Water in Racor tube

[Courtney Adams]

Hello all,
I am very new to the RV life. I have a 1999 Beaver Patriot Thunder 425 with the C12 engineI’m have an issue where the engine cut out and I have been unable to get it restarted.  I have a friend that works for CAT and connected it to the computer and it didn’t throw any codes. When we were looking at the back of the coach he took note of the racor system and he assessed it as likely having water in the system.  We looked at the Racor system and we were able to purge for air, but not for water? I’ve ordered the filters and am wondering how I remove the water from the Racor tube?
Here are some pictures that show what I’m looking at:

The air purge works fine, but the water purge does nothing? I’m not sure where the yellow tube is suppose to plug in to?

Any help or guidance that can be provided will be a huge help.

[Frank Bergamo]

The water purge will not activate if no water is detected. I would be more interested in the o-rings on the end of the clear tube leaking, allowing air into system. There are 2 o-rings, one in each end of the housing, and 2 o-rings on each end of the clear tube, for a total of 4 o-rings. Do a search of Racor fuel filter, and you will get the info you are looking for. As far as the yellow tube, I believe that is the purge tube. It should go thru the bottom of the compartment, dumping on the ground. Hope this helps.

Looking at your fuel filter, it does not have the metal purge device that the purge line hooks up to, located on the bottom of the filter. The water sensor is in the metal bottom also. Someone removed the original filter and installed a no drain filter. Here is what it should look like. http://beaveramb.org/forum/index.php/topic,9276.msg63440.html#msg63440

[Eric Maclean]

Courtney
If you have water in the Raycor sight glass the primary filter is also full of water and both must be drained .
Your Winn/ Raycor system was originally set up with a different filter with a sediment bowl on the bottom which collected the water the plastic tube you see tucked up beside the filter use to connect to a fitting on  the bottom of the sediment bowl and when you pushed the purge water button on the control ,the control opened a solenoid and turned on the the priming pump to purge the water out a hose hanging out the bottom of the bay.
Your unit has a regular water separator on it because the original filter is no longer available.
There was an upgrade kit made by Raycor to replace the filter and sediment bowl as the old original filter is no longer available.
There are manuals for the Winn/ Raycor system you have on the Coach Assist section of this forum which also have the conversation kit numbers.

But for right now all you have to do is open or remove the drain plug in the bottom of the Napa 3405 filter you have and run the priming pump untill you get clean clear fuel and then close the drain and you should be good to go.
In the event that water has made it past the primary filter you will have to change the secondary .it's best to use only Cat filters for the secondary .
The system is a return type system with a pressure relief valve that maintains rail pressure if you run the priming pump for a while you can purge the rail as well no water should ever get through the secondary filter anyway.
As Fred stated the Winn system was noted for sucking air into the system around the sight glass "o" rings and they should be replaced about every 5 years there are long articles about that here on the forum .

AND AS ALWAYS IF IN DOUBT CHANGE THE FILTERS. Water and dirt are very harmful to the fuel system !
For now drain the water fire her up and when your sure you got all the water out change all the fuel filters.
Caution when the fuel tank is full the system tends to syphon from the tank when you remove a  filter so it's best to park with the tail end higher or work on filters below a half a tank.
Hope this helps
Eric

[Mike Shumack]

As Eric said, the tube connects to the bottom of the filter. Here is a photo of that setup.

BTW - I removed the Raycor and replaced it with a "CAT Primary/Water Separator" filter as recommended here. The Raycor design has too many (o-rings) places for leakage to occur.

[Frank Bergamo]

Mike,
it might be helpful if you could post a picture of your CAT filter setup. That is the direction I would go, replacing the obsolete setup that he has now. Hope this helps.

[Bill Borden]

Courtney,

I have also changed out the Racor with a standard Cat water filter.  The improvement in the C-12's performance was remarkable.  The Racor Orings tended to leak, allowing air to enter the fuel system.  The CAT motor or any Diesel motor doesn't run properly if there is air in the fuel.

After the change, I posted a description, part numbers, suppliers, and pictures of my installation.

Here is a link to the post, http://beaveramb.org/forum/index.php/topic,5891.msg44028.html#msg44028

Hope this will help.

Good luck and welcome to the Forum.

[Mike Shumack]

Mike,
it might be helpful if you could post a picture of your CAT filter setup. That is the direction I would go, replacing the obsolete setup that he has now. Hope this helps.

Here are the photos - before and after.
If you want a "close up" photo, let me know (these photos I already had on hand) I can take another photo tonight. I have a thread on this forum about swapping to the CAT filter (part numbers and all). I got the info from Dave A (the CAT mechanic here) and I think there is also more info in the "Ask Dave" section.