How to clean fuel lines and tank on JD4410

[ChristopherHawkins77]

After running for about an hour the tractor loses power and dies. This has repeated itself 3 times. If I wait for a few minutes and restart it, everything works fine. The dealer thinks something might be impeding the fuel flow. I don't have the tech manual. I changed the fuel filter 50 hours ago. I searched and couldn't find a thread on cleaning the fuel lines or tank. Any help or suggestions you have on how to approach this would be appreciated.

 

[beenthere]

Welcome to TBN.
No experience having to clean the fuel lines on my 4300 (new in '98).

Give us the history of the 4410 that might relate to your thoughts about fuel flow.

Run time of an hour between shut-down, and only a few minutes between another hour of run time sounds like venting problem.
What is the job/task during this run time?

There have been posts about blowing back on fuel lines that dislodge debris in fuel tanks.

 

[TractorGuy]

My 4310 had a lot of bacteria in the tank when I got it. I don't know why I didn't change the filter as soon as I got it but I waited till it wouldn't run. After changing the filter I siphoned the tank out and sucked the crud out with a shop vac. I have a small 1-1/4" hose I connected so I could get down in the tank near the outlet fitting. I poured a little diesel in to stir it up and vacuumed several times. Then I made sure fuel would flow out of the tank fitting. I put a small engine filter in the line right out of the tank fitting so I could monitor and keep from fouling the large filter.

So far so good on mine. I have replaced the small engine filter once since I did all the other.

 

[Midniteoyl]

After running for about an hour the tractor loses power and dies. This has repeated itself 3 times. If I wait for a few minutes and restart it, everything works fine. The dealer thinks something might be impeding the fuel flow. I don't have the tech manual. I changed the fuel filter 50 hours ago. I searched and couldn't find a thread on cleaning the fuel lines or tank. Any help or suggestions you have on how to approach this would be appreciated.

Make sure your tank is venting as well. As soon as it starts to die, unscrew the fuel cap and see if it recovers.

 

[Richard]

Couple thoughts:

1. I once cleaned out the fuel tank on my backhoe. It was near empty so unscrewed the bung in the bottom of it to get residual fuel out. Took a pressure washer and turned it inside the tank spraying as much of the tank as I could while the waste water flushed out the open bung in the bottom. Once done, I took a garden pressure can with some diesel in it. I sprayed the interior of the tank with that to 'wash out' the residual water. Put plug in bottom filled it up, purged it and it's been perfectly fine.

2. Once had a problem where the backhoe would move for bit then die. It was fuel starvation death.... confused me for a couple weeks. Then I looked through the (dirty enhough that you couldn't see through it) glass water seperator.

Turns out it was essentially full of water so the fuel would float on the water and get sucked into the engine. Step on throttle and it dies since there's not that much fuel there. Cleaned out the water seperator, put new filters on and it's been fine since. Because of this though, now I know to look there sooner if I have an issue. (I've also since smashed the old dirty glass bowl and have a new pristine clear one to see through)

 

[TractorGuy]

Couple thoughts:

1. I once cleaned out the fuel tank on my backhoe. It was near empty so unscrewed the bung in the bottom of it to get residual fuel out. Took a pressure washer and turned it inside the tank spraying as much of the tank as I could while the waste water flushed out the open bung in the bottom. Once done, I took a garden pressure can with some diesel in it. I sprayed the interior of the tank with that to 'wash out' the residual water. Put plug in bottom filled it up, purged it and it's been perfectly fine.

2. Once had a problem where the backhoe would move for bit then die. It was fuel starvation death.... confused me for a couple weeks. Then I looked through the (dirty enhough that you couldn't see through it) glass water seperator.

Turns out it was essentially full of water so the fuel would float on the water and get sucked into the engine. Step on throttle and it dies since there's not that much fuel there. Cleaned out the water seperator, put new filters on and it's been fine since. Because of this though, now I know to look there sooner if I have an issue. (I've also since smashed the old dirty glass bowl and have a new pristine clear one to see through)

Yeah I had to wash out and treat my backhoe tank for rust. After getting it all cleaned it had one little chunk of rust in the banjo bolt going into the water separator that was causing it to shut off. Took me way too long to find but when I did it was off to the races.

This 4410. if it's like my 4310, has no bung in the bottom like a metal backhoe tank does. It just has a little 5/16" nipple for a fuel line to feed the pump. It is also wedged in between the engine and the cowl so not in a user friendly location to work on. The upside is it's plastic so rust won't be an issue.

A small diameter shop vac hose and wet or dry shop vac is the way to suck the crud out if that's his problem.