Hello all, First post in a while (or ever?). I bought my (circa 1999) machine a few years ago, and promptly replaced all the filters on it at the time. It's worked great for me up until last fall. The problem is I put a whopping 10 hours a year on it, so I believe I'm going to need to replace some (or all) of the filters every year. It started to stutter at idle last year, and that got worse this year, and now it's sometimes hard starting, and other times just pops right off like it did when I bought it. I did replace the two Fuel filters a couple of months ago, which improved things for a while (a couple of hours of operation), but now it's back to hard starting and rough idling. I did discover that it's getting air into the fuel filter, so my first plan is to replace the fuel lines, if that doesn't solve things, then I'll look into dropping the fuel tank/looking at the fuel pickup to make sure it's not all gummed up from lack of use. Any and all advise welcome. Thanks
I'm sure the experts will chime in soon but I with that few hours I would guess the fuel is quite old. I would start with a good fuel conditioner.
Well, I replaced all the fuel pickup lines, the rubber ones, they were cracking up quite a bit. doesn't seem to be much of a change yet. I purged the air out of the injector lines, and it promptly started right up, ran for about 5 seconds, then quit. Not sure if I have all the air out of it yet, but when I started things, it wasn't even wanting to start, so an improvement on the whole. There still some air at the secondary fuel filter too, maybe I need to purge earlier at the primary . . . I've gotten it to start a couple of times and it just dies after a few seconds. It's got a mixture of old and new fuel in it, so the next step is to figure out how to get the fuel drained and start with all new stuff. Probably should have done that before trying to get it to run, impatient I guess.
I would dump all the old fuel out of the tank, and clean the fuel tank. If its got contaminated fuel, it will run until it sucks all the contamination up, and plugs the lines/ filters. You need to clean until you are sure you have good clean fuel.
Thanks for the advice. I've gotten it to restart a few times now and stay running. I think there is still a little air left in the lines though.
First thing to check, is if it still has the plastic sediment catcher bowl on the fuel filter (they get lost) is if the rubber washer is installed. They will suck air between the filter and bowl if not installed.
Cliffy, Mine was new a couple of months ago, I don't think that was the problem though. I didn't realize that the secondary filter would leak down if the fuel lines were disconnected, etc. I thought the Primary filter hand pump would fill it up, but apparently, that's not how it worked (for me). I took the secondary filter off and filled it with new fuel and after draining the fuels tank and replacing all the rubber fuel feed lines, it's starting right up again like it used to. The old fuel was pretty dirty and sick looking too. I did figure out that the fuel pickup in the tank is just a simple tube, no screen or anything. I pulled it out just to check while the tank was empty. A general CAT engineering question next, about why the air intake starts out on the outside of the engine cowling, goes down under the frame, back up behind the engine and into the airbox, that air intake has to be about 8 feet long in total. What the heck is wrong with just going straight through the side of the engine cover. It would be 2ft long max that way. I still have to figure out how to get that dang intake hose back on the airbox, which I needed to remove to get at the lift pump and remove the old rubber fuel line. I'll work it some around the yard to make sure it's back to normal, before using it for high lift stuff.
The next thing to concentrate on, is I have some bubbling coming up around the injectors where they go into the head when the machine is running. Is this a O-ring problem with the injector, and how do they come out?
Been a while, but if I recall you undo the lock nut and pop the injector out with a slide hammer screwed onto the injector line thread. It only installs one way with a locator. The injector doesn’t spin or turn. My guess is base washer leaking which will make it a bitch to get them out.
See the attached. Do you have a Type 1 or Type 2 engine because the procedure to remove the injectors is different depending on which type you have.
Well, fortunately, I have to replace the Valve cover gasket, it's leaking, so . . . . I already have the gasket, I'll let you which engine it is . . . if it means anything, it's a 3054 block.
Cliffy, I've been using the machine semi-regularly for the last couple of months without incident. I went to the local Cat Dealer and found a Service guy that seems like he knew what he's talking about. He talked me into buying the copper washers at the base of the injectors. as well as the compression washers for the fuel rail connection. It sounds like I need to build a slide hammer tool for popping the injectors out. Nige indicates that it could be one of two setups, so need to figure that out too by removing the valve cover. bobb