Well, here's the rest of the story.
First, the tank holds (I'm guessing) over 10 gallons of fuel, or maybe right at 10.
We've been running the tractor between its stopping so it had about a half tank.
I bought a new yellow can and drained as much into it as I could. I topped the already topped backhoe off and with that 2 pints voided, was able to take the tractor tank to about 100% dry.
Upon looking in there which was VERY difficult to do I might add, I saw nothing. I really expected to see a fist sized amount of leaves, muck, sticks, stones or maybe even the lost pair of socks that go into my dryer but never come out
NOTHING
I KNOW for a fact that this is where the issue is because of the no flow situation I have at the fuel filter (then after blowing air through it, a GUSHER of fuel)
I kept looking....
Finally, I'm forced to belive that I found it.
About 1/4" long and maybe just a bit thicker than a pencil lead. I don't know if it was a twig or some compressed dirt but I happened to have one of those reaching tools with a claw on the end and was able to extract it.
That is the ONLY thing I saw in there that was too big to fit through the fuel hole.
Also... I started the tractor up (prior to drying the tank out 100%) and was intrigued to see the amount of fuel returning from the return line. What THAT inferred to me was just how much was being sucked into the feed side. If I have that much being fed into the feed side, then just perhaps this little twig WAS enough to be caught in the flow and become an unwitting plug.
I also took the filter off and found some more "bits" in there that have made their way through so it's quite possible that I might have had a plug that has since broken up and been sucked out. I told my wifes cousin (tractor owner) that he might want to pick up another filter just so we can throw this one away.
The tractor was refueled and is now waiting for use. I'll be interested to see if we have any more issues.
