Sediment Bowl Trouble

FlatLand9n

New User
So I just picked up a 9N recently... came with the land I purchased actually. Not sure what year but its a front mount distributor, 6 volt system. Never owned a tractor before but decent mechanical knowledge.. work on all my own vehicles for the most part. Figure tractors gotta be easy... :wink:

Brief history...
To make a long story short, this tractor ran fine until it died while running bush hog under load. I got it running again after it cooled off but sounded like it had a misfire. I figured I might as well rebuild the carb and distributor since not knowing the history. Ordered my parts kits... read up online and went to work. Put them back on and the tractor only ran with full choke. Pulled carb and distrutor and went through them again. Thought maybe timing was off. Tried again and couldnt get it to fire. Finally figured out the coil had died. Put on a new coil and it ran great for maybe 1 minute and started to stumble again unless I gave it a little choke. Now I'm thinking fuel issue. As throttle increased, engine would cut out without some choke applied... slight amount is all that was needed.

After some tinkering with the main and idle settings, the tractor sputtered its last time and died... couldnt get it started again. I now noticed NO fuel was flowing out of the tank but there was still fuel inside the tank.. though low. So I attempted to remove the sediment bowl assembly. It seemed tight but I gave it a little muscle.. too much muscle... snapped the sucker off inside the tank! :(

I still need to get a new sediment bowl and find a large easy-out but for those who have been down this path... do I need to pull the tank? Would I be wasting my time trying to get this sucker out with the tank in place? I dont know if an easy out will even work to be honest. Thoughts?
 
Something else of interest that I should note. When I rebuilt the carb... there was not an existing main jet in there. I installed the one from my kit anyway. Is it normal for these tractors to run seemingly alright without a main jet?
 

If the sediment bowl was original, and you only had the valve open two turns like you should have you may have just run out of fuel. to get the fuel out of the bottom of the tank one has to open the valve all the way open, that is known as reserve fuel. I call ite a good way to get the crud in the bottom of the tank into the carb.

I would try an ez out before I pulled the tank. might be a lot less work.

the only time you will see fuel flowing in the bowl is when the float valve is open allowing fuel flow. I always check for fuel flow by removing the plug in the bottom of the carb and catching the gas in a pint jar. If nothing is plugged it would fill a pint jar in about 2 or 3 minutes.

After all these years one will find a lot of things on these old machines, they run pretty good even when someone forgets to put parts in.
 
I would probably pull the tank. Upside down drilling in a gas tank scares me a bit, I would hate to spark. The tank is time consuming but fairly straight forward. There are the dog leg screws, the dash screws and the radiator cap and gas line. I think you need to disconnect the headlight wiring also. It's heavy, get some help even if empty to lift up. Two people make it a simple job. I don't know anything about carb rebuilds.
 
As an old safety and environmental officer:

My first question to you is what is your life worth to yourself, your wife and
grandkids?

Established that fact: now you have two options,

buy a new tank, cut off valve, sediment bowl, install them and get back to tractor
work.

Risk the possibility of a spark from that drill, blowing up the gas fumes that are still
in that tank, after you have washed it out numerous times. Do some reading on drilling
and welding on old fuel tanks!!!!!!!!!!

Just my two cents from an old safety officer, who has seen guys do almost everything and
anything, the most dangerous and unsafe way.

Then I have to call the family members to meet me at the hospital.

Just me, I would buy a new tank and motor on, but there will be a number on here that
will tell you, they have welded a many old gas tanks.

Good luck!
 
"this tractor ran fine until it died while running bush hog under load"..."When I rebuilt the carb... there was not an existing main jet in
there"

I have open a number of MS carbs that did not have a main jet. That was not your problem.
 
I assume you snapped it off right at the bottom of the tank. Put an "adjustable" wrench on the EZ out and unscrew it, it shouldn't be hard to get out
 
And please remember, once you get it fixed -- (as noted previously) the valve has a 'reserve fuel' setting. Open it two turns and you get the top 9 (or so gallons). Open it up all the way to get to that bottom gallon.
 
(quoted from post at 14:02:35 05/15/15) And please remember, once you get it fixed -- (as noted previously) the valve has a 'reserve fuel' setting. Open it two turns and you get the top 9 (or so gallons). Open it up all the way to get to that bottom gallon.

I wondered why fuel was left in the tank.


Picked up one of those square easy outs and all it did was rip out the aluminum casting left over. I quit fearing I was getting close to the threads in the tank. Went a head and purchased a tap to see if it will clean up this mess. I really hate to remove the tank though.
 
Risk the possibility of a spark from that drill, blowing up the gas fumes that are still
in that tank, after you have washed it out numerous times. Do some reading on drilling
and welding on old fuel tanks!!!!!!!!!!

Just my two cents from an old safety officer, who has seen guys do almost everything and
anything, the most dangerous and unsafe way.

Just me, I would buy a new tank and motor on, but there will be a number on here that
will tell you, they have welded a many old gas tanks.

Good luck!

I don't think I have ever welded on a gas tank but I have cut off a bunch of 55 gallon drum tops . Either way you can fill them with water and be fairly safe with the lack of oxygen . I have heard of people piping in exhaust fumes to cut the O2 but I think I will pass on that - Ken who just got 7 stitches removed last week :wink:
 
I was not trying to scare you. Just make sure you were aware of the potential dangers
of drilling on an old gas tank.

I welded a 1 1/2 " cut off valve to an old 200 gallon gas tank once when I was much
younger.

After much research and asking old maintenance folks, 50% said they would, 50 % said
they would not.

You mentioned drilling the broken valve stem out of the tank. The electric drill
produces sparks in the motor as it runs.

Once I got the valve fitting welded onto the old gas tank, I used an air drill to cut
out the inside of the fitting, tank was full of water and water was running over my hole
cutting saw blade as I drilled. I was still very concerned as to why I was doing this,

Risking my life to make a water tank out of an old gas tank, looking back that was near
the top of my dumb things I ever did. I just know I was scared as I welded and cut out
that hole.

Have you looked inside your old tank, is it clean and worth saving, if rusty you may never get the rust from breaking off an stopping up your fuel lines, I had to install one of those inline fuel filters between the cutoff valve and carb before I stopped the crud from getting to my carb.
Again, good luck with the old tractor.
 
I appreciate all the cautionary advice but I never said I was going to use a drill on the tank or any form of heat... I only mentioned the easy-out. :wink:
 
You are too over cautious. First off your talking about a 10 gallon tank not a 200 gallon. Easy to remove all gas and fumes. Many ways to do so. Leave it open in the hot sun for a week or how ever long you feel the need. Once dry blow compressed air in it. Not a big deal. If you are still worried, leave the air blowing in it while doing the job. My Father, a pipe line welder, used to weld up cracks in 36" natural gas lines while under 26,000 pounds of pressure. (Don't try that one at home, I wouldn't). But a 10 gallon tank? If you didn't do a good job, most that would happen is a pop and maybe swell the tank and scare the ---- out of you. Caution and safety is always a good thing. But throwing away a good tank when it can still be used and/or repaired makes no sense. Then also every ones still level differs. If anyone is not sure they can do so safely then by all means just buy new.
 

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