Why 2 Fuel Filters?

[Sailboater410]

The BX tractor series (I have the BX24) has 2 fuel filters in series. After over 500 hours of operation I recently discovered the second one is sandwiched between the floor and my bottom protective shield (similar to Brotek). Can anyone speculate about why there are 2 filters in series? I ask because of the access issue for the buried filter, I'd like to eliminate it. To me, only 1 filter should be required since (with 2 in series) the first one is catching 99% of the crud and the second has very little benefit.

Has anyone looked at this?
Any ideas why there are 2 filters in series?
Anyone see any harm in eliminating the buried filter and going with a single filter accessible in the engine compartment?

Thanks for your feedback!
Ron

 

[nickelplated5s]

My F350 has two and the second is a finer filter. With the fuel system being around 14k to replace I wouldn't think of just running one.

 

[eserv]

The BX tractor series (I have the BX24) has 2 fuel filters in series. After over 500 hours of operation I recently discovered the second one is sandwiched between the floor and my bottom protective shield (similar to Brotek). Can anyone speculate about why there are 2 filters in series? I ask because of the access issue for the buried filter, I'd like to eliminate it. To me, only 1 filter should be required since (with 2 in series) the first one is catching 99% of the crud and the second has very little benefit.

Has anyone looked at this?
Any ideas why there are 2 filters in series?
Anyone see any harm in eliminating the buried filter and going with a single filter accessible in the engine compartment?

Thanks for your feedback!
Ron

The first filter is also protecting your electric fuel pump! I guess you could get away without the second one but why do the M6 tractors have 5 fuel filters? In my opinion the better you filter that fuel the happier your tractor ( and you) will be!

 

[D2Cat]

I've got a 1966 Case 730 tractor. It has 3 fuel filters in series, a primary, secondary and a final. All are big size filters. They wanted the fuel to be clean! Still starts easily and runs like a top.

Filters are those little items that save you big-time expense. Be sure to use quality filters, and fluids, to preserve your machines usefulness.

 

[cerlawson]

The second one is there to protect the injectors in case the fuel pump comes apart. If you take the old pump and tear it apart, it really is s simple thing that could disintegrate. It does do a supplemental bit of filtering also. I'm talking abut the filter just before fuel gets to the injectors. If you have not been changing the first filter between the fuel tank and the fuel pump, it is amazing your tractor still runs. That does the major filtering of the fuel. Do a Google search for BX fuel filter replacement which shows how to install a much larger first filter. I had some crud in my fuel and had to do something about frequent plugged first filter.

 

[Sailboater410]

Good points, thank you. From the Kubota online diagram I missed the electric fuel pump between the two filters, and point taken that redundancy is a good thing. Once I get my bottom plate off and scope out the real estate I'll see if I can shift it somewhere else for better accessibility.

 

[CountryBumkin]

You could relocate the first filter to make it easier to service.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kubota-BX-F...24-BX25D-w-loader-FEL-L240-L243-/252761384320

There is a YouTube video from Paul Short here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcQUgl8rNIg showing how to do it, but if you don't have a shop tools Paul has, you may want to buy the kit.

 

[Sailboater410]

Cerlawson, that's how I discovered the 2nd filter, my tractor would run terribly after about an hour of use, RPMs would drop, then come back and be fine for awhile.... very intermittent. Been putting up with this for years. I'd change the visible filter and it seemed to help a little, but the problem didn't go away entirely. Two days ago it became completely unusable and I limped back to the shed. After researching online I heard about the 2nd filter, crud in the tank, etc. so here I am. I did find a video online that I'll watch at lunch today regarding a filter upgrade, good tip, thank you! Relocation would be nice so I can change it more regularly and easily as well.
Cheers!

 

[ephemeralstream]

If you have a fuel storage/transfer tank, be sure to use a filter on the hose before it goes into the tractor's tank

 

[rjcorazza]

My zd326 had the same inline setup that the bx tractors have. In addition to being a pain to replace, they aren't that great of a filter micron wise. I replaced the first filter with a large Cat spin on filter rated at 2 microns. Bolted to the frame, it is easy to replace.