Fuel supply on 14SB

[RalphVa]

I'm getting tired of stopping my 14SB and blowing into the fuel tank inlet with my mouth to get fuel to the carb. What's going on with this thing?

I suspected a fuel supply problem; so, I put a see-through fuel filter into the line just before the carb. It would start to cut out, and I'd see that the fuel filter was bone dry. If I caught it quickly enough, I could stop the blade and squash down and blow into the fuel inlet on the tank to get fuel to the carb.

I've replaced the line before and after the fuel valve. Before is a new tygon tubing line. I can clearly see it full of fuel. With the fuel filter off, I blew air through the fuel valve on the tank. Then I put on the new line between the tank and the valve, after having done so to the carb.

What's wrong with it?

Ralph

 

[Molerj]

It sounds to me like you have a plugged vent hole in the fuel cap causing a vacuum to occur in the tank. Try running the tractor with the cap loose.

 

[RalphVa]

Ron,

Tried that already.

I've rerouted the line from the cutoff valve up over one of the cables going to the engine area. That raises the fuel filter up to where it isn't in the dip down before the line goes UP into the carb. Think that may have something to do with it. Haven't run it this way yet.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

Rerouting did no good. Has NO ONE experienced this to know a solution? May have to call the dealer and talk to the service people.

The fuel filter ran dry about 3 times mowing a little patch this evening. I had to pull the line off the inlet to the carb and hold the fuel filter down and possibly blow on the fuel tank inlet to get fuel into the filter. It does NOT immediately start flowing when I remove the fuel cap.

Finally remembered my old Brookstone hand pump. Its suction line is a good fit inside the fuel line that goes onto the carb inlet. I just pumped fuel through the line and back to the carb. Did this once or twice on another little patch and then once on a patch down below near my garden. It ran for that and for trimming around my mini orchard. The fuel filter looks now almost dry. Don't think it'll last.

Ralph

 

[Nasty135]

Hi Ralph, Sounds like you have a blockage of some kind in the tank or line before your fuel filter... This quote "I had to pull the line off the inlet to the carb and hold the fuel filter down and possibly blow on the fuel tank inlet to get fuel into the filter. It does NOT immediately start flowing when I remove the fuel cap." Makes me think does the fuel filter have a oneway valve on it? Could it be installed backwards? Sediment in the tank resettling after blowing? No kinks in the line, the vipon tubing collapsing under the fuel need suction of the carb due to sediment in the tank. Once it collapses and puts more vacuum on the line it takes your blowing to force it open again with a little more fuel. Perhaps you have a venting issue which is compounded by the vipon collapsing? Try a hard line if you have exhausted all other possibilities.... BTW does it have a fuel pump? or is it gravity feed? what is a 14SB (briggs?)

 

[RalphVa]

I bypassed the fuel shutoff valve yesterday with a new line out of the tank. This new line goes to the fuel filter and then a short line to the carb. It STILL starved for fuel after a while.

Pushed it back to the shed and pulled that spool piece left from my snipping the fuel strainer that projected up into the tank. I'd put the plastic spool piece in as reinforcement to the plastic outlet from the fuel tank. When I put the fuel line back on and clamped and poured fuel into the tank, the fuel filter filled with fuel. First time it has done this. Will see next time I mow how it does.

The spool piece was completely open. It just had a strainer section that projected up into the tank. I cut that off. Can't imagine how it was impeding flow.

I'm really getting tired of messing with this thing. I siphoned gas from the tank before changing the line out and used a carb vacuum pump to try to get anything that might be sitting on the bottom. It was while looking in there with a strong light that I saw the strainer projecting up into the tank. Removing the tank on this machine is not a procedure that JD should be proud of and not something I want to do until nothing else works. My Lawnboy is a better-designed machine for maintenance. Its fuel line runs downhill to the carb, no fuel filter.

Ralph