Fuel Bowl & Filter Change Kama 554

[3RRL]

Among the other 400 hour maintenance procedures on the Kama 554 I did, one of the things was to change the fuel filter and clean out the fuel bowl again. I had ordered several fuel filters from Chip at Artrac for this very reason.

First, be sure to close the fuel supply line going to the fuel bowl. Unscrew the thumb wheel nut on the bottom and be sure not to lose the little cup washers. I got one of those handy magnetic parts trays for stuff like that.
Then you can remove the fuel bowl and clean out the red-rusty residue if any. I had about 1/8" to 1/4" of it in the fuel bowl. You might want to check the petcock for blockage if you are having fuel flow problems, but I did not need to do that. I had never drained and cleaned out my fuel tank either, since I have not experienced any fuel flow problems.

Before...



After cleaning...



I replaced the bowl but I made a new little round gasket since it had been leaking very slightly...no photo of that though.

Rob-

[3RRL]

Next I removed the fuel filter itself. There is a nut on top of the fuel filter base to loosen, then you can unscrew the housing from the base.
Here's what that looks like.



Take out the filter element and dispose properly, then clean out the filter housing and rinse it out. Install the new filter element and fill the housing up with diesel before screwing it all back together again. In a pinch, you could probably wash out and clean the filter element, but it's better to change it out new.
Be sure to re-install the "O" rings to seal it off too.



My filter element was pretty clogged up and I should have changed it before now. The filters are cheap and Chip has them all in stock.
Rob-

[3RRL]

The last thing to do is turn the fuel petcock open again and prime the system.
There is a pump on the injector pump to do that. Unscrew the knob and pump it until you feel pressure. Some fuel may squirt out. Screw it back down after priming. Then fire up the tractor and you are done with that. If it starves, prime it some more using the hand pump. You may have some air in the system you need to get out, so repeat the pumping as needed.



If for some reason you have a problem priming the fuel system, you probably need to get the air out and check a few things.
Start at the beginning of the system, the fuel tank, and work your way down to the injectors.
Like make sure there is fuel in the tank.
Did your glass bowl fill up when you turned the petcock to on, did it fill up with fuel? If not, check the petcock opening to be sure it's not clogged or check the fuel tank for debris in it. If that's OK, continue on.

Follow the fuel line to the fuel filter and injector pump. Did you put fuel into the filter before screwing it back on? Loosen the banjo bolts to see if fuel drips from them. If so, re-tighten. Then crack the fuel lines at the injectors and pump the hand pump until fuel drips out and re-tighten them. By now, you should have most of the air out and determined there is not clog, and you can try to start the tractor again. If you have a clog, you will have localized it and can clear it, otherwise you've purged the system and it should fire up.
Use the hand pump repeatedly until she fires up.
Rob-

[3RRL]

While you are at it, you might want to change the injector pump oil too. I did not do it at this time because I had done it 3 months ago. But if you want to do that, it is very easy to do. I used a suction pump instead of waiting for all the oil to drip out. It was pretty cool.
You can view how I did that in this thread:

Change Injector Pump Oil Kama 554

Rob-

[grohgreg]

Relative to the sediment bowl, red is obviously paint from the inside of the fuel tank. Mine shed red for over 200 hours before it finally stopped collecting in the bowl. Shouldn't be any rust, unless you're not keeping your tank topped up all the time. In that case, you'd likely see water in the bowl too. Dark stuff (black-gray-dark green) will be diesel bugs - various combinations of bacteria, yeasts, moulds, algae. The stuff's more common during warmer temperatures, and/or if fuel and tractor are stored in a heated area. If/when detected, use a biocide additive; usually found in marinas where larger (diesel) boats are serviced.

I also tracked an early sediment bowl leak to a sloppy and excessive application of gasket glue. Since mine is a combination gasket and screen, I couldn't simply cut a new one. So I carefully cleaned up the original. Because of the glue, that required draining the tank and removing the bowl housing. I soaked it in adhesive remover for a day, then carefully peeled the gasket-screen away from the housing. After that, it was just a matter of removing the rest of the glue from both sides of the rubber. I didn't use glue to reinstall the gasket-screen, just a smear of vaseline to hold it in place while I reattached the glass bowl. No leaks since.

//greg//