13 juli 2023 Trepidation

  

Changing diesel fuel filters on my tractor is a noteworthy event.

How Hard Can Changing Fuel Filters Be?

 

    My 1967 Massey-Ferguson 180 Diesel tractor maintenance schedule falls under the heading: "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It perfectly aligns with the non-scheduled maintenance schemes of our two cars, two pick-ups, and an old van so I wondered why, just the other day, -- okay three weeks ago --I suddenly thought, “Maybe I should change the fuel filters on the tractor, they haven’t been changed for years.” Following through, I drove to my usual auto parts store and bought them just-like-that.

    I mean, the tractor has been starting and running just fine despite the old fuel filters so why was it I suddenly felt that I should do the job now, in July, long before it possibly developed fuel system problems in December or January? Is this mature preemptive thinking? Is this what turning 72 is all about?

    Look, I'm not eager to do this. It's all about handling diesel fuel, spillage, odors-unpleasing-to-my-wife, fuel stained leather boots, and likewise damaged jeans, and quite possibly putting an important agricultural vehicle out of commission for who knows how long the very second I loosen a bolt and introduce air into the fuel lines! 

    The experiences I describe herein of DIY farm vehicle maintenance are familiar to only the smallest number of vehicle mechanics that still exist today; probably even less than there were upon the introduction of horse-less carriages in the early 20th Century, those few brave men and women and others who have sought to repair their own modes of transportation and labor-saving machines themselves rather than pay or depend on someone else to do it. Individuals who, since the Industrial Revolution, by their own  often bruised hands, either fixed their own mechanical problems -- or made them worse as I admit doing myself. On the other hand I can say I  have learned something from each attempt, each success, and each failure.

    Maybe you've never wondered, "Just how hard can changing fuel filters it be?"  On the cars we own, ranging in the years from 1986-2000, changing fuel filters is relatively easy: Simply watch these videos to see for yourself -- or watch the dozens of others that are out there..

    1986: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1fO1_Ir2as

    1993: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oqxLTN3cTc

    1995: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B86KUYkdv6w

    1998: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnSn-hplhN4

    2000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOiZMQGIkdU 

    C'mon, it's easy. The worst you can expect to encounter may be just rusty bolts you inadvertently break off in an attempt to loosen them, or perhaps suffer scraped and bleeding knuckles, or cut fingers, or burned fingers, or pinched or punctured fingers. Not to mention getting stuff in your eyes, if you're not wearing glasses, or stuff in your ears; ditto for not wearing hearing protection.

    There might be exposure to metalworking fluids (MWFs) and increase in cancer risks; or the possibility of being crushed by insufficient support placed under the car. Watch this safety video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OyzbGDn6xg You can expect finding places on the vehicle you can’t reach into with your hand and a required tool — or, you have to contrive some assemblage of tools to reach the aforementioned 'tight place’ to loosen a hose clamp for instance or turn a screw or detach two opposing hoses and endure a sudden sploosh of gasoline (best not be smoking a cigarette). If you’re not wearing disposable waterproof mechanics gloves, the fuel will get on your hands/skin, or runs down your arm-- or your face.

    Then there's the issue of insufficient lighting be it overhead or underneath or non-adjustable so that you can't see the work at hand. How about having to work blindly, loosening or tightening nuts or bolts you cannot see at all but can only feel? For instance, try balancing a flat washer and lock nut on an extended fingertip then threading them on a bolt you cannot see. Happens a lot.

    Not owning a large 50’x100'x15' workshop like Jerry Solom had, with particular tool placement and tons of work-arounds like saws, presses, tube benders, welders, lathes, steel tubing, etc and wood blocking, I work outdoors with hand tools, extension cords, trouble lights, and if appropriate, mosquito lotion.   

    My work area is often comprised of dirt or gravel, and sometimes if I'm lucky, a large sheet of corrugated cardboard to lay on. Sometimes I'm on grass (preferably mowed) so to decrease the intrusion of insects and the occasional visit from a snake, and increase my ability to find dropped or misplaced tools. Sometimes I experience the lack of having sufficient tools for all aspects of the job i.e., or if it's my first time disassembling something, I'll not know the specific tools required, costing me lots of looking time. “Where did I use that last?”

    As I have five storage locations for tools depending on their last use: #1 behind the driver and passenger seat in the ’93 pickup, #2 in the topper of the ’86 Toyota, #3 the three tool boxes on the  ATV, #4 the fender-mounted toolbox on the tractor, and #5 the basement work area toolbox and workbench. I may visit them all looking for that particular tool or work-around that I made for some other job I had to do.

    I knew exactly what I was getting into changing the tractor filters because I had done it years before without DIY (Do It Yourself) on-line videos about all the aspects of tractor and vehicle repair. Although many are somewhat goofy in presentation with loud music accompanied by a lengthy narcissistic preamble you might have to endure, a ‘cute’ homespun DIY video like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt_vE8XvRdo provided me some otherwise good information: (Further reading of the comments below this site, I recognized one of the commenters of years ago was me:)

    Changing fuel filters on cars and trucks isn’t a big deal. It make take you as long as an hour or a little more if it's your first time. Bingo-bango, it’s done and you can drive it away thinking about how much you saved had you paid someone else to do it. But not so with large equipment like diesel farm tractors.

