Plugged Pickup Screen Again!!

[turbomoparboy]

The other evening my 94 763 was difficult to start. After a few tries it started and I let it run for a few minutes jumped in it to spread some stone. I moved a few hundred feet and it started missing and died. I opened the door and the prime ball was collapsed just like it did at the beginning of the season. At the beginning of the season I installed a new pickup tube / screen in the tank when this happened. Unfortunately the old pickup tube broke off when removing it and fell in the tank. I drained the tank, dumped a few gallon of fresh fuel through and refilled with fresh fuel. I put about 18 hours on the machine with no problems then all of a sudden it happened again. I pulled the pickup out yesterday and the screen was covered with black rubbery junk. I am thinking this is from the old tube. Does anyone have any ideas how to either try to remove the old tube and or clean the tank without pulling it? I am going to be pulling the engine sometime in the future to replace the hydrostat seal but since I recently had hand surgery its a little difficult at this time and the machine is for use around my house not a business. One thought I had was to try to clean the tank and eliminate the pickup screen so it has an open tube in the tank and install an inline fuel filter before he prime ball. This way if it picks up more junk and this happens, I can just swap out the inline filter in stead of trying to get the pickup out of the tank. Let me know if any one has any other ideas. Im sure I am not the first one to loose the pickup in the tank. Thanks! Justin

 

[OldMachinist]

I was able to retrieve the old line from mine because it had the old screen still on it and it was magnetic. I fished a wire with a magnet on it inside the tank and pulled the old line out. Since you're planning to pull the engine sometime you could just shorten the pick up tube so that it's a couple of inches off the bottom of the tank and won't suck up the crud. You'd just have to make sure it always had enough fuel in it to stay above the pick up.

 

[SkidRoe]

I was able to retrieve the old line from mine because it had the old screen still on it and it was magnetic. I fished a wire with a magnet on it inside the tank and pulled the old line out. Since you're planning to pull the engine sometime you could just shorten the pick up tube so that it's a couple of inches off the bottom of the tank and won't suck up the crud. You'd just have to make sure it always had enough fuel in it to stay above the pick up.

I fished mine out with one of those 3-pronged flexible grabber thingys (sorry about the highly technical description), the one with the push-button on the end to extent the prongs. The hardest part is seing what you are doing. My machine has caps on either side of the tank (one side is the fuel filler, the other is for the fuel level gauge). I was able to shine a light in one side while working with the grabber on the other. I think the you could likely work through one side if you duct taped a small flash light to a piece of dowel or rod to illuminate the inside of the tank. For better visibility, it would likely be better to do this in a low-light environment (ie. at dusk, inside a shop with the lights off, etc.). HTH

 

[7LBSSMALLIE]

I fished mine out with one of those 3-pronged flexible grabber thingys (sorry about the highly technical description), the one with the push-button on the end to extent the prongs. The hardest part is seing what you are doing. My machine has caps on either side of the tank (one side is the fuel filler, the other is for the fuel level gauge). I was able to shine a light in one side while working with the grabber on the other. I think the you could likely work through one side if you duct taped a small flash light to a piece of dowel or rod to illuminate the inside of the tank. For better visibility, it would likely be better to do this in a low-light environment (ie. at dusk, inside a shop with the lights off, etc.). HTH

i would reccomen changining out fuel sender, float probaly detiorete