How to Clean the Air Filter in a Lawn Tractor Dirt is your lawn tractor's enemy. Dirt in the lawn tractor or riding mower air filter can block airflow to the carburetor, and dirt blocking the cooling surfaces can make the engine overheat. Keeping the air moving is simple, but essential. Your owner's manual has specific instructions and a recommended engine cleaning schedule for your model, but the following steps cover the basics for cleaning the air filter's foam pre-cleaner, air filter and cooling areas. In general, clean the paper filter after 2 or 3 mowing sessions. Wash the foam pre-filter, if your mower has one, after 25 hours of use. For help diagnosing a problem with your lawn tractor and step-by-step repair guides, see our lawn tractor repair help. Remove the Filter Cover Work in an area where dirt won't blow or fall into the lawn tractor during this process. Wipe loose dirt and debris from the area near the filter cover. Remove the wing nuts that hold the filter cover in place.

Set the cover and wing nuts aside. Before removing the air filter, use a rag to wipe dirt from rubber seal that surrounds the filter. Take care not to push dirt under the air filter element. Remove the filter and, if present, the foam pre-filter. Clean the Foam Pre-Filter After every 25 hours of operation or once a year—whichever comes first—wash the foam pre-filter in diluted liquid dish detergent and pat it dry with a paper towel or clean rag. If washing doesn't remove the dirt or if the foam is damaged, order and install a replacement pre-filter. Clean or Replace the Paper Filter Tap the paper filter gently on your hand or a flat surface to remove loose dirt. If the filter is dirty after you tap it, or if the filter is ripped, order and install a replacement filter. Warning: Don't use compressed air or any petroleum products, such as gasoline, oil or kerosene, to clean the paper air filter paper. They can damage the filter. Install the Filters and Cover

Wipe any dirt from the areas that the air filter rubver seal touches. Install the pre-filter and filter. Put the air filter cover into position and tighten the wing nuts to secure the cover in place. Enter a competing manufacturer's part number below to find the right WIX filter Whether it's for automotive, diesel, racing, agricultural or industrial applications, WIX is dedicated to producing the best performing, most reliable filters in the Want to know more about WIX filters? Click the button below to find out more. WIX 2016 New Number Announcement 09-21-16 PDF WIX® Filters Announces Top 20 Schools in 2016 School of the Year Competition Rely on WIX to Keep You on the Road and Ready for the Next Adventure WIX® Filters Launches Cabin Air Product Line Exclusively Enhanced with Microban® Antimicrobial Product Protection WIX® Filters Wins Bond Auto Parts Award for Manpower Support 2015 Red Bull Global Rallycross Lites Winner Tanner Whitten Signs With DDR For 2016

Some of us grew up thinking that an air filter was a paper thing that allowed air to pass while trapping dirtdvd player lens cleaning disc particles of a certain size. air purifier trendsWhat a surprise to open up your first old tractor's air filter case and find a canair purifier open room that appears to be filled with the scrap metal swept from around a machine shop metal lathe. To top that off, you have a cup with oil in it ("why would you want to lubricate your carburetor?"). (and some reading in a AC D-14 service manual), I found out that this is a pretty ingenious method of cleaning the air in the tractor's intake tract. When the engine starts, it sucks a certain amount of the oil out of the cup allowing it to coat the packed-in

This packing causes a massive increase in the amount of oil soaked surface area available to stop dirt particles. The cannister is designed to be the correct height to allow the proper weight oil to not be sucked into the engine but only pulled to the top of the can. Uncleaned air is sucked in by the same vacuum that draws the oil up on the "shavings". drawn downward towards the oil sump at the bottom of the cannister, usually through a center pipe. that are truly "large" will likely continue down into the oil left at the bottom of the cup and be trapped. The small dirt particles are trapped on the oil soaked "shavings" as the air moves upward through theIf the correct weight oil is in the cup, the end result is that the air leaves the top of the The first problem comes with using the wrong weight oil. Use of oil that is too light will cause the oil to be drawn beyond the filter and into the engine. Use of oil that is too heavy will not allow the oil to be drawn

up far enough and much of the air cleaning surface area ends up being unused. Manufacturer owner manuals always show the oil weight that is designed for the system. Engineering of the system (we hope) will have picked just the right weight for the size of the cannister, cup, and vacuum pressure. The second problem comes when the cup is not cleaned regularly. Manuals always recommend daily refilling of the cup and suggest even more frequent cleanings under dusty conditions. The oil may look clean in the cup but after a few hours of running but it has trapped a significant quantity of small particles many of which will be drawn back up into the cleaning surfaces. When the particles-to-oil ratio reaches a certain level, the dirt will begin to hang on (or "sludge up") on the cleaning surfaces. Eventually, instead of just clean air being sucked into the intake, you have chunks of dirt and sludge going with it. Obviously this can be quickly damaging