I just thought I'd post this for anyone else that has this problem.
My JD 3032e started dying intermittently, would restart, run well for a while, then die again. I cleaned the fuel separator, installed a new filter, and added some diesel fuel treatment. This helped for a few months then the problem got worse. I knew already that microbes can grow in diesel so I suspected that they were clogging the tank pickup tube. I'd noticed some sort of slimy mass in the fuel separator when I'd cleaned it before so this seemed to make sense. I started to pull the pickup from the bottom of the tank but it looked pretty daunting so I took a look inside the tank - too much fuel to see through. I removed the inlet hose at the fuel separator to drain the tank but got little flow. I blew compressed air back through the tank and then got good enough flow to drain the tank. I took another look into the fill port of the tank and could see a slimy mass in the pickup area and in another low portion of the tank. Although the stuff looked fragile I was able to use a mechanic's pickup tool to remove both masses from the tank (photo below). I've read that this stuff grows at the interface between fuel and water. I'm pretty careful about my fuel quality so I'm not sure how I got water in there other than from the air.
She's running great now.
I read on another site where someone paid a JD dealer $600 to pull the tank and clean it for the same problem. I hope this post saves someone that aggravation.
![[Hearth.com] John Deere 3032e dying, starving for fuel, stuff growing in the fuel tank](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/271/271384-e0de81f0ac261c897acfdcc94f56fff2.jpg?hash=OTKk4qgzZY "[Hearth.com] John Deere 3032e dying, starving for fuel, stuff growing in the fuel tank")
My JD 3032e started dying intermittently, would restart, run well for a while, then die again. I cleaned the fuel separator, installed a new filter, and added some diesel fuel treatment. This helped for a few months then the problem got worse. I knew already that microbes can grow in diesel so I suspected that they were clogging the tank pickup tube. I'd noticed some sort of slimy mass in the fuel separator when I'd cleaned it before so this seemed to make sense. I started to pull the pickup from the bottom of the tank but it looked pretty daunting so I took a look inside the tank - too much fuel to see through. I removed the inlet hose at the fuel separator to drain the tank but got little flow. I blew compressed air back through the tank and then got good enough flow to drain the tank. I took another look into the fill port of the tank and could see a slimy mass in the pickup area and in another low portion of the tank. Although the stuff looked fragile I was able to use a mechanic's pickup tool to remove both masses from the tank (photo below). I've read that this stuff grows at the interface between fuel and water. I'm pretty careful about my fuel quality so I'm not sure how I got water in there other than from the air.
She's running great now.
I read on another site where someone paid a JD dealer $600 to pull the tank and clean it for the same problem. I hope this post saves someone that aggravation.
