Hi,
I have a fuel leak and it's dripping on the valve cover on the left side(facing rear), - a mechanic told me it was the "fuel rail" but I think it should be called the fuel lines. Anyway they are the tubes with the injectors in between and I have an image that looks like the deal, but can't attach the file.
It looks like one or two were cobbed together poorly with band clamps on the last tubes towards the front for cylinders 1 and 3. I am doing this from memory right now because its ungodly cold here in North Dakota and I yanked my shoulder yesterday trying to look into it. Tomorrow I will go out and start it and look at the leak but where can I find replacements for the rubber tubes and especially the one that goes into the front of the fuel pump? Does anyone know about this assembly ? Are any special tools needed ? I am travelling back east soon and really need to get this in shape within 5 weeks. I think I can do the work myself. Thank you. Joe

 

I'm having a hard time seeing what you are describing. Do you mean that the injector line from the rail to the injector is leaking on cylinders 1/3? If so get yourself some high pressure fuel hose and then special ratchet gear clamps not the regular kind, 2 on each end and it will work. Why is this a concern other than just the dripping fuel issue?Loss of power/pressure?


BTW diesel isn't nearly as flammable as gasoline. A year or two around my fire department was doing a burn training we tried to get diesel to light as good as gasoline it failed to say the least. Although, its still an issue it isn't anywhere as explosive as gasoline.

 

Hes talking about these rubber lines you see between each injector.



Common for these with age, they leak.

Get a kit for it. It will include the plastic T's and O-rings. You'll need the hose, cut to length and new clamps.

The kit I think is around 15$ and hose is pretty cheap, can't recall the size right now.

 

Napa has the kit for it,wasn't very much but been awhile since i bought a set,might check there

 

You can also just repair it without a kit if the plastic caps are not cracked.

Since it's so cold and you just want to get by, just go to Napa and get some fuel line hose. The hose on my truck was 3/16". Make sure you get fuel line, not vacuum line. You can just cut and replace the hose that is leaking, but later on when it warms up, you need to go ahead and replace the o-rings under the caps along with all the rubber lines.

You can get a kit like was mentioned, but my caps were in good shape, so I just went to tractor supply and in the hydraulic section they sell packs of o-rings(I think they are 5/8 x 7/16) and I went to Napa and bought the correct size fuel line, and I just re-used my caps. The hardest part of this job is getting the hard fuel lines off and back on the injectors without cross-threading the lines. You have to carefully bend them up and then back down, but you don't want to get them too out wack.

Once you do this, if you have any starting problems, it may cure it. If it starts and then stops, and you have to crank and crank to finally get it going, it will cure that.

 

Not sure how exactly Franklin was talking about the air in the injectors. But I am thinking the process may be the same. You don't ever want to run a diesel farm tractor out of fuel. Why not? Well because you have to go about cracking an injector sometimes one, sometimes more to force the air out. I am curious as to when you replace your lines if the process will be similar in that you will need to crank it and crack your injectors.

 

Yup, same thing!

 

I swear it was by far one of the funniest things ever. This summer another driver and I were hauling grain, so we had 2 trucks, 2 combines, and a cat pulling a bankout. Well the "foreman" was sitting at the home storage bins where we had a tractor PTO hooked up to the auger. We were on a tight ship so everything had to go good as we had to quit cutting wheat if we had a break down. Well anyway the foreman just sat his *** in the chair and was talking about the good life. Anyway, he forgot to check the john deere tractor for fuel and it ran out. Anyway, the tractor got air in the lines under full grain load which meant that the augur and tray were full. He was trying to blame it on us but the farm owned came in and was pissed he went to crack the injectors after filling it up and had the wrong wrench. He said "****ing metric, ****, **** you John Deere." I about died laughing from that. Anyway, we got the tractor started and a bolt on the pto coupling busted , the sheer pin. The farmer went back into the field and started cutting and the 2 drivers and the foreman were to get that auger going. We had to turn the pto with the tractor to get it lined up and finally got it running. I remember times when I was unloading I had that chev 454 pegged in high range doing about 50-60 on the empty farm roads because I was getting yelled out.

I love farming, hopefully gonna take over my families farm some day.

 

Thank you all. I think I know what to do and what to get now..Joe

 

You do not have to crack the injectors to get the Ford idi to run. The air will purge itself through the rubber lines at the injectors that started this thread.