I need diesel help (782D)

[jbrewer]

I've got a 782D as my main lawn mower. I've had it for about 5 yrs and it generally runs good and is reliable.... but.....

Recently it stumbled and died about halfway though mowing the front yard. I took the 2nd (canister ) fuel filter out, cleaned it, and the air filter and it started and got back to the house. It died again while completing the back yard after mowing for a while.

I then took off the pans, pulled the fuel tank and cleaned out the petcock which was indeed preventing good fuel flow. I changed (some) of the fuel line , put it all back together again and it ran fine.... for a while.

I ordered and installed a Kubota brand inline filter and it ran strong BUT again died after about 45 min of running.

What seems to happen is that once it's been running for about 30 min or so, it starves for fuel. It does this quickly if there's a lot of load on the engine or if the RPM's are up. If I throttle it back and disengage the PTO, it will run for extended time (5 min or so) before it seemingly starves itself again and shuts off. It'll restart again immediately with no missing if I let it sit for 30 sec or so.

Things I'm thinking about:

*I need to pull the petcock out of the fuel tank (does it come out? If so, how) and really clean it. Is there a filter actually in it? I can't tell by the diagram I looked at

* during all these escapades, I never bled the fuel system. It always restarted itself and worked though any air in the system. I figured that if it was a big issue, it wouldn't start, but I've been wrong before.

* I'm not sure what kind of fuel volume should come out of the fuel pump (gravity in, little squirts out is what it looks like).


What else can I look at ? I want this running again. When it's running well, it's got plenty of power and runs strong.

Thanks for any hints. Diesel Doctor, I need ya sir!