Oil & Fuel Century 2535 leaks fuel at fuel filter

[NealinVA]

Hi Y'all I recently bought a Century 2535, It had 112 hours on it and appeared to be in great shape. I have now run it for about 12 hours and found a pretty significant leak coming from the back side of the fuel filter. If I shut off the fuel lever it stops completely. If the tractor is not running the leak is very little to nothing. I tried tightening the collar nut on the fuel sediment bowl no help. I went to advance auto and got a new o ring, not quite big enough but it stretched over the lip, reinstalled and it still drips like before. I am thinking perhaps the part which the fuel filter/ sediment bowl assembly screws into is damaged or cross threaded and needs to be replaced. I have 2 questions from you guys that have either the century 2535 or the sister tractor branson 3510.

1.) Have any of you experienced this issue before? If so how did you fix it.

2.) Where can I find a service manual and parts to repair this?

I would certainly appreciate any help you are willing to offer, I really love this tractor but its running through way too much fuel.

 

[52wej]

Neal, check the top of the sediment bowl to see if it is cracked. I have a 2535 also and I had one crack where the locking collar tightens the sediment bowl against the valve. There was a discussion about this on the forum several years ago. The discussion also noted that the base was so close to the motor that it placed the sediment bowl in a bind which led to the cracking. I placed a couple of spacers behind the mounting base and I have had no more trouble with cracking. Be sure you have a good gasket as the bowl is hard to seal. Willie Jones

 

[NealinVA]

Hi Willie, Thanks for the info I did search back and found the thread you mentioned. It said that both Yanmar and JD have a compatible sediment bowl that also might not be as brittle. I think I'll get 1 from the local JD dealer and see. Do you know of any web sites, catalogs or even dealerships that can get the Service manuals and parts for these Kukje tractors? I emailed the Branson people over a week ago with no response. Thanks again for your help!

 

[NealinVA]

Well, I went to my local JD dealer and bought the following three parts CH15553 fuel filter, CH10060 Packing (O ring), CH15983 Cover (sediment bowl) cost with tax was about $23.00. The sediment bowl and filter are a bit shorter than the original Century setup, so if you go this route you must buy at least the filter and sediment bowl as the old filter is too long for the JD bowl.

I turned off the fuel cock on the fuel filter housing which is the up position (opposite to what the user manual shows). Removed the collar piece which holds the bowl to the housing and removed the old bowl assembly. Dumped the fuel and removed the filter to get to the spring, put the spring in the bottom of the new JD sediment bowl. Set the filter in place and reinstalled back to the housing, hand tightened the bowl collar piece.
Flipped the fuel cock back down and turned on the key, the fuel began to flow into the new bowl but stopped at about 20%. I turned the 2 phillips head bleeder screws on the housing to the right and it filled quickly as well as the air was forced out of the bleeders. Re tightened the bleeders then opened the bleeder nut on the injector body about a half turn and allowed the fuel to force the air out. Retightened the fuel injector body bleeder then started it up.

I ran at idle for about 10 mins not a drop then took it out and cut a 5 acre field no problems, took it out again the next day for about an hour still no leaks.

Two side notes:

1st I removed the glass shield on the right side of the tractor to give me a much better access to the fuel filter area (especially important if your FEL is in place)

2nd, the bleeding process on this Tractor is sooo easy it only takes like a minute to bleed the fuel at both points and you are done. no need to remove any injector lines or anything else this is a dream compared to my old IH 424 which could take hours to effectively bleed.