Replace Sediment Bowl on Farmall 666 with Direct Fuel Line to Gas Tank

[iowaboy1965]

2 hours ago, Matt Kirsch said:

I've experienced it several times over the years. You take the bowl off to clean it out, and it would not seal when you put it back on. Of course you never had a new gasket on hand so you'd crank down on the bowl nut a little tighter, a little tighter, then you'd get out the slip joint pliers and twist on it. If you were lucky it would stop leaking, but every once in a while, *CRACK* there goes the glass.

Never  had rubber gaskets. Dealer was the only source in those days. No Steiner Tractor Parts, no Amazon. All you could get were cork gaskets.

Sounds like operator error.......🤔

[MacAR]

I don't know that I've ever had an issue with the cork gaskets. Matter of fact, I'm not sure I've ever seen a rubber gasket. But I do keep a half-dozen of the cork gaskets on hand for such occasions; on occasion, I've been out though, so I've had decent luck gently taking the gasket out, soaking it in gasoline, then turning it over and reinstalling it. I have broken a bowl or two... and that's with my fingers! 

[snoshoe]

The rubber and cork gaskets are for different assemblies and are slightly different sizes. Can be real mean getting sealed up with the wrong gasket. It will either be to big and real difficult to get it to all fit in there. Or it will be to small. Won't stay up or centered. Aftermarket maybe be different now.

 

[John Rowehl]

On 8/21/2025 at 7:58 PM, snoshoe said:

All of the above. I go even further and remove inline filters and replace with sediment bowls and steel or copper lines on my equipment. But then I'm in my 80's. What do I know.

I’d say you know a heck of a lot and provide good straight answers to those of us that are in need of advice.

[Matt Kirsch]

13 hours ago, iowaboy1965 said:

Sounds like operator error.......🤔

That may very well be, but in the absence of expert help to show us what we were doing wrong, we did the best we could. I mean, it's not a complicated mechanism. Pretty obvious how it goes together. You'd have to try to put it together wrong. Why did they leak so much then? Just gushing out around the top of the bowl.

[Reichow7120]

18 hours ago, Matt Kirsch said:

I've experienced it several times over the years. You take the bowl off to clean it out, and it would not seal when you put it back on. Of course you never had a new gasket on hand so you'd crank down on the bowl nut a little tighter, a little tighter, then you'd get out the slip joint pliers and twist on it. If you were lucky it would stop leaking, but every once in a while, *CRACK* there goes the glass.

Never  had rubber gaskets. Dealer was the only source in those days. No Steiner Tractor Parts, no Amazon. All you could get were cork gaskets.

Easy solution to the cracked glass ones is to get a metal one like was used on mounted corn pickers.😎😎😎

Now with that being said. I've been guilty of the overtighting thing once or twice. You want to use the tractor. It's leaking you tighten it some and it slows down some. But not entirely. Yeah the gasket is pouched but you don't have one there and the closest place that has a gasket is 15 or 20 miles away and you really need to be doing something else instead a 30 or 40 mile round trip to get a gasket. At this point you're ##ssed off and looking for a way out.

[HydroTek]

Seen GrandPa cut a bowl gasket out of leather from an old pair of work boots 

He didn't throw anything away 

I have made the gasket from an old inner tube 
you have 'options' on the Farm 

[Matt Kirsch]

Man, if the leather was good enough for gaskets, the boots were good enough to wear. When Dad was done with a pair of boots, there wasn't anything recognizable as leather left.... Same thing with old inner tubes. We didn't have any. Dad would patch them and put them right back in the tire. Of course that was in the days when tubes were made of rubber and you could patch them. Half the time the patches had patches.

He was brought up in a very Depression-affected home. Born in 1945 but his folks still acted like the Depression was still going strong.

[IHFarmall666]

I was able to find the correct connection to the gas tank, and did remove the sediment bowl.  I put a 1/4 turn shut off valve and a good in line filter.  The tractor is running better than it has for years.  I realize the filter will have to be changed, maybe often, but I am going to try it for awhile.  I have the sediment bowl stored if needed again.  Thanks for all the responses.  

[Matt Kirsch]

If the tank's clean, and your fuel delivery system is clean, and the fuel is clean, the filter will never need changing. I don't remember if you said you had a rust or crud problem, or why you wanted to change it.

