Fixing the Fuel Line on Our Tractor

Sometimes, you have to slow down in order to enjoy a few successes and that’s what happened this past Saturday.  Two weekends ago, we had a rough time with our truck, Willie. We were rushing to do so much and not accomplishing anything. Well, this past weekend was a little better.  Today, I am happy to report that we have our tractor running again!  Well, wait, I am not sure we told you that it wasn’t running!?

The Problem

See, about three weeks ago, I went out to the garage to start up the tractor. It had been sitting since it arrived and I wanted to ensure that we cranked it every now and again.  Well, I did just that, let it run for a minute or two and shut it off.  We went in the house and later came back out to the garage to find gasoline dripping from underneath the tractor. Now, our garage is attached to our home and gasoline fumes in there are not a good idea.  This meant that I needed to find the leak and stop it immediately!

As it turns out the gas lines on a John Deere 2020 tractor are made out of metal.  It seemed that no matter where I looked, I couldn’t pinpoint where the gas was leaking.  Even with a pretty simple layout from the gas tank to the fuel pump, I still could not find it.  After being on my knees looking underneath the tractor and throwing down kitty litter where it had already leaked on the garage floor, I had found it.

Luckily, there was a small piece of rubber hose that had replaced a broken piece of fuel line in the past. I was able to connect a manual siphon to this hose and pump out the remaining gas.  After that, I attached some plastic hose crimpers to ensure no more gas ran out. Sheeeeeew, crisis averted!

The Fix

The fuel lines on this machine were designed to run from the front fuel tank, down the right side of the frame, under the radiator, up around the oil filter and to the fuel pump.  Out of AAAAAALLLL the places where it could have cracked, the fuel line cracked underneath the small crevice of radiator.  I ended up cutting the metal hose with a pipe cutter, removing a section of the metal fuel line, and replacing it with a rubber hose.  Also, I added an inline fuel shut-off valve close to the gas tank for a couple of reasons:

1. If I need to stop the flow of fuel, I can shut off the gas at the closest point to the tank
2. If I need to empty the tank for any reason, I can easily do it at the shut off value

I am sure there are a few other benefits that will come out of it, but for now those were my reasons.

Throughout it all, I managed to take pictures and videos at different points, so I was able to piece them together. With that being said and without further ado, below is a few pictures of the spilled gas and rusted out metal lines. In addition, there is a video of the before and after repairs of the fuel line.

Last But Not Least…

Oh and one more thing. In the video, the tractor did not have a name. However, I am happy to report that our tractor as been officially named “Herman”!  We have Deidra to thank for that one, but hey I think it fits.

Have any of you run into any of these issues before with your old farm equipment? If so, did you replace the lines with metal or rubber? We’d love to hear from you!