Well and update...I had the local Deere dealership fix the clutches and undercarriage and asked them to change the fuel filters since I heard horror stories about losing prime. And they must have forgot.
The crawler comes off the truck, goes 100 yards and dies, most likely of fuel starvation, blocking the sole access to my house and a neighbor's house. The fuel filters were full of black algae and we ended up having to run to the dealer for a sediment bowl. The front filter also had a internal failure with the top cap separating from the rest of the filter and sticking on the shaft. Now we are having trouble making it run for more that a few seconds at a time. It seems to have good flow from the tank, I took apart the petcock valve and it seemed to have good flow. and the filters are full and pressurized.
Now, here what is puzzling, I hand prime using the lever on the lift pump and it takes a good hundred strokes to get resistance, but as soon as I crank it, all the resistance goes away. Could that be air in the line between the filters and injector pump or a perhaps a clog in the line between the tank and lift pump? I don't have much experience with these machines.
Now, the manual says the early models had a strainer in the supply line, and the later models had a strainer in the tank, and mine is one of the last of the 450B . The crawler is NOT at my shop, but parked down by my mailbox, at the bottom of a STEEP hill to the shop. I am thinking my next step is to blow out the fuel line between the tank and the lift pump. I think the lift pump isn't getting fuel as needed and can't keep the pressure to the injector pump. To pull the tank strainer out involves pumping out the fuel tank, to blow out the line involves getting compressed air (too far for my shop system, get my portable out of storage and run 200 feet of extension cord).
Plus I have this silly thing called a day job that is eating up all my time, my team is already two men down due to retirement, and our team leader has severe family health issues that are using up her time, so I am working double right now.
I would like to hope it isn't an injector pump, but from what I have read, a distinct possibility.
I am open for comments...
Howard