300 Utility Fuel trouble
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:30 pm
I basically never post here, but knew some of you would have this problem sooner or later.
My 300 Utility has had fuel and carb problems since I got it years ago. Sometimes it'd run enough with the choke pulled out to get me through my chores and sometimes not. Me always hot and mad and short temper- I'd beat on the carb bowl trying to shake something loose in there to get me some fuel flowing! Take the gas tank lid off, place mouth in filler hole and blow in there to force fuel thru to the carb- Don't laugh ~ it works.
I finally took the empty tank off, cleaned it out with Super Clean degreaser, then poured in what I think was Phosphoric Acid to eat the rust out. That worked great because when it was done the steel inside the tank looked sandblasted!
Then, I hosed it out real good, then poured a pint of acetone in and sloshed that around a bit, poured it out and poured in another pint of acetone and sloshed.
Let that evaporate and then poured in a quart of "Red Kote" which I got from O'Reilly auto part. Twirled the tank around to get the redkote all over the inside of the tank, then let the excess drain back out into its' container.
Let the tank set for 24 hours, reinstalled, and........ I didn't know gas in the fuel bowl was supposed to be clear!
My carburetor has been a continual headache for years. Always over flowing, or making the engine run like crap. I always figured it was rust causing the problems.
While I had the tank off, I took the carb of (for the 1,439th time) and looked in there. In the recent past I had to put on a new float because the old ones had COLLAPSED , and had a pinhole leak whick let one float fill with gas and wouldn't allow the float to float and shut of the fuel supply! Like I say, I put in a new set of floats, but the overflowing continued.
FINALLY, I decided maybe with this new float I would adjust the float level and see if that would help. My eureka moment came when as I was holding the carb body upside down up to the light setting the level to 1-5/16", I just happened to look at the point to where the needle valve was supposed to contact the float body- Hell- there was a .030" GAP. The float doesn't touch the needle!!! I couldn't bend the float enough to make it touch, either. Somehow, over the years, I got the wrong needle in there out of my carburetor spare parts box and it was way too short.
To fix this problem, I took the float body off, made a mark where the needle was suppose to make contact with it, got out the soldering gun and made a little solder "tit" right there, put the float back on the carb, flipped it over and, NOW it touches. I adjusted the float level, made sure it was shutting the gas off, and reassembled the carb.
Now, the thing works better than it ever did!!! Finally, I did something right for a change. Tractor starts and runs like it ought to. I never thought I'd ever get my fuel problems fixed.
My 300 Utility has had fuel and carb problems since I got it years ago. Sometimes it'd run enough with the choke pulled out to get me through my chores and sometimes not. Me always hot and mad and short temper- I'd beat on the carb bowl trying to shake something loose in there to get me some fuel flowing! Take the gas tank lid off, place mouth in filler hole and blow in there to force fuel thru to the carb- Don't laugh ~ it works.
I finally took the empty tank off, cleaned it out with Super Clean degreaser, then poured in what I think was Phosphoric Acid to eat the rust out. That worked great because when it was done the steel inside the tank looked sandblasted!
Then, I hosed it out real good, then poured a pint of acetone in and sloshed that around a bit, poured it out and poured in another pint of acetone and sloshed.
Let that evaporate and then poured in a quart of "Red Kote" which I got from O'Reilly auto part. Twirled the tank around to get the redkote all over the inside of the tank, then let the excess drain back out into its' container.
Let the tank set for 24 hours, reinstalled, and........ I didn't know gas in the fuel bowl was supposed to be clear!
My carburetor has been a continual headache for years. Always over flowing, or making the engine run like crap. I always figured it was rust causing the problems.
While I had the tank off, I took the carb of (for the 1,439th time) and looked in there. In the recent past I had to put on a new float because the old ones had COLLAPSED , and had a pinhole leak whick let one float fill with gas and wouldn't allow the float to float and shut of the fuel supply! Like I say, I put in a new set of floats, but the overflowing continued.
FINALLY, I decided maybe with this new float I would adjust the float level and see if that would help. My eureka moment came when as I was holding the carb body upside down up to the light setting the level to 1-5/16", I just happened to look at the point to where the needle valve was supposed to contact the float body- Hell- there was a .030" GAP. The float doesn't touch the needle!!! I couldn't bend the float enough to make it touch, either. Somehow, over the years, I got the wrong needle in there out of my carburetor spare parts box and it was way too short.
To fix this problem, I took the float body off, made a mark where the needle was suppose to make contact with it, got out the soldering gun and made a little solder "tit" right there, put the float back on the carb, flipped it over and, NOW it touches. I adjusted the float level, made sure it was shutting the gas off, and reassembled the carb.
Now, the thing works better than it ever did!!! Finally, I did something right for a change. Tractor starts and runs like it ought to. I never thought I'd ever get my fuel problems fixed.