John Deere 2040 cuts off

[mikesells4u]

My tractor cuts off for no appearant reason. It is not running smoothly and the idle varies by as much as 400 RPM. It is full of fuel and I have cleaned the priming pump and screen beside the filter. Any suggestions?

 

[jd110]

Have you changed the filter? If not then I would start with that. If filter is good, then I would suspect a bad injection pump.

 

[Tx Jim]

Does it have good fuel flow from tank to in pump? Is the return line plugged up?

 

[mikesells4u]

Thanks, I was hoping to not have to take of the filter but I can see that is something I probably cannot avoid. The tractor has a front end loader that makes it difficult to pump the primer. The last time I changed the filter, years ago, I did not think I was ever going to get it pumped back full of fuel.
Prior to doing that I will start it up and look in the tank to see that the return flow is normal.
Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.