TC35 Fuel Leak

[RDrancher]

I developed a fuel leak at the pump on my job on Saturday. It looks to be coming from the hold-downs with pentagon-headed bolts. I have a tractor job on Monday, so I checked that everything is tight, and everything is. Couldn't really check the pentagon bolts since I didn't want to booger them up. I have a bunch of tools...but a pentagon shaped wrench???

Anyone run into this one before? Is there a gasket or o-ring under the hold-down?

 

[jinman]

There is an o-ring under the large hex nut fitting that holds the delivery valve in place and two o-rings on the bottom of the flange tube held in place by the 5-sided bolt heads. Obviously, they don't want you to take those out. Here is an illustration from Messicks.com. Items #2 and #21 are the seals.

 

[RDrancher]

Thanks Jim! Just what I needed.

I started grading at 6am to make sure I beat the rain today. Two loads of fill graded and compacted, and two loads of gravel spread out pretty. I got a little bit of spritzing on my right boot from the leak, but not too bad. I love the smell of diesel in the morning!

Thanks again!

John

 

[RDrancher]

I was out looking at a job in Decatur this week, so I stopped into the LD to see if I could have them replace the o-ring. I talked to one of the mechanics and found out that they send all of the pumps out to Lonestar no matter what the problem. LS won't touch a pump unless they go through the whole thing...for about $500!

The LD did have the o-rings in stock, so I'll be replacing them myself to fix the leak. I have two grading / gravel jobs lined up next week and don't want to take the chance of not having the pump back together, so It'll have to wait for a bit. I'm more worried about boogering up the strange bolt heads than anything.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[barbqranch]

McMaster Carr sells a 5 point socket. I don't know if it is the size you want, but you might check it out McMaster-Carr and search under socket.

 

[jinman]

The LD did have the o-rings in stock, so I'll be replacing them myself to fix the leak. I have two grading / gravel jobs lined up next week and don't want to take the chance of not having the pump back together, so It'll have to wait for a bit. I'm more worried about boogering up the strange bolt heads than anything.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

You are a brave man. I don't think I'd have the guts to tear into an injector pump. I'd pay the $500 and never know if it was an easy job or nearly impossible. It's the price of bein' a scaredy-cat I guess. Good luck! I hope the job's a piece-o-cake.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too. Ain't this weather great?

 

[RDrancher]

McMaster Carr sells a 5 point socket. I don't know if it is the size you want, but you might check it out McMaster-Carr and search under socket.

Thank you! Right next to the 5 point is one of those "one-size-fits-all" sockets with pins that drop in the spaces around the bolt. Hadn't thought about one of those.

You are a brave man. I don't think I'd have the guts to tear into an injector pump. I'd pay the $500 and never know if it was an easy job or nearly impossible. It's the price of bein' a scaredy-cat I guess. Good luck! I hope the job's a piece-o-cake.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too. Ain't this weather great?

I've been inside places that scared the wiz out of me with my Powerstroke and so far its worked out. Hey...how bad could it be? About $500 I figure.

It got a bit windy this afternoon, but I wasn't sweating or freezing, so yep...it's great weather!

 

[RDrancher]

Since my tractor is down for repair for a couple of days I thought I'd update this thread.

I lived with the leak for quite awhile, but did replace o-rings (#2) and copper gaskets (#4). Be warned - Lots of little parts in there. It didn't fix it, but it didn't get any worse and I've been (thankfully) very busy for the last eight months. After my 1,200 ton gravel parking lot job the leak turned into a real LEAK. After going through every Snap On tool in my buddy's box, the penta-bolts remained intact. No way could I get to o-rings (#21). My friend suggested that I call Able Fuel Injection. They were willing to have me drop off the tractor instead of removing the pump and then only replace the damaged parts instead of rebuilding the entire pump. BTW those bolt heads are referred to as "tamper resistant" and require a special socket to remove. The tech showed me the socket and told me how many points it had, but I can't remember what he said. I'll ask him again when I see him. I know that I could've done the repair if I had the socket.

Parts are supposed to arrive today for the repair, so I'm hoping to pick up the tractor later today.

 

[RDrancher]

I'm going to put in a word of friendly advice concerning Able Fuel Injection in Lewisville Texas...DON'T USE THEM!

After telling me that my tractor would be ready last Monday morning (after dropping off Friday) I heard nothing but excuse after excuse. But I didn't get these excuses by them calling me. No, no, no...I had to call them to find out what was going on. I was told each afternoon that the tractor would be ready the following morning, and each morning that the tractor would be ready by noon. Flat out lies every single time. I took them a tractor leaking diesel and they actually broke it and then had to order more parts. The "mechanic" decided that removing the four bolts holding the injector pump was somehow easier than removing the four bolts to do the repair. The only reason I can think of is that he wanted to replace the o-rings (that I provided) on the bench where it's air conditioned. Makes perfect sense to me.

While the owners "two best mechanics" were "fixing" the leaking o-rings they broke at least one. I can only guess at this since I was told in the morning that they were "trying to be careful with the o-rings" and then later that day that they were waiting on parts...This was after being told the day before that the parts (uh ya, I gave them all of the "parts" except one copper washer) were in and the tractor would be ready the next morning. Then the next morning they said that one of the "mechanics" had left for the day, but the tractor would still be ready in the afternoon...but it wasn't. So the mechanic shows up the next morning (I know, because I called) and while replacing the pump (that did not need to be pulled), broke the return line. That was last Thursday. I was told that they found the part, they were sending a driver, and it would "for sure" be ready by Friday. Of course, I never received a call...and they're closed Saturdays.

I finally got an actual call from the shop manager today (Monday) to come and pickup the tractor. He informed me that he was sorry and that they were doing the repair for free. Well whoop-dee-doo. It only cost me $1,250 for rentals to keep working while they replaced (what started as) two o-rings. They would have been better off renting me the "special" socket! When I got there to pick up the tractor I watched the shop manager duck into a side office and overheard him telling the counter guy not to charge me. He didn't even have the cahones to come out and talk to me face to face.

So I load the tractor on my trailer and notice right away that it won't idle right and they hadn't bothered to let it run long enough to bleed all of the air out of the system. At this point there's no way that I'm letting them work on ANYTHING. When I get back home the tractor won't start...no nothing. When I raise the hood out fall a couple of bolts (not from my tractor) and a 7/8" socket is wedged between the positive terminal on the battery and the hydraulic cooler! I pulled a battery out of another tractor and it started right up, but still won't idle. Then I notice that the nice little yellow paint lines that the "mechanic" put on the idle screw, keeper nut and bracket are way off. I adjusted the idle screw so the lines actually lined up and it started idling fine.

Not once during this entire fiasco did I yell, get rude, or tell the shop manager what I really wanted to tell him. I held my tongue. Never again with these clowns...never!

 

[jinman]

RD, you just never know when to take on a job like this yourself or let somebody else do it until it is too late. If they screwed this up, think of how bad a job they must do on the ones that are actually hard to get at. I really can't think of an easier job than working on your fuel injector right where it is on the side of the engine. I'm actually very surprised you had to take the tractor all the way to Lewisville to get it worked on. I'd expect somebody a whole lot closer to you could have done the work, but that's hindsight too. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that it holds up and you're back on the job with no delays.