Rough Running BX *SOLVED*
I finally solved a problem with my BX running rough and wanted to share solution.
I trolled this forum and others the past few months to try and troubleshoot the problem. Tractor would run fine for a while (15 minutes, an hour?, 2 hours?) and then start bogging down and have no power. RPM's all over the place and almost stalling out. Sometimes sitting would help but it always returned. First time I changed both fuel filters and thought it was solved but a month later the problem returned. I read and tried everything from new diesel source, more filters, purging air, etc. but it kept returning. I noticed when it happened if I disconnected fuel line before first filter from tank it would dribble out. I tried blowing air back through line and immediately flow was like it should be (pouring out). I surmised that something was stuck in the tank outlet. So I finally got around to removing the tank today which is no fun. I did ball joints on Dodge last week and that was almost easier. Anyway after a couple hours of disassembly and taking time to thoroughly remove leaves, grass, twigs from every nook and cranny and degreasing everything I had tank off. With it empty I shook it into a white pail to see what I had in there and a lot of rust flakes came out. By a lot I would say half a teaspoon. Being a plastic tank I was curious how this could be? So I removed the fuel sender float and sure enough it was rusted and crumbling. I was shocked how bad a shape it was for a 3 year old tractor. I am glad I found the problem but am worried this could be a regular occurrence. I should also mention that before I did all this I did try and blow air out of tank. I made a tight seal with rubber glove ducktape around an air gun. I blew air and got some mist coming out of fuel line but problem still came back. After taking it apart and seeing the size of the outlet at bottom of tank, and the odd tank shape. I think it would be unlikely I would ever get all the rust flakes out. Not to mention it would keep occurring as more rust flaked off sender unit.
The picture I took is of sender and I scraped the side lightly just a couple times to show how easily it was flaking.
The disassembly is fairly straightforward. You need to take off seat, rear fender and loosen floorboard. I took floorboard off to easily clean things and do new filter. A lot of knobs and some electrical connections too. I did not do a write-up but found it pretty intuitive once I started. The only thing I will point out is the knob below seat (which controls how quickly rear three point raises/lowers) takes a lot of prying force to come off. The knob for the cutting height takes even more. I used long screwdriver as a fulcrum and pried each side slowly for a few minutes and they finally popped off.
If you have any specific questions I can try and answer them but hopefully this might save some guesswork if you are running into same problem.
some follow-up stuff:
- Forgot to mention this is for BX1850 but I think all BX's used same fuel sender.
- I have always used a diesel fuel additive to prevent gelling and algae
- The part (K2581-61370) is ~ $50 but since it was special order I decided to try and see if I could clean mine up and maybe coat with POR or something. Not that I am cheap I just am impatient. I started wire brushing lightly and once surface rust was off I found a lot of holes in outer case where rust had eaten through. Upon opening outer case I found inside was worse than outside (see pic). So no saving this part and I will wait (impatiently) for a few days.
I finally solved a problem with my BX running rough and wanted to share solution.
I trolled this forum and others the past few months to try and troubleshoot the problem. Tractor would run fine for a while (15 minutes, an hour?, 2 hours?) and then start bogging down and have no power. RPM's all over the place and almost stalling out. Sometimes sitting would help but it always returned. First time I changed both fuel filters and thought it was solved but a month later the problem returned. I read and tried everything from new diesel source, more filters, purging air, etc. but it kept returning. I noticed when it happened if I disconnected fuel line before first filter from tank it would dribble out. I tried blowing air back through line and immediately flow was like it should be (pouring out). I surmised that something was stuck in the tank outlet. So I finally got around to removing the tank today which is no fun. I did ball joints on Dodge last week and that was almost easier. Anyway after a couple hours of disassembly and taking time to thoroughly remove leaves, grass, twigs from every nook and cranny and degreasing everything I had tank off. With it empty I shook it into a white pail to see what I had in there and a lot of rust flakes came out. By a lot I would say half a teaspoon. Being a plastic tank I was curious how this could be? So I removed the fuel sender float and sure enough it was rusted and crumbling. I was shocked how bad a shape it was for a 3 year old tractor. I am glad I found the problem but am worried this could be a regular occurrence. I should also mention that before I did all this I did try and blow air out of tank. I made a tight seal with rubber glove ducktape around an air gun. I blew air and got some mist coming out of fuel line but problem still came back. After taking it apart and seeing the size of the outlet at bottom of tank, and the odd tank shape. I think it would be unlikely I would ever get all the rust flakes out. Not to mention it would keep occurring as more rust flaked off sender unit.
The picture I took is of sender and I scraped the side lightly just a couple times to show how easily it was flaking.
The disassembly is fairly straightforward. You need to take off seat, rear fender and loosen floorboard. I took floorboard off to easily clean things and do new filter. A lot of knobs and some electrical connections too. I did not do a write-up but found it pretty intuitive once I started. The only thing I will point out is the knob below seat (which controls how quickly rear three point raises/lowers) takes a lot of prying force to come off. The knob for the cutting height takes even more. I used long screwdriver as a fulcrum and pried each side slowly for a few minutes and they finally popped off.
If you have any specific questions I can try and answer them but hopefully this might save some guesswork if you are running into same problem.
some follow-up stuff:
- Forgot to mention this is for BX1850 but I think all BX's used same fuel sender.
- I have always used a diesel fuel additive to prevent gelling and algae
- The part (K2581-61370) is ~ $50 but since it was special order I decided to try and see if I could clean mine up and maybe coat with POR or something. Not that I am cheap I just am impatient. I started wire brushing lightly and once surface rust was off I found a lot of holes in outer case where rust had eaten through. Upon opening outer case I found inside was worse than outside (see pic). So no saving this part and I will wait (impatiently) for a few days.
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