Loss of power

I have a Ford 1994 1715 diesel and have maintained it with oil changes & filter changes, fuel filter changes and it currently has 750 hours in operation. I only use it for mowing and have a 5 ft, mower bed which works extremely well. It starts great, idles, no ruff running but recently started to lose power and then regains but bleeds off again. I can run it pretty well on the level ground but any uphill or incline it will bleed off and come to a stop then after a few minutes will regain and take off again but then will slowly die off and the cycle continues. I have replaced the diesel fuel cleaned the gas tank, lines and there are no obstruction. Also, replaced the fuel filter and added some injector cleaner but still have the problem. It does seem to run a little better with the hand throttle? I sure need some pointers on what to do next!
Paul

lack of fuel or air..i would guess fuel,restriction in the flow of fuel some where??

How bout the air filter? Is it clean?

Then there"s the fuel pump.

Gary

I"ve had similar situations reported to be me several of my customers. Some had done basically the same things you state you have done, ie changed the filters, added new/fresh fuel, etc, etc. In every case the problem turned out to be water in the fuel. All but one of them drew their fuel from their own bulk tank and the tanks had become contaminated with water. So even the "new/fresh" fuel was contaminated so it didn"t fix the problem but only added even more water to the bottom of the tank. For the other guy I have no clue how the water got in his tank other than he was using 5 gallon buckets and one, or more, of them must have had water in it when he stopped to fill them up.

Rarely can you even drain a tank and get all of the water out. Given that, and the fact that most pickups don"t draw directly off the bottom, any water in the tank will stay where it is in the bottom. As a result the engine will run fine on flat ground. However get the machine on a bit of an incline, run over really rough ground, or whatever, and the system will pick up a slug of water. That one slug of water is all it takes to make the engine die out and act crazy until the water passes. Once the water passes it will again run just fine until it picks up another slug of water and the process begins again.

Like I said this has happened to quite a few of my customers in the past few years and it sounds exactly like the symptoms your describing. Solving the problem is as simple as making sure the tank is clean and completely dry before adding known, clean, water free fuel back to it before taking it out for another test.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

I agree, sounds just like water in the fuel.

May have tank vent plugged or restricted, no fuel can get out if no air can get in.

Make sure that the strainer on the tank outlet is not clogged. Remove the line from the tank to the filter at the filter and open the tank valve. The fuel should COTINUOUSLY gush out like a cow peein' on a flat rock. If it dribbles or is intermittent the strainer or the line to the filter are partially clogged. I agree with the possibility that the tank vent could be clogged also so check that.