    No, the reason I procrastinated for so long is that I have to be in the proper frame of mind. I have to have all my tools assembled, re-watched the Youtube DIY videos, have the perfect day, temperature, windage, etc. 

    Deciding to change diesel tractor fuel filters, for me, is like lighting the first match on a 80-acre running grass fire although you’ve made every effort to do it safely knowing Murphy’s Law: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong,” that makes this relatively easy procedure a terrible ordeal. Been there, done that.

   I’ve changed the fuel filters successfully before, using just my shop manual and some luck. All the steps are in front of me in plain English, in easily read font. Besides, I have potential back-up in the form of "Morey Repair,” with whose proprietor I visited at a hardware store in Roseau two weeks earlier, and who asked me about my 180 as he has a 180 like it at home, then answered, "Yes, I'm still in business…”Poof!  There was the assurance I sought!

    Leaving no stone left unturned, I even went as far as spreading an old blue plastic tarp to protect the ground under the tractor, and since the tractor has high ground clearance I stuck a five gallon pail under it too, to catch the flood of fuel from the filters. 

    The procedure is as follows: 

    I unbolted Primary Fuel filter. with its glass 'Agglomerator' or sediment bowl, on the right side first, then did the Secondary Fuel Filter on the left, from their assemblies pouring their liquid greenish-blue contents into the pail with clumps of dirt-laden grease loosened from their outsides.

    I opened the new filter boxes; affirming that both filters were exactly the same, failing to note one of them was missing an nickle-sized o-ring something that would plague me later. Oops, am I giving something away?

    I used a paper towel and a scraper to clean the bottom of the  'sediment bowl,' then removed the old o-ring from its recess in the bottom noting that I had used silicone sealant in addition to the o-ring there the last time I changed filters. Seeing the sealant was unnecessary, I didn't repeat it this time. There were three different sized o-rings in the filter packages none which are round in circumference but rectangular about .125" in size and 3-inches across.)

    It didn't take long to clean the filter tops and bottom fixtures using an old toothbrush and some clean diesel fuel. The only problem I had was that the o-ring at top of the Secondary Filter assembly posed some problem in that it didn't seem to fit very well. Fitting inside both upper filters was a tube on the fixture that had a nickle-sized circular o-ring on it that was difficult to get off. I cut it off and replaced it with a new one, then luckily, saw that there wasn't a new one in the other package, so I left the old o-ring on, hoping that it would still do its job.

    The top o-ring on the Secondary Filter didn't want to fit into the recess in the top but fit nicely within the lip of the filter, and for some inane reason I thought it would work just the same, so went ahead and bolted everything back together. 

    There's a procedure called 'Air-Bleeding the Fuel System' which is discussed thoroughly in the Massey-Fergsuon 180 shop manual, and the 180 owners manual. The latter has a Trouble Shooting' section but falls short of being really applicable for all possible problems one might encounter --as I did.

    Oh the tractor started afterward, right off -- then died. A fact that made my heart just sink, even though I knew something just wasn't 100% right. I could bleed air from the Primary Filter vent on top, but didn't have fuel at the Secondary Filter vent on top -- and tore everything down again to make sure I was getting fuel where it needed to go --except into the Secondary Vent. Damn.

    So I tried calling my mechanic friend but there was no answer and no answering machine ... all day. I just knew it was that little o-ring that I didn't replace ... that must be it ...

Then, in my sleep, just before I become fully conscious in the morning or so it seems, I get an image in my head of the differences between the new WIX fuel filter and the old CAV Fuel Filter and I see that the o-ring I put under the lip of the new filter and not in the recess of the top fixture where it was supposed to go was blocking a fuel port on the filter; the old filter had multiple holes where the fuel could get through. I wasn't sure that was it or not, but I planned to change it after breakfast.

    Just as I finished eating Leighton called and said "I see you were calling me yesterday quite a few times, Ha!" We had a good laugh about it. I assured him I wasn't panicking but was glad to hear from him all the same. He told me that a friend of his from Greenbush, who works on tractors and the like, said that some people misplace that top filter o-ring on the Secondary Fuel Filter. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hhbqL00jsPI 

    I was ecstatic! I had done the same thing; it was just as I thought, but hadn't gotten around to carrying through. Boy, that made all the difference in the world. I took the o-ring out of the filter and pressed it into the top fixture where it was supposed to be and immediately upon reassembly got fuel there too.

    The tractor still didn't start. I loosened all four injector nozzles, one at a time, and spun the engine with the starter just a bit til I saw fuel leak from them, closed each tight, and tried the engine again. No start.

    I wasn't worried. Everything was right. The lines were bled, nothing was leaking anywhere, so I dug the Starting Fluid/Ether out and squirted a little into the open air cleaner. It chugged, coughed and fired a couple times, then stopped. 

    "Just a wee bit more there, buddy. C'mon ... Here goes."

    

  Then it started! BOO-YAH! 

   Happy days!