Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
First of all, who ever wrote the Cat parts manual shouldn't have listed my serial number for it! The return fuel hose is bulk hose with hose clamps. The inlet has fittings on each end. Of course the return hose isn't too hard to get to but the inlet is another story. It connects behind the fuel filter and behind the crankcase vent tube. In order to get at it is a major pain in the azz! You'd have to take the fuel filter and bracket off along with the steel lines to maybe have room to get your hands in there. If the crankcase vent was still in the way, you could maybe move it over once the filter is removed. If not, you'd have to take the muffler off.
Since I didn't have the proper inlet hose, I checked the hose that was on the Cat and it seemed good to me. I thought maybe I could try blowing air back through the inlet line. I took the steel line off at the transfer pump but there was no way to put a hose on the fitting. I thought I'd check the strainer again. It looked clean. Then I thought I could take the 90 deg. elbow, before the strainer, off and put a hose on it. I loosened the jam nut and took the elbow off. By total fluke, this was the best thing I could have done. I looked inside the hex piece with the strainer and it was full of a black grungy substance. I couldn't even poke a small screw driver through it! I soaked it in gas and took a 3/32" welding rod and dug a whole pile of crap out of it. I'm wondering if someone had used a branch or something to check the fuel level and the bark came off? There was even a piece of what appeared to be plastic film. After digging most of the crap out I saw there was a hex fitting so I took the strainer right out and cleaned it some more. Put it back together and ran good for 25 minutes but I'd be completely shocked if all the crap I dug out wasn't the problem. The hex fitting must have been enough to block all the crap from going into the strainer where you could see it.
Since I didn't have the proper inlet hose, I checked the hose that was on the Cat and it seemed good to me. I thought maybe I could try blowing air back through the inlet line. I took the steel line off at the transfer pump but there was no way to put a hose on the fitting. I thought I'd check the strainer again. It looked clean. Then I thought I could take the 90 deg. elbow, before the strainer, off and put a hose on it. I loosened the jam nut and took the elbow off. By total fluke, this was the best thing I could have done. I looked inside the hex piece with the strainer and it was full of a black grungy substance. I couldn't even poke a small screw driver through it! I soaked it in gas and took a 3/32" welding rod and dug a whole pile of crap out of it. I'm wondering if someone had used a branch or something to check the fuel level and the bark came off? There was even a piece of what appeared to be plastic film. After digging most of the crap out I saw there was a hex fitting so I took the strainer right out and cleaned it some more. Put it back together and ran good for 25 minutes but I'd be completely shocked if all the crap I dug out wasn't the problem. The hex fitting must have been enough to block all the crap from going into the strainer where you could see it.