Tractor runs on idle but quits when give gas

Daniel H

New member
I just purchase a Farmall 656 that has been sitting idle for sometime. I drained the sediment bowl that was full of water and dirt. I drained the fuel tank. Tractor runs good when idling but when I give it gas the engine dies. What is the problem? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you.
 

bczoom

Senior Member
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Welcome to the forum.

A bad fuel filter or bad fuel line would be my first guesses. I'm thinking the latter.

If there's a fuel filter between the tank and the carb, it could be letting "some" fuel go through (enough for idle) but not enough when you give it the gas.

If your fuel line is old and is dry-rotted where there's a crack or hole in it, when it goes to pull more fuel, that crack (hole) is allowing air to be pulled instead (drawing from the path of least resistance). You're not getting more fuel, just air.

Those are 2 easy things to inspect/fix/replace. For the fuel line, if you see some places that "don't look right", try wrapping some electric tape around as an intermediate measure to do testing to see if you can get higher RPM's. Be advised though, if the fuel line is bad enough where it could leak out onto the tape, it'll eat the gummy part of the tape over a period of time and make it worst. It's a quick fix for testing but if it fixes the issue, replace the line and don't rely on that tape.
 

Doc

Admin
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
I had an issue much like this with a 52 8N that I had. If I remember right I replaced the filter and the old gravity feed fuel bowl and I was good to go.

Welcome to Net Tractor Talk. I'm glad you found us. Good luck getting this worked out.
 

loboloco

New member
If the filter and line don't fix the problem, it is probably the carburetor. the needles could be gummed up or, if it has one, the float could be chocked up with gunk. a good tear down cleaning or rebuild would fix it though.
 

normvp

New member
More dirt...

I had a Farmall H some time ago. It also had debris in the sediment bowl. It would not run properly after cleaning out the bowl. I finally discovered that the line from the sediment bowl down to the carburator was packed with rust and sediment. Fuel was seeping through the almost plugged line. The engine would start, even run, but could not provide serious power becuase there was no fuel. Check the line from the sediment bowl on your Farmall. You will want to turn off fuel flow from the tank before removing the fuel line.
 

Doc

Admin
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
I had a Farmall H some time ago. It also had debris in the sediment bowl. It would not run properly after cleaning out the bowl. I finally discovered that the line from the sediment bowl down to the carburator was packed with rust and sediment. Fuel was seeping through the almost plugged line. The engine would start, even run, but could not provide serious power becuase there was no fuel. Check the line from the sediment bowl on your Farmall. You will want to turn off fuel flow from the tank before removing the fuel line.
Good informative post Norm. :tiphat: Thanks!
 

LincTex

Member
I had one that y'all will NEVER guess!

I bought a rusty (but not froze up) '48 Farmall C that I got for scrap price and got running.

It did the same thing, and I did EVERYTHING to it - even tried different carburetors... all with the same result. It started and idled fine, open the throttle and it dies. Fuel flow was no problem. I scratched my head and scratched my head and scratched my head....

It was a PAPER WASP NEST built up inside the intake manifold!! At idle, there was enough vacuum to suck the air/fuel mixture through the paper all day long... but when you opened the throttle, it was enough restriction that manifold vacuum dropped when the throttle plate opened and all the suction went away, and it would quit.

It took me a long time to figure that one out... boy oh boy!! :pat:
 
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