Water in Fuel sensor on TL 90

[darwood112]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum, so I suppose a brief introduction is in order.

I own a TN 65 and a TL 90. Both tractors are used on my 120 acre cattle and hay farm in Arkansas.

The reason I am here is because I am at wits end with my TL 90.

The external fuel pump on the lower right front of the engine went out, so I changed it.

After changing it I replaced both fuel filters and bleed the fuel system.

After starting the tractor, my water in fuel light stayed illuminated on the dashboard. So I drained the filters again thinking that I might have some water in the system. Finding no water I determined the sensor that threads into the bottom of the lower fuel filter was bad.

I replaced the sensor in the bottom of said filter, and the light went out after starting the tractor. After feeding some hay the light began to flicker on and off intermittently.

I drained the filters again and the light still flickers on and off occasionally. Any ideas?
Thanks for the ideas.

 

[Jerry/MT]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum, so I suppose a brief introduction is in order.

I own a TN 65 and a TL 90. Both tractors are used on my 120 acre cattle and hay farm in Arkansas.

The reason I am here is because I am at wits end with my TL 90.

The external fuel pump on the lower right front of the engine went out, so I changed it.

After changing it I replaced both fuel filters and bleed the fuel system.

After starting the tractor, my water in fuel light stayed illuminated on the dashboard. So I drained the filters again thinking that I might have some water in the system. Finding no water I determined the sensor that threads into the bottom of the lower fuel filter was bad.

I replaced the sensor in the bottom of said filter, and the light went out after starting the tractor. After feeding some hay the light began to flicker on and off intermittently.

I drained the filters again and the light still flickers on and off occasionally. Any ideas?
Thanks for the ideas.

It's not uncommon for fuel in the tank to be contanminated with water from condensation. Maybe that's the root cause of your problem. Your sensor is probably accurate. When you drain the filter, save the drainage and let it settle and see if there's water in it. Try keeping the tank full to minimize the problem.

 

[darwood112]

Thanks.

I thought about that as well. I keep the tank full, well as full as I can at $3.29 a gallon, and thats offroad.

I got two new filters and am going to put them on today and see if that don't cure the problem.

 

[Jerry/MT]

Thanks.

I thought about that as well. I keep the tank full, well as full as I can at $3.29 a gallon, and thats offroad.

I got two new filters and am going to put them on today and see if that don't cure the problem.

If they have drains, drain them first and see what you have.
I have a TD95D and when we got our first cold weather I had a rundown. Now my tractor had about100 hrs total on it. I opened the drains and notheing came out. I figures the filters were frozen so I heated them with a heat gun and got it running trouble free, I also ordered a new filter and a water separator. Before I got them it ran down again. I repeated the heating and you should have seen the water come out of the separator. My sensor by the way never indicated a problem. I put a small siphon pump into the bottom of the tank and pulled a sample of fuel out and let it sit. In a half a gallon sample I found about 1-2 tablespoons of water and since the tank is pretty big, there probably is a thin layer of water at the bottom which I could only get out by draining the tank. I ended up putting PS White in the tank to disperse the water so it wouldn't freeze in the tank . If it was going to freeze it would do so in the water separator where I could deal with it much easier.

When I replaced the filters, there was about 4 tablesoons of water in a half a cup that came out of the water separator. Never did get anything out of the fuel filter in any case. So the separator is doing its job.
As much as I like diesel tractors, you have to pay attention to fuel quality and try to minimize water contamination of the fuel. if you live in cold country, it'll bite when you really don't want it to. I change my filters in the late fall, keep spare filters on hand, drain the separator of a couble of tablespoons of water/fuel before I start up, and run with a dispersant blended in my fuel to keep water in suspension. Like you i try to keep a full tank. I'll probably park the tractor on sloped ground leaning toward the tank filler side and then use the siphon pump to see if I can get more water out. the water should be "deeper' so I can get more out. I'll wait for better weather to do that.

 

[flyingcow]

Thanks.

I thought about that as well. I keep the tank full, well as full as I can at $3.29 a gallon, and thats offroad.

I got two new filters and am going to put them on today and see if that don't cure the problem.

Call a fuel supply depot. You might be able to get a tube of what they use when they stick fuel tanks to see if they have water in them. I've got a tube, it works good. Clean stick, smear some of that stiff on and dip into tank. turns color of there is water in the fuel