Hello im new here, been lurking for a bit and decided to join.
I have the same tractor with similar issue. It was my dads tractor bought new in 2000 or 2001 and i inherited it, it sat from 2019 until earlier this year. I took it and went to bush hog and it made it up one hill and it died.
I figured it was out of fuel so i went and got 10 gal of diesel and put in it. It wouldnt crank back after and i had to use ether and a battery charger to get it going again. I finished mowing around 10 acres and it "ran out" again before i was done, so i went and got another 10 gal of diesel and ethered it back to running.
It finally got to where it wouldnt crank and run at all, even with either so i started taking fuel lines off and checking to see if they were blocked going to the tank. They were clear, so I got to looking at the fuel pump and seen the little lid on top so i removed it and that round screen was totally caked up with this nasty rust looking crud, i dont see how any diesel ever got through it. Now it will crank and run for a week or so but it eventually almost dies or does and i have to clean the fuel pump screen bc it will be caked with this rusty red stuff every time.
I remember dad had an issue with the tractor in 2012 with it missing and sputtering so he sent the injector pump off and had it rebuilt and turned up just a hair, and he claimed it fixed it, thought i remember him asking me once if i thought the tractor sounded like it was still missing and though i thought i could hear a light flappy sound, i told him no since he had worked on it for like a month. Im not sure if he did anything to the fuel pump screen, he did put a new filter kit in.
The injector pump shop told him he should drop the fuel tank and do a bunch of cleaning when he got the pump back bc of what they found inside it but he was already declining in health and the tank looks tough to drop so he figured it would be ok to just change the filters and leave it be.
Ive put new filters on it ($$!), put some stuff in the tank thats supposed to clean it, and i got it running halfway good, but it still sputters if you stab the throttle hard and sometimes it just crackles and pops and wont max the rpms out, and i can see a orange flame and smoke at the exhaust pipe when its pulling hard bush hogging (i took a pic to show a buddy bc it looked cool lol), and i dont think it has very much power, it struggles to hold its own in 4th gear high, its basically unuseable unless going downhill.
I been pulling a 10 ft fred cain bush hog and it doesnt like it at all, its like im using way to small a tractor for its size, i always have to downshift if i hit a hill or itll bog out.
Im gonna pull the injectors and take them apart and clean the holes in the end next, it smokes pretty bad in any kind of a pull and ive made sure its clean at least to the injector pump. It started its crap again last night and almost died in the field and i managed to get it back home before it completely died and i know the little screen at the fuel pump is clogged again so ill have to clean it before i finish bush hogging today.
I guess the question i have here, is this gonna keep happening? I fig it would eventually run all the red crud out of the tank if i keep on using it frequently and adding the fuel tank stabilizer stuff. It wasnt cheap and its a 2 bottle system for both cleaning and removing water and stuff. If not, i may sell the tractor bc i dont see myself getting the floor pan off. Everything is rusty and i already broke a seat bolt trying to loosen it to get the seat freed up so it would slide again (the handle broke off the seat adjuster).
