Not long ago, while mowing hills, the tractor began to lose power. I managed to get back to the shop and checked that the fuel filter had water on it. I put in a little more fuel and that seemed to help, but it happened again. Not what you want on a steep hill.
I have changed the fuel filter and have bled the system. I drained all the fuel and there was no contamination in the fuel. I put in a new transfer pump and bleed again (3 times from filter to injectors). The new pump didn’t work any better so I put the old pump back in. I even put a new fuel line from the tank to the transfer pump. The tractor runs fine for about 5 minutes and then it starts to lose power. No load works a little better but not much. When overloaded it seems to “clear” and then stumble again. It doesn’t want to idle and shuts down. I can pump the transfer pump and it will start again and it works quite well with no load, but as soon as a load is put on it happens again. He acts like he’s running out of fuel but I can’t see why.
In effect, it looks like a fuel supply problem. It has covered most of the problem areas with seemingly little improvement …
A restricted / insufficient supply is much more likely than an injection pump problem. Sometimes a little “jury” is necessary. A clean fuel jug and length of fuel hose for a makeshift temporary fuel supply can help reduce these problems. Sometimes I interpose an electric pump temporarily in various places in the system. That has been effective in some cases.