Some days............

I was sitting in my office at work this afternoon enjoying myself no end when my wife called.

We have a less than a year old Poulan 24hp garden tractor with a 54" deck. She said she went to mow the lawn and it went a little ways, threw out a big cloud of smoke and stopped. I told her there wasn't anything I could do from 25 miles away and I'd deal with it when I got home.

when I got home, she said all she did was check the oil, put gas in it from the blue jug by the shop, and went to mow. "Uh, Honey, that blue jug has diesel fuel in it".

Anyway, I took a siphon pump, siphoned the tank, and bled all the gas lines that I could access. Then filled it with gasoline, took the air filter off, and dribbled a bit of gasoline into the carburetor. Pulled the choke, hit the starter, and it ran for a few seconds doing a pretty good job of fogging the bugs. Did that several times till it would run on its own. After a few minutes, the smoke cleared up and apparently no harm done.

Now, I have about 5 gallons of diesel that is maybe 20% to 30% gasoline. I'm assuming if I add it a couple of gallons at a time to my D19 with maybe ten gallons more of diesel I can keep it from going to waste.

Then my wife owned up to it that she had put diesel in the 20hp also, but it wouldn't start because it sounded like something's wrong with the starter. Siphoned the tank on it, filled it with gasoline, and found out the starter indeed wouldn't work. Pulled the starter and found the drive had busted. Anyway, the 20hp never ran with the diesel in it, so it should fire right up when I get the starter fixed. Maybe smoke a bit.

I thought it was going to be a relaxing evening.

You've got to love a wife that will drive a tractor and/or riding mower.

Cuts your mowing time 50%; sometimes even more.

This gives you extra time to:

<ul type="circle">

<li>siphon diesel and/or gas,</li>

<li>replace mower belts,</li>

<li>sharpen mower blades,</li>

<li>replace bent and/or broken mower blades,</li>

<li>repair flat tractor/mower tires,</li>

<li>put in 5 or 6 quarts of oil to raise level to the "add" mark,</li>

<li>charge or replace the battery,</li>

<li>add 5 or 6 gallons of water to the radiator to keep the tractor from overheating,</li></ul>

Better stop here before I say too much.

Diesel won't hurt them a bit, they just will not start or run on it very well. Adding the diesel gas mixture to your D19 won't hurt anything either. Adding some gas to diesel fuel was the old time way to keep the diesel fuel flowing in bitter cold weather.

Careful James - I know your wife visits this site.

My motto - Never anger the cook.

Paul

Gotta love a Wife. It could be a law I don't know.
Ron

Love them they put up with us,so my wife told me.

Get rid of the BLUE jug unless you put kerosene in it.
Diesel goes in a bright YELLOW jug and Gas in a Bright RED jug.
Women are lucky and very few are color blind

Bought a new Deere mower 2 years ago. Had wife check them all out and bought the one she wanted. Best money I ever spent---it's her mower and all I do is make sure it's full of gas and oil. She does most all of the mowing.
Paul

I was referring to my shortcomings on this one.

Should be too embarrassed to admit most of them.

Nancy does a good job of mowing on both her tractors "Sparky" and "Old John".

Always remember to "kiss the cook" when walking through the kitchen.

When I about 15, Had just got my drivers license and was driving dad's 64 half ton Chevy, I ran out of gas near home. Walked home and found a gallon jug and went back and poured it in. Cranked up and drove home. A few hours later, dad asked where the jug of diesel and DDT was that he had mixed to spray around the house.
Truck did smoke some, but the neighborhood didn't have mosquitoes for a while. After that, we always had to time that truck by ear rather than with a timing light. Don't know why.
Richard

Actually, for an old farm girl who grew up on diesel tractors, I was surprised she made that mistake.

my motto.... YES DEAR!!

No complaints here. I get all the fun stuff (mowing, etc), James gets the dirty stuff!


Hmmm, he's forgotten to kiss the cook some, I'll remind him he's been remiss in his duties.

P.S. I do check/add oil & fuel before heading out on a tractor.

At LEAST she didn"t "GAS" up the D19!

Did anyone ever think of labeling the containers? Most people can read even if they don't notice the difference in odor between gas and diesel. Joe