Oil & Fuel Starving for Fuel- white smoke and power loss

[M5farms]

A month or so ago The new tractor I bought had a power loss and puffing white smoke. I spoke with a couple of mechanics and searched on line and even on this site it was eluded to that the problem was in fuel system. I drained the water separator on filter and the problem stopped until this week. My neighbor came to borrow the tractor and called me with the tractor was blowing white smoke and would not get above 1000rpm. when I got in I went to his place to figure it out and there were excessive bubbles in the clear inline filter , I changed both filters and did not correct the issue. I did notice the fuel line had was not as tight on the barb as I like and had taken the barb shape. I had intentions to replace the line but the dealer did not have the line nor the pickup tube in stock yesterday. I went to auto parts got new line and new clamps. When I got home I decided I would first blow back thru the line and remove an 1" or 2 of old line and try that before I started replacing things. This cured it and tractor had no air in filter and running like it should. I believe there was an obstruction in the pick up tube that caused the pump to find some where to suck air. I can only assume the PO had trash or debris enter the tank because he has only filled the tractor with jugs all of its life. I will drain and flush tank when it get down to 4 or 5 gal. Maybe this will help someone else if they run into a similar situation in the future.

Tractor - TL100A

 

[Wagtail]

Thanks for the report, Mate. You've done right as, in my own experience, white smoke indicates water in the fuel line. On another occurrence I was experiencing an intermittent complete power shut down with no obvious, consistent, symptoms. I, too, thought that it might be debris in the fuel tank or a defective seat-safety switch...

It turned out I was over-tightening the fuel cap which was creating a vacuum & starving the engine of fuel.

I'll 'keep my eye out' for air in the fuel line as a possible future fault.

 

[MF283]

We seem to always overlook the simpler things, good reminder:thumbsup:

Ronnie