Fuel Tank Removal and/or advice on cleaning

[RollTide1962]

Hello,
I have a M6060HD. The Fuel tank has grass particles in it. The CAB and ROPS models have different tanks. Has anyone removed the tank on the M6060HD without having to remove the left rear wheel? I have seen people do it (without removing the wheel) with the CAB model but the tank is shaped differently on the ROPS model.

If I remove the tank is it OK to use dish-washing liquid and water with my pressure washer to clean the inside? Then let it sit in the sun a couple of days to dry out? This is a plastic tank BTW.

Or does anyone have a suggestion without removing the tank - I thought of running two hoses through the filler cap and connecting it to my filter and pump recirculating the Diesel in the tank.

Comments?

 

[nyone]

Can you get a syphon going and just suck the stuff out of the bottom of the tank?

 

[RollTide1962]

Can you get a syphon going and just suck the stuff out of the bottom of the tank?

Hi nyone,
Thank you for the suggestion.

Here is what I ultimately did - this is for those who run into the same issue.

Problem:
M6060HD grass in the tank. It was clogging the input to the water separator and I would have to pull it off the tractor and clean it then blow air back through the line to the fuel tank. It would run for a while then clog up again. Symptom - it was bogging down.

Solution:
First I drained the tank using the drain plug underneath. While some particles did come out - it wasn't much grass. I put that diesel aside and will not use it. I added new diesel to the tank ( about 4 gallons), then pumped that diesel out with a Transfer pump from the fuel inlet to the tank into a white 5 gallon bucket so I could see any particles. Some trash came out but not as much as I thought should. So I pumped that diesel back into the tank being careful not to pump back the bottom where the trash particles were. Since the pumping of that diesel into the tank should have agitated the trash in the tank I then pumped it out again into the bucket and saw a lot of grass particles.

At this point I knew pumping the diesel into the tank would suspend the particles in the diesel long enough for me to pump the diesel out through a filter and remove the grass. So I added a filter on the inlet to my pump and started pumping the diesel back and forth from the 5 gallon bucket to/from the fuel tank.

Note that I only had about 4 gallons in the tank - this helped because the particles were stirred up and I could practically pump out all of the diesel which allowed me to capture the grass with the filter. I used a transfer filter kit that connected straight to my pump. I did this about 4 or 5 times back and forth. The filtered fuel I returned to the tank. Then as my last step I pulled the hose from the filter separator and held it to the suction hose of my pump with my hand sealing the two hoses (wasn't perfect but it worked) and pumped about 3 or so gallons out of the tank through the filter again through the hose that runs to the separator - that way I could clean the line. Then returned the fuel back to the tank.

Result:
It is working like a charm.

While I don't need to do this now - I would still really like to know what people clean their plastic diesel fuel tanks on these tractors with if anyone wants to chime in. I am interested in what is the correct way to clean one out if I ever need to.

Thanks