I have recently purchased a ?late 70s early 80s Clark/Michigan 45c loader,in the process of roadriding it home,it died.It was stored indoors and we made it about 6miles from where it was stored when it quit running,I changed the fuel filters and pumped the primer too many times to count and cant seem to get any pressure to get it to bleed,any tips would be helpful oh the air temp out side was 24degrees so i figured it may have ice or gelled?
Perkins or detroit? Not sure what you have, on the Perkins engine sometimes the primer pump is manually operating the regular fuel pump which is operated by the cam shaft. If the engine happened to stop with the cam lobe at the top of it's stroke the primer can't move the diaphram, just manually turn the engine 1 revolution, then try the primer. Depending on how long the machine was stored, the diaphram may have ruptured over the 6 miles that you drove the machine. Could just need a new fuel pump.
You do not say? But have you loosened off the two bleed screws on the fuel injection pump and you may have to crack a fuel line to the injector or two.
Probably didn't gel while driving it at 24, but it sure may at the temperature now, and you never know what was in the tank. Like Seabee said, turn the engine a bit first if it's a cam driven pump. Then start at the tank and see if you can suck fuel out of the tank with a long enough section of clear vinyl hose, or blow into the tank and see if you can get fuel to come out. Then work your way through the system to figure out where the block is. Or fill a boat tank with diesel and hook the fuel pump inlet to that to see if you can get it to pump/prime. Since it's been stored you may have a whole ecosystem to remove from your tank. Also, you can tell the difference between suction, pressure and no movement from the feel of the primer lever. If there's just the spring pressure then the diaphram isn't operating either because the cam is holding it up, or there is fuel pressure holding it. If there's medium resistance the full stroke then it's sucking air. If it's hard to pump then it's pulling a vacuum. And if it pumps lightly a couple times then doesn't have any resistance then you look at the next component down the fuel line. That's from memory, but it's easy to disconnect the hoses on each side of the pump and use a quart of fuel to test a pump like this to see for yourself.
Not to ask a stupid question but, How long was it idle? "and if a long period of time" did you drain the fuel tank? I have seen shed parked machines wit nothing short of mud sitting in the tank could be why you cant seem to get pressure!!!!!!!