Ran my JD410 Backhoe out of fuel. How do I re-prime it?

[LOGDOG]

Yep. My fuel gauge said half a tank but when it quite and I looked down in the tank I could see the bottom. So I filled it back up to the very top. Cranked and cranked and nothing. I haven't run a diesel motor dry ever purposely because I had heard they were a bear to re-start afterwards. But today was my day to find out first hand.

The serial number on my machine is 323146 in case any of you have access to a schematic drawing to reference. It's a JD410 Backhoe. Can you point me in the right direction as to which fittings will need to be loosened and bled? Do I need to remove the fuel filter and fill it with fuel manually? Is their an air bleeding valve in line somewhere like some other tractors have?

I'd greatly appreciate any assistance you can offer. This certainly is not what I had planned on spending my weekend doing. From now on I'll just have to give it the old "visual look down into the tank" instead of trusting my gauges.

Thanks much,

LOGDOG

[tjdub]

Been there, done that.

First, there is a bleed screw on the top of your fuel filter assembly that you need to open up. If your machine has the round filters, there are two. One for each filter directly above the filter elements. I think it's a 1/2" hex or 16 point head (probably plastic). Just loosen the one above the filter that's toward the rear of the tractor. The top left #4's in this image:



Next you need to bleed the air out of the filters. There's a little lever on the lift pump that lets you run it by hand (#4 in this image).



If you're lazy or if the lever doesn't work, you could crank the engine over with the starter too. Also, if the fuel level is above the bleed screw elevation, all you have to do is wait, the fuel will eventually just start coming out without any pumping.

Once fuel starts coming out of that bleed screw, tighten it up quick and you should be back in business.

If your machine has been converted to the square-type filter, the bleed screw is on the side instead of the top (the side facing the front of the tractor). It's aluminum instead of plastic.

[DavTom]

I found a tech manual for it that can be viewed online but not sure if it's OK to put the link here due to possible copyright violations...
Then again it's a US Army issue tech manual and says "APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED"

[Tigerhaze]

I found a tech manual for it that can be viewed online but not sure if it's OK to put the link here due to possible copyright violations...
Then again it's a US Army issue tech manual and says "APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED"

Federal documents are in the public domain (as long as not classified), so there is no copyright issue.

[DavTom]

You'll need to be patient if it loads as slow for you as it does for me...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20942106/TM-5 ... HOE-LOADER

If you sign up at scibd and then upload something you can download from them for 24 hrs...
I have saved a copy of this and every other useful manual I've found there...

[LOGDOG]

Thanks guys. I was able to get it re-primed again using the hand primer on the fuel pump. Bled the air out of the bleeder valve on the top of the fuel filter and on two or the injector lines. Had to give it just a touch of either to get it to pop but it did.

I should have left it running though to charge the battery. I shut it off and when I went back to go to work on it the ignition button gave me nothing. I thought, "Oh boy, now what?" Took the panel off the box that houses the ignition system. Connections seemed to be fine. Took the floor panel off to get at the battery below the seat. Hooked jumper cables to the battery and that gave me a a little juice to the starter when I pushed the ignition button. So it was at least a battery issue. Somehow, I melted my jumper cables in that process. Not sure how that happened. Ended up needing to pull the battery. The connections were terribly rusted. I need to put new ends on the battery cables. Any ideas on the easiest/least expensive method of doing that /taking the existing ones off and maybe crimping new ones on?

I put the battery on the charger and got it fully charged again. And by that time I was out of weekend and into my work week again. Never a dull moment. The guys over on TractorByNet helped me a ton. That's actually where I found out about that manual on Scribd. Lifesaver!