end of the drive when she shuts down, and with the snow in the way, I can't push her back by myself, so I have to wait then nurse her back to her spot by the garage (just moved last year, and what with getting a new garden spot prepared, I haven't had time to put up a cub house), and I use up a lot of time doing so, so if you agree that the shut off is a likely culprit, I'd rather just pull it and take a look.