The manual mechanical pump will not pressurize and bleed the fuel system on my Deer 650J Dozer. All was well when I replaced the final fuel filter. lots of fuel passed after only a few cycles of the lever. When I replaced the primary filter, the mechanical pump would not send fuel through the bleed port in spite of hundreds of pumps. I tried rotating the cam by tapping the starter as directed in the owners manual - no help! I went back and tried the final bleed again. this time it bled, but very slowly. Help! I need this machine back in service!! Thanks for your solutions!!! I forgot to mention that the mechanical pump seems to be pumping fuel for the first 3 or 4 pumps, then there is little resistance, like no fuel is in the pump.
Did you prime the new filter?
I would try temporarily inserting an electric fuel pump inline somewhere convenient to get everything primed up, get the machine started and the air completely cleared out, then remove the electric pump with as little fuel loss as possible, reinstall as it is supposed to be and hope for the best. Also did you check that the filter last changed has the gaskets installed properly. Sometimes I have seen them leak and sometimes block fuel flow.
That's not how lever type priming pumps work. After a couple of strokes the fuel pressure holds the diaphragm from returning to pump more fuel, think about it, how long would that diaphragm last if it flexed the full stroke which each revolution of the cam? a couple of minutes. Loosen the fittings to check where you have pressure or vacuum. You can use a little hose or two and a can of fuel to figure out exactly what the pump feels like when it's "deadheaded" or sucking a vacuum.
The Deere machines can be a real pain to prime the filters. Loosen the outlet line of the filters and put a little bit of pressure in the fuel tank to fill your new filters completely. Tighten the lines, then you will need to push on the primer pump while someone is cranking over the engine, and it should start.
I did fill both filters with fuel.
After sitting overnight, the lever pumped 11 times before it felt like no fuel was being pumped. Fuel still did not come out the bleed port.
Where is the bleed port? on the filter head? The priming pump is working if it felt like it was pumping at first. It's pumped up pressure and stopped pumping like it's supposed to. You probably have a blockage somewhere, loosen the lines and see where the fuel is pressurized and where it isn't.
The prime was lost between the two filters. This is how it was fixed. Three guys went to work. One pumping the mechanical filter. One cranking the engine at full throttle. One spraying short bursts of starter fluid in the air intake. After a few cranks it fired up . We kept spraying short bursts of starter fluid into the air intake for a few seconds. Then it ran on its own. All is well now. Thanks for all of your input. This worked well for me. I will use it again if the need arises. The only downside is the three person requirement.
After what I thought was a similar issue, i.e., not getting the fuel system bled after changing both filters, I called my dealer for advice. The shop foreman said that they had learned that using any brand filter other than Deere on those series of machines caused problems regaining the prime in many instances. So I did it again with Deere filters. Turns out that the problem was a bad injection pump, but I've still made it a point to use Deere filters since that time. Maybe he was right, maybe he was just blowing smoke and trying to sell filters. (The problem with the Deere happened soon after the fuel distributor in the far-away town where I started a job set a rental tank that had copious amounts of very fine rust in it. Every machine on the job started having clogged filters soon after, even though I had a filter on the tank pump. But the Deere was the only machine that the injection pump failed; perhaps is was just time for it or perhaps the bad fuel contributed to it. Who knows?)
Glad you got it running, i'm a little late but have an idea which may help for the next filter change.. On most machines the the primary fuel filter is on the suction side of the lift pump, I've noticed that the goofy deere style filters with the 1/4 turn plastic ring, have little plastic bleeder vents incorporated into the filter head, problem is they have a bleeder on the suction side of things. Wondering if you had the bleeder open on the primary (suction) filter head when trying to prime? If so the lift pump will suck air, and have no resistance on the lever which you described. It's the only thing that I could figure:drinkup
I believe the best improvement I can make is to have my new rear filter filled with fuel and ready to go prior to removing the old rear filter. this will minimize the fuel loss in the line between the two filters which is where my problem was. Thanks again for all of your help and interest. This is a great forum!
Myself, I never prime the fuel filters, as I never have a jug of diesel in my service truck. With the JD's, both filter heads have bleed screws. Loosen the secondary filter head bleed screw and pump away! It takes a few minutes, but you'll fill the filters up and once fuel comes flowing out steady, you'll be good to go. As a side note the primary fuel filters have the bleed screw for the systems that have the severe duty fuel filters heads which have their own priming pump.
HDM Rice, I tried that but I couldn't get fuel to flow after a few strokes. The front filter filled right up. But I believe I let too much fuel out of the line between the primary and secondary filters. The rear filter would never bleed fuel from the port. It seems like Delmer is right when he says the mechanical pumps will only pump so much before they build up pressure and stop pumping and quit. I pumped until my finger went numb - i could not clear the line. I wonder what I did different from what you do that prevented the mechanical pump from clearing my primed rear filter?
That is pretty odd. I've had pretty similar problems with hard starting after a filter change, where an oring was missing from the water bowl/drain on the bottom of the primary filter - air can do crazy things. But you've said the machine is running fine now, eh? No power or lugging issues?
So the rear filter is the secondary?
The dozer is running fine. I ran it 9 hours today. I will try your method on my next filter change. Thanks.
The rear filter is the first filter after the tank (primary) the front filter at the engine the final or secondary filter. The manual says to change the front (secondary) filter first. I did the whole process by the book.