Ford 555A Fuel System Issue

Hi all,

I just finished up on some maintenance of this backhoe and was going to put it into action today but ran into an issue. I changed the fuel filter and cleaned out the fuel sediment bowl and reassembled it without any issue. I bled the system and fired it up. It starts without any issue but after a minute or so I can it starts to miss on one of the cylinders. I'll step on the gas pedal and the rpm picks up but it's still missing. After another minute or so I'll let off the gas pedal and it'll just die. I can let is sit for two to three minutes and it'll fire right back up hitting on all three cylinders but the process will start again. On one of the restarts, I cracked each injector line to ensure each cylinder was getting fuel. They were getting fuel and when I cracked the line for cylinder #1 it immediately stalled. I think it was about to start the routine of missing on a cylinder at that point. I should mention that while it was running I checked for leaks and there aren't any.

It seems like a fuel delivery issue to me but I really don't know where to start because it runs perfectly on startup. Does anyone have any advice on where to start looking?

If you used a WIX 33166/NAPA 3166 type filter did the top sealing gasket, get down into the slot around the inside of the filter element? If it did that will restrict even stop fuel flow. The gasket belongs up in the groove in the housing head.

I used something similar. It was a Wix WF8018. The canister is marked SF8018. I'll pull it off to see if the gasket got down into the slot during install.

Thanks for the help Jim. That's exactly what it was. Runs like a champ now.

Ford backhoes have forever been plagued with fuel delivery problems caused by junk [ sediment] being trapped in the fuel shut off
valve at the bottom of the fuel tank. take off the gravity feed line to the filter head , loosen the fuel cap , open the fuel valve,
and blow compressed air into the line you took off the filter head. Any crap in there should be blown out of the valve back into the
tank. Might not do it again for a long time..