Fuel blockage

LRRifleman · Jun 19, 2011

Hello!

I have a 1958 International Model 340 Utility with a gas engine. Yesterday, when the engine sputtered and died, I thought I had a blocked filter, and upon replacing it, I removed the petcock and sediment bowl, and discovered it was fouled with corrosion. Today, I replaced the fuel filter with a correct fuel filter and replaced the petcock/sediment bowl unit. When I turned on the fuel flow (after refilling the tank) the gas barely trickled into the sediment bowl, so apparently, there is a blockage in the fuel tank at the low point.

My question(s):
1) Is there a baffle at the low point of my fueltank or not?
2) If there is a baffle, how do I clear it and rmove the obstruction?
3) It seems, especially if there is not a baffle, that whatever is blocking the fuel line does not float ... how would I get t out of the tank??

Thank you!

Tyler Jackson · Jun 19, 2011

I don't think your problem is in your tank. To check take the glass bowl off and stick some wire or someting up there to see if it unblocks it. If not it's probly somethin in your carb. My H did the same thing with the gas flow. Some one who knows a little more about carbs can probly explain whats wrong but what I did to fix mine is open the drain on the side of the carb to get the air out and that did the trick.

CNKS · Jun 19, 2011

No baffle, loosen the nut below the glass bowl and the fuel will flow in. If not, your tank may have debris in it, you can clear it most of the time by putting a wire inside the tank into the outlet. May be a little difficult with that particular tank. Also, the carb inlet has a screen inside, it could be plugged.

soybeanjoe · Jun 19, 2011

First I would loosen the thumbscrew on the bottom of the sediment bulb & see if the gas will flow faster. If the bowl was empty the trapped air in the bowl will hold the fuel back. If that works tighten the thumbscrew after the bowl is full & gas starts to run down the side of the bowl.

If that doesn't help it's probably either the screen plugged or the tank outlet plugged with debris. Had the latter happen once on one of my SMs. What I do on my older tractors is to remove the sediment bulb housing from the bottom of the gas tank (be sure to have the proper size plug handy to put into the tank). I then get a1 1/2" long piece of copper tubing, drill out the inlet on the sediment housing so the tubing will fit tightly into it. Insert tubing into housing so there's about an inch sticking up and put the housing back into the tank. That raises the tank point in the tank so that any debris in the tank is below that. You won't have near as much problems with debris plugging the inlet & you don't lose much tank capacity.

LRRifleman · Jun 19, 2011

It sounds like the side effects of my concussion blocked logic ... it sounds like I need to bleed the air out from the line between the carb and the fuel tank!

A $40+ lesson and a down day!

Fuel blockage

LRRifleman

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Tyler Jackson

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CNKS

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soybeanjoe

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LRRifleman

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