[ComancheStarFarms]

This is my experience with my family’s two Hs & a Super M - - all three purchased new by my grandfather & father & in my custody for past 30+ years.  Sediment bowl works great - - clever engineering contraption - - until it doesn’t.  At that point it can be hours over days to figure out what went wrong with such a simple system.  All the various issues already listed above.  Eventually everything comes together & then trouble free again for years.  If that’s your experience then stick with it.  But I stopped farting with it years ago & went with aviation fuel line & an inline filter along with a shut off valve.  Oh, and I threaded it to the tank with a 1” extension into the tank to prevent sucking gunk. Driving up on a neighbor whose glass bowl cracked & poured gasoline on the starter which evidently sparked when cranking over the engine & then reduced his MTA to ashes was my deciding point.  I did similarly with the two 6V batteries - - they worked great until they don’t & then a whole list of things to identify “what went wrong.”  A single Group 31 now does the starting for us.

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

1 hour ago, ComancheStarFarms said:

This is my experience with my family’s two Hs & a Super M - - all three purchased new by my grandfather & father & in my custody for past 30+ years.  Sediment bowl works great - - clever engineering contraption - - until it doesn’t.  At that point it can be hours over days to figure out what went wrong with such a simple system.  All the various issues already listed above.  Eventually everything comes together & then trouble free again for years.  If that’s your experience then stick with it.  But I stopped farting with it years ago & went with aviation fuel line & an inline filter along with a shut off valve.  Oh, and I threaded it to the tank with a 1” extension into the tank to prevent sucking gunk. Driving up on a neighbor whose glass bowl cracked & poured gasoline on the starter which evidently sparked when cranking over the engine & then reduced his MTA to ashes was my deciding point.  I did similarly with the two 6V batteries - - they worked great until they don’t & then a whole list of things to identify “what went wrong.”  A single Group 31 now does the starting for us.

I’m not a fan of the extension into the tank because eventually you end up with the water being as deep as the extension. It works great until the tank rusts out. 

[HydroTek]

To the point of an extension into the tank
the sediment bowl also does that 

A benefit of the sediment bowl is settling the junk out in the bowl that is in the bottom of the tank
and visual evidence of problems in the fuel and tank

Cracking of a bowl is a function of over tightening the retainer
usually because of a poor gasket 
or warped base -- again from over tightening 

I prefer a sediment bowl
but they do come with certain responsibilities 

[acem]

What's the proper method for removing the gunk in the bottom of the tank?

Does the 3039 filter have a gasket made into it or does it take a separate gasket?

[MacAR]

The 3039 filter takes a separate cork gasket Ace, the same as is normally used. As for removing the tank gunk, I don't have a lot of advice. I've been lucky so far in that all of mine are clean!

[Chester5732]

Mine all have the sediment bowl. I have been farming with them for 32 years and they are 65-70 years old.  Occasionally a leak which a new gasket fixes.  I have never cracked the glass bowl. It’s real simple to see when it needs cleaned. 

[mrfred54]

On 8/23/2025 at 6:16 PM, HydroTek said:

Seen GrandPa cut a bowl gasket out of leather from an old pair of work boots 

He didn't throw anything away 

I have made the gasket from an old inner tube 
you have 'options' on the Farm 

I keep cork gasket and pieces of old inner tube and make my own gaskets. I use a piece of exhaust pipe and sharpen one end and in a press can cut out perfect size gaskets. Got 5 different size pipes for cutting out the gaskets. Cub muffler size is perfect for the inner hole, cut off the top one inch and use in the press

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

9 hours ago, acem said:

 

What's the proper method for removing the gunk in the bottom of the tank?

 

Remove the tank and take it to a radiator shop. I have had them get rust and crud out of otherwise solid tanks and have it coated to prevent more rust. The last tank I did was on my Wisconsin powered old Hobart welder. It was a mess, but cleaned up good. The welder runs good now and the sediment bowl never clogs anymore. 

[acem]

I have considered using an aggressive solvent, like acetone or MEK, shaking it around and removing the sediment bowl/valve assembly to clean it occasionally.  Maybe hot soapy water after it's removed?  Just thinking.

[oleman]

I like spin-on fuels filters for both gas and diesel applications. I removed the Bosch filters on our diesel tractor because of the glass filters, I broke them once too many times, because our tractor does a lot of heavy bush-hogging. Never were an issue in normal field work.  

I would try silicon carbide balls to break the rust, balls for a ball mill, followed by a mild acid solution. I discovered that white vinegar is a good cleaner for stainless steel cookware. 

[HydroTek]

3 hours ago, acem said:

I have considered using an aggressive solvent, like acetone or MEK, shaking it around and removing the sediment bowl/valve assembly to clean it occasionally.  Maybe hot soapy water after it's removed?  Just thinking.

Evap-o-Rust will get the rust out of the tank
you will need to position the tank so the rusty part can soak