Our digger started running oddly, dying when the throttle was opened, but idling quite happily. At first I couldn’t work it out, but decided that perhaps an air and fuel filter replacement might be a good start. The air filter was a bit of a fiddle but eventually got sorted. Then I had to go looking for the fuel filter.
It was buried in mud and took me a while to dig out, but after finding a few bolts and various other stuff binding the mud together I finally made sufficient clearance to remove it and then the nature of the initial problem became clear. Here’s a new filter (on the left) and the old one (on the right)
I’m not even sure how any fuel was getting through that at all. Let’s just say it’s running an awful lot better now.