Diesel supply line with new flare nut
My last trip to Oklahoma was a mild disaster. Nothing going right, skid steer still not fixed after $4700 at the shop, multiple 2+ hour trips fetching parts, aggravating oil and filter changes, and more house plumbing issues. But at least I got the IH 484 tractor up and running again. Between this tractor with the front-end loader and the skid steer, I need at least one of them working to lift things into a dumpster and start seriously cleaning up around the house. Last trip I was draining the diesel tank and broke the flare nut on the fuel line while putting it all back together. The fuel line had enough play that I was able to cut off the end, put on a new flare nut and re-flare the line this trip. After I did this the tractor was up and running again, drove it around 30-40 minutes, no power issues at all! So it seems years of water/dirt/trash in the diesel tank was the problem.
All not without its problems though. I noticed not only was my new flare nut leaking but also the tank valve was leaking. I think I need to re-flare the line so it sits better, and not sure if there’s a packing in the valve I can fiddle with. I had a couple of starter issues, apparently my battery tender did not keep up over the last four months so the battery didn’t have enough charge to start the engine. It was a combination of turning over and clicking that made me wonder if the solenoid was going bad now. After a whole day on a real battery charger, letting it run through a desulfation cycle all day seems to have fixed it.
Bent neutral safety switch
At some point the tractor went from struggling to start to flat out not even attempting to start. This is when I discovered the positive battery lead has been dangling from the side of the tractor for who knows how long and was actually being pinched between the clutch pedal and the neutral safety switch. It had been there for so long that the neutral switch was actually bent backwards and no longer made contact with the pedal after I got the cable out of the way.
Then I noticed a wire had been disconnected from the starter. I sure didn’t do this, and can’t fathom how it somehow just popped off the terminal on its own. Once I put it back in place the tractor was able to start cranking again. Today looking at manuals and old photos this appears to be the neutral safety switch and it doesn’t look like it was disconnected last trip. idk.
The amusing part was the wire jacket was cut on the neutral safety leads so somebody was clearly overriding it with a jumper at some point.
Neutral safety switch disconnected
New problem!
Which leads us to the new April 2026 problem: the engine now won’t shut off when the fuel shutoff is set to STOP.
It chokes and sputters and puffs black smoke, but will keep on running, even with the throttle set to idle. It shouldn’t do that. I even tried popping the clutch to stall it. Finally I had to shut off the diesel at the tank and let it starve itself. Current idea is that the cable leading to the fuel injector got some slack somehow and is not pulling the fuel valve lever all the way to kill the flow. There’s a set screw so this should be pretty easy to fiddle with next time, I had other things to do and didn’t get back to this. I’m happy the thing at least starts and runs now. RiverValley Farm over on YouTube had a similar issue, so I think its fixable.
