4720 no start fuel issue

Red Horse · Tuesday at 10:59 PM

Guys, My 4720 4024T Deere suddenly refused to start while cranking it, puffing a little smoke but no start. It is an '07 with 2200 easy hours.

Put a new fuel filter in about75 hours ago and it ran fine until this issue. Anyway I put a quick charge on battery thinking maybe not enough cranking speed and it fired right up. Used a few hours over last day or two then today I ran it about 10 min, I shut it off then 10 min later would not start. Same issue cranking but no fire. I gave the pump a few strokes and although it started the hand pump never gave any resistance. I figured I better put it in barn to work on it and I got half way in and RPMs just dropped off. Tried about 3 times draining filter- no water by the way following procedure in manual but no luck.. Fuel looked clear -hiway diesel no dye. Gauge still read "full" but then I remember that gauge "full" is not the same as seeing fuel in filler neck so tomorrow I will top off and try again.

Any thoughts ?

RjCorazza · Wednesday at 5:37 AM

Sounds like maybe it's sucking air. I would start by reseating the fuel filter, and checking fuel lines for cracks. If your machine has an electric lift pump, confirm that it's running with the key on.
If those items check out, check for adequate fuel flow at various points from the tank out (tank, before filter, after filter, before / after lift pump).
Good luck.

Red Horse · Wednesday at 9:52 AM

Thx RJ, will do

Red Horse · Thursday at 10:51 PM

Red Horse said:
Thx RJ, will do

Well RJ- and any others who read my original post, call me a dummy

. After going through the routine in the manual many times on the "bleed, pump " etc, I finally paid attention to bold type in that section in manual-pg 59..Fuel Tank Must be Full . So my five gallon container was empty when all this started. So I go get 5 gallons, then another, Still no fuel at filler neck so I get a third. Long story, this thing was out of fuel! And I must not have been paying attention to fuel gauge as the "low fuel" light has always worked. This time it did not!

Another example of look for the most obvious, although failure to get that low fuel light sort of covered my butt. Now to find out why that did not work

RjCorazza · 2026-04-24T05:34:57-0400

Red Horse said:
Well RJ- and any others who read my original post, call me a dummy. After going through the routine in the manual many times on the "bleed, pump " etc, I finally paid attention to bold type in that section in manual-pg 59..Fuel Tank Must be Full . So my five gallon container was empty when all this started. So I go get 5 gallons, then another, Still no fuel at filler neck so I get a third. Long story, this thing was out of fuel! And I must not have been paying attention to fuel gauge as the "low fuel" light has always worked. This time it did not!

Another example of look for the most obvious, although failure to get that low fuel light sort of covered my butt. Now to find out why that did not work

Glad you got it figured out. Your experience is a reminder to all that we should start with the basics!

beenthere · 2026-04-24T10:26:52-0400

Learn something new every day. Never hear of that before now.
And am puzzled just what the difference is between adding 5 gal of fuel and having to have a full tank. ???

Red Horse · 2026-04-24T12:25:15-0400

beenthere said:
Learn something new every day. Never hear of that before now.
And am puzzled just what the difference is between adding 5 gal of fuel and having to have a full tank. ???

Agree, no clue..but the fact that Manual has that statement in BOLD says as this is related to purging a fuel system, I'm not arguing the point. And I will add that when I changed the fuel/water separator in August I don't recall the tank being full!.???