Ford 3500 fuel leak what is this part?

Hi, I noticed some smoke coming out from under the hood while my 3500 diesel was idling. I opened the hood and saw white smoke coming from behind the battery tray. I swung the battery out and noticed this part was pretty wet. It is just below the voltage regulator. The amount of smoke made it hard to see exactly where it was burning off. There is tubing from the fuel filter that wraps around and connects with this part, and then other tubing coming out. I could not find anything on the New Holland parts site that looks like this. Does anyone know what this part is?
Thanks
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Looks to me like your cold start reservoir (#1) which supplies fuel to your cold start heater (#5). Having said that, I'm not positive, because it appears to be hanging lower than it should - maybe the bracket is broken off. If that's truly what it is, it does not look to be properly plumbed.

As for the smoke, could be the voltage regulator if fuel or oil is being somehow sprayed/leaked on the backside of it. There are resistors on the backside of the regulator that get hot in normal operation. If the smoke is not coming from the regulator, you'd better track it down fast, because my next guess would be a pinched wire at the battery tray. If not taken care off, that might not end well.
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+1 on checking pinched wire. I don't know about later models like 3500 but have been told the 2/3/4000s of '68-'75 had a bad habit of arcing thru old insulation right at that battery tray edge. Once saw a torched front end of 3000 diesel in a tractor scrapyard here...yard owner said previous owner had it light up while turned off & sitting in barn. Lucky he saw it in time & got fire out before losing barn. Fire start was traced to that tray edge. Put extra insulation over our wires at that point & pull a batt cable in between uses.
 
Thanks Bern. That looks like the part alright. I looked at the NH parts diagram for the fuel system and isn't there, but looking again it turns out the cold start diagram is a separate listing. Thanks for finding it.
I just now took out the battery so I could swing out the battery tray further. The cold start reservoir is attached solidly to the bracket. Looks like you were right about wires being pinched. Some of the wires in the wiring harness, were being squashed, but I did not find any bare wires (red arrow).
I also noticed the fuel hoses between the injectors are pretty bad, with the clamps cutting into the hose on at least one. The last hose between the last injector (closes to firewall) and the fuel tank is damaged from being pinched by the battery tray (green arrow). Also, that last hose seemed to be of a different softer material than the others. I assume I should get replacement hoses from New Holland since they're high pressure, and not an autozone/Napa replacement?

I'll try to see if there is any fuel spray coming from that reservoir or anywhere else with the tractor running before it gets hot.

thanks again

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After looking at this most recent picture, it sure seems to me like your cold start system is not plumbed properly. It would appear that the line going to your heater is attached to the TOP of the reservoir, when it should be at the bottom, as per the parts drawing in my last post.

That reservoir is not supposed to be under any kind of pressure. In normal operation, leak off fuel from the injectors comes in the top, filling the reservoir to gravity feed the cold start heater. Any excess goes out the top back to the fuel tank. This is clearly seen in the parts drawing.

As wet as things look under there, I'd be cleaning up that area as good as you can and then run it to find out where your fuel and/or oil leaks are coming from. You are one shorted wire or a single exhaust spark away from having a crispy critter on your hands.

Speaking of shorted wires, be VERY careful where the battery tray comes in and swings over the top of the injectors. Use zip ties where needed to keep wires away from pinch points.

I see you have a SOS model - cooler lines gave that away.
 

Bern is correct, the cold start system needs to be replumbed to work properly.
Looking at the first pic, as wet as the rubber line is at the bottom of the cup you may have fuel dripping onto the exhaust manifold which will cause white smoke when the manifold gets hot.
It will also cause a fire.
No wires or hoses should run over the valve cover for the battery tray to pinch, they should run to the back of the head and along the front of the fuel tank staying behind the battery tray.
I put a wire clamp on one the bolts that holds the tank to the support bracket, this keeps the wires in place and back away from the tray.
 
It's none of my business how you maintain
your tractor but the 3600 above went up in
smoke due to a short in the block heater.
It nearly burned the shed down that it was
in along with the nice 4000 that was
sitting next to it.
I bought the tractor and fixed it and
learned it likely wouldn't have burned if
it was a little cleaner.
Lots of grease and grime on it from
leaking fuel and bad front oil seal
provided the fuel for the errant elect
spark.
An hour with a pressure washer once in a
while makes them more pleasant to work on
too.
Just a thought.
P5030004.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 15:24:45 01/29/17) It's none of my business how you maintain
your tractor but the 3600 above went up in
smoke due to a short in the block heater.
It nearly burned the shed down that it was
in along with the nice 4000 that was
sitting next to it.
I bought the tractor and fixed it and
learned it likely wouldn't have burned if
it was a little cleaner.
Lots of grease and grime on it from
leaking fuel and bad front oil seal
provided the fuel for the errant elect
spark.
An hour with a pressure washer once in a
while makes them more pleasant to work on
too.
Just a thought.
P5030004.jpg

My 4000SU looked like that when I traded a gas 3000 for it, got enough boot to completely fix and paint the SU so figured I came out pretty good.
 
I agree. I planned on cleaning it up in there when I first got the tractor and changed the voltage regulator, but slipped between the cracks. After pulling the battery tray and seeing this again reminded me to get it cleaned up. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Thanks Destroked and 3000OH. Didn't realize I was that close to fire! This is good advice from all the replies.
Tonight I found that the nut holding the pipe in the top of the reservoir was not tight. I tightened that down which should help. There are other areas that are weeping fuel right at the clamp points where it looks like they are actually cutting into the hoses. I'll replace all these.
I was also trying to find a position of the wiring so that it is out of the way of the battery tray, but there is pretty limited space there and not enough slack in the wiring to move it around much. The battery tray edge has to fit over both the wiring and that leak down hose, which it won't without pinching one or the other. I'll try to find another way and use the idea of putting in a clamp to hold the wiring and extra insulation as you guys suggested.
 
Thanks Bern. I'll take a closer look at the plumbing and compare with the diagram. Have to say it looks like you're right. Wonder if changing it will affect how the tractor starts and runs.
This tractor has a 4 speed power reversing transmission, so those are oil cooler lines as you pointed out. Just not an SOS. Doesn't have a cooler either, as the radiator isn't original and doesn't have connections for the additional oil circulation. I'm told that unless there is heavy usage, which I don't plan on, that I won't need the oil cooling through the radiator. Also, when I got the tractor, the whole filter assembly for the tranny was missing with the ends of the cooler lines just spliced together. I flushed the system and installed a filter assembly, but didn't get a new radiator for cooling the oil.
 
Correcting the plumbing issues shouldn't have any effect on the way it runs, but if you've ever tried to use the thermostart in cold weather, you should see a drastic improvement there.

Thanks for the correction on the cooler lines. I didn't even think of a power reversing trans because it wasn't yellow.
 
I slit some heater hose lengthwise and slid it over the wires at that battery tray edge. It eventually wears thru but I check it time to time & replace when needed.
 

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