cdover73
Silver Member
I have been reading a lot about people having problems with their tractors (various sizes) spitting and sputtering and coughing blue and white smoke. I had the same thing happen over the weekend and thought I would post this in detail for lessons learned to all.
I used my tractor two weekends ago to clean up around the yard. It ran fine as always and had no signs of hesitation. This past weekend I drove my tractor to an elderly neighbor's house to disc his garden for him. The following is a list of what happened:
1. Tractor ran fine for the 1.5 miles I drove in 4th gear high range to get to his house. It had about 3/8 tank of fuel.
2. Started discing. Ran in 3rd gear low range about 2500 rpm's.
3. Got about 3/4 way finished when all of a sudden the tractor started billowing white smoke and was missing like crazy.
4. First thought was the KSB, but was funny it just started doing it. Then I thought maybe water being the tank was getting low.
5. Called my dealer. Was informed to pull the KSB to see if it still ran rough.
6. It did.
7. Called dealer back and talked to a mechanic.
8. Mechanic told me it was trash in the fuel line. He had "seen it a hundred times".
9. Instructed me to take it loose from the first filter and see if I had good flow. Then continue to the tank making sure to clean the line out real good after taking it off the petcock.
10. Limped the tractor home and started his instructions.
11. When I took the line loose at the first filter I had a steady stream of fuel but it was only about the size of a pencil lead.
12. Took the line loose at the petcock. Again pencil lead stream.
13. Made sure the line was clean. It was.
14. Unscrewed the petcock from the nipple at bottom of the tank.
15. Still only a small stream straight out of the tank. This was weird!
16. Unscrewed the nipple from the bottom of the tank and was immediately covered in a flood of diesel!
17. The nipple has a small filter on it about 3" long. It was fully clogged with what looked like dirt or grass residue.
18. Blew the filter off with some carb cleaner and put everything back.
19. The tank was already drained and I didn't want to remove it to flush it so I just added fresh fuel.
20. With everything back together I hit the primer a couple times and fired it up.
21. At first, it still ran rough and belched smoke randomly.
22. It leveled off and I let it run to operating temps.
23. Ran the disc through my garden for about 30 mins. It leveled off and ran perfect.
In summary, I never would have known about the filter in the tank until my dealer told me about it. I also never would have guessed that would cause it to run like it did. I think the sputtering after I got it all back together was from what may have been left in the fuel filters, which still makes me think I had both trash and water problems.
Anyway, I hope this helps with some of your problems. Information like this is worth its weight when it is happening and you can't find out why. Not saying this will be the cause every time, but it sounded to me like it was a common find for the dealer mechanic.
I used my tractor two weekends ago to clean up around the yard. It ran fine as always and had no signs of hesitation. This past weekend I drove my tractor to an elderly neighbor's house to disc his garden for him. The following is a list of what happened:
1. Tractor ran fine for the 1.5 miles I drove in 4th gear high range to get to his house. It had about 3/8 tank of fuel.
2. Started discing. Ran in 3rd gear low range about 2500 rpm's.
3. Got about 3/4 way finished when all of a sudden the tractor started billowing white smoke and was missing like crazy.
4. First thought was the KSB, but was funny it just started doing it. Then I thought maybe water being the tank was getting low.
5. Called my dealer. Was informed to pull the KSB to see if it still ran rough.
6. It did.
7. Called dealer back and talked to a mechanic.
8. Mechanic told me it was trash in the fuel line. He had "seen it a hundred times".
9. Instructed me to take it loose from the first filter and see if I had good flow. Then continue to the tank making sure to clean the line out real good after taking it off the petcock.
10. Limped the tractor home and started his instructions.
11. When I took the line loose at the first filter I had a steady stream of fuel but it was only about the size of a pencil lead.
12. Took the line loose at the petcock. Again pencil lead stream.
13. Made sure the line was clean. It was.
14. Unscrewed the petcock from the nipple at bottom of the tank.
15. Still only a small stream straight out of the tank. This was weird!
16. Unscrewed the nipple from the bottom of the tank and was immediately covered in a flood of diesel!
17. The nipple has a small filter on it about 3" long. It was fully clogged with what looked like dirt or grass residue.
18. Blew the filter off with some carb cleaner and put everything back.
19. The tank was already drained and I didn't want to remove it to flush it so I just added fresh fuel.
20. With everything back together I hit the primer a couple times and fired it up.
21. At first, it still ran rough and belched smoke randomly.
22. It leveled off and I let it run to operating temps.
23. Ran the disc through my garden for about 30 mins. It leveled off and ran perfect.
In summary, I never would have known about the filter in the tank until my dealer told me about it. I also never would have guessed that would cause it to run like it did. I think the sputtering after I got it all back together was from what may have been left in the fuel filters, which still makes me think I had both trash and water problems.
Anyway, I hope this helps with some of your problems. Information like this is worth its weight when it is happening and you can't find out why. Not saying this will be the cause every time, but it sounded to me like it was a common find for the dealer mechanic.
