New tractor sitting in shop

[oosik]

OK - the easy fix. I'll try to make this short. My tractor engine has a fuel return line from the fuel pump back to the fuel tank. A common feature on most all diesel engines??? The line is all steel except for a one foot section of rubber hose with a back flow valve. The rubber hose kept coming apart at the back flow valve. Kubota used those worthless wire hose clamps. They were just pushing everything back together, using same wire hose clamps and praying a lot. Three time they did this.

"The Kid" came out, looked at the situation for about 30 seconds, uttered some very profound verbiage and fixed it. He put on all new hose(that clear nylon fibre reinforced stuff) - a new back flow valve - and those "crush type" hose clamps. You crush a "bump" on the hose clamp and it squeezes it shut a predetermined amount. Good stuff

Why didn't I just fix it myself. Anybody with a Kubota M5040, M6040 or M7040 - FIRST - try to find the rubber portion of the fuel return line with the back flow valve on you tractor. If you are lucky and able to find it - let me know how in the H#LL you are going to get your dainty little hands in there to replace anything. I hope the Kubota engineer that designed that monstrosity, ruptured himself from laughing so hard.

 

[LD1]

Sounds like the hose/clamps weren't the problem. But the backflow valve being blocked up. Surprised this stumped the Kubota techs:confused2:

 

[oosik]

No, it was the OEM wire hose clamps. The oringinal and all three back flow valves - even though they are just plastic never were plugged.

Now the rest of the story. So its Dec 24, 2016 and, by golly, we got enough snow so I plowed the driveway. Coming back down the driveway - I smelled diesel fuel. Pulled into the carport stall and diesel fuel being discharged like mad from somewhere deep inside the hoses, etc and very near the firewall. Called the Kubota dealer and they said - we will be out this coming Wed and fix it. Great. Come Monday evening and all day Tuesday it snows like mad. Can't plow the driveway and can't get out with either of my two 4WD vehicles. So from Dec 24, 2016 until March 17,2017 I'm snowed in at the house. My son comes to the end of my driveway with his pickup - I can get out with my ATV - we go grocery shopping once every two weeks.

I did call the Kubota dealer and told him to forget it until Mother Nature melts the snow in my driveway. Can't even find anybody that will come this far out and plow a driveway. Besides, cold day in H#LL when I'm gonna pay to have my driveway plowed

 

[runnyrunnerton]

Wanted to post a reply and the solution. The Problem was two fold. Fuel Temperature and Fuel Delivery. Fuel temp was causing red stop light and engine limp mode. Solution to temperature. Tech showed me how you access the fuel cooler. Remove the two 10mm bolts that hold the front cowl and headlights to the radiator supports. Red Circle. Unclip the three electrical connections, slide the cowl up, remove the two side engine panels, remove the battery, blow the son of a gun out. This really cant be done adequately with the shroud in place. This fuel radiator needs to be relocated higher up and an electric fan placed on it so it can be cleaned out regularly and a 20 minute exercise in plastic removal avoided.

Fuel Cooler Location (Conveniently Behind the Battery)

Solution to clogged intake. The tech told me to remove the fuel line where it enters the water separator bowl and blow low pressure air back through the line toward the tank to clear the screen. This works....temporarily. There is still trash in the tank and it needs to be removed.(Why didn't the guys at the shop remove it? They claimed they did, then it clogged 3 weeks later, I have ONLY filled it with an inline filter since the service) I am working on a solution for this as we speak. I purchased a transfer pump and put a goldenrod filter system in in front of the fill handle to prevent future contamination. My plan is to install a drain plug that is threaded so I can plumb it to a holding tank and do a re-circulation cleaning and using the transfer pump to stir up and debris in the bottom of the tank and wash it out. I figure this is better than removing the tank for a thorough cleaning as I can perform this re circulation numerous times over the life of the tractor without having a bunch of down time as this experience has taught me that it may be impossible to keep these tanks clean as the tolerance for foreign material in the tank as well as the injectors is much lower than anything I have ever experienced. I would assume any kind of gelling of bacterial growth will do me in as well. Might as well have a solution ready to go when that issue presents itself.

Moral of the Story: You cannot be to careful when fueling these things.

 

[DieselBound]

Small openings and screens in the tank outlets is just not a good solution IMO. Seems that that's what filters are for.

My NX5510 manged to, I'm guessing, it's still kind of a mystery, ingest some water into the fuel tank. Engine would fire up and then die after only a couple of seconds: it had been running for a good 30 minutes prior. Kept losing prime. Took me a while to figure this out. I blew back through the line and felt the relief of an obvious blockage. I could only suspect an ice blockage, so i put some Diesel Service in the tank figuring that that should help with any freezing. I've never had this problem on any other piece of equipment: never had to use any additive. This is not the Arctic here! Drained off the bottom of my storage tank and found nothing. BUT... after a while longer the NX popped up a Water-In-Fuel light. I drained out quite a bit of water out of the fuel filter. Again, NEVER have had this issue. Up to all this I'd run through several tankfuls of fuel. Have to wonder whether I didn't get the thing with the fuel filter already "equipped" with water (and some in the tank still?).

I have a water filter on my storage tank. I added it: when I bought it it didn't have one. Before I dispense any fuel into any of my equipment I now circulate fuel back into the tank, in case condensation might be forming IN the hose (post filters).

Nice thing about my B7800 is the clear fuel bowl. I can readily see if there's any water. Never have seen anything (in the seven years I've been operating it).

 

[runnyrunnerton]

Update: I filled the tank 1/2 way with my new transfer pump and filter, ran the transfer pump for about 15 minutes using the stream from the transfer output to agitate around the intake of the tank fuel line to the engine. I had a similar stall out happen about a month later when the tank got low. I blew out the line from the engine side back into the tank, put in 5 gallons of diesel and repeated the transfer pump with filter procedure again. No problems since, even when running the tank down to about a gallon. I had trash in my tank, to small for me to see in the filter, but trash just the same. I will never fuel another diesel engine without a filter. Lesson Learned. Problem Solved. Buy a transfer pump, but the best filter you can afford on it.

 

[Thomas]

Least it wasn't in middle of winter...talk about pain in the butt.

 

[deere36]

My 2015 5065E had a strainer attached to fuel hose fitting at tank, mine was stopped up with gel from "bio diesel", had same symptoms you described. I cleaned it twice then did away with it & replaced with inline filter I could